We need to re-evaluate electric vehicle component design

Sales of electric vehicles are on the up, with an increase in of 63%, which saw a total of 750,000 vehicles sold worldwide. This is thanks mainly to commitments by the likes of Volvo, who have said they’ll be adding electric motors to each car model by 2019 and are aiming for 50% of sales to be “fully electric” by 2025.

Image Credit

This comes straight on the back of countries such as the UK, Germany and France all agreeing to ban petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040 as concerns about dangerous nitrogen oxide levels and their impact on human health persist.

Problems

While this all sounds promising and electric vehicles offer substantial environmental benefits to petrol powered vehicles, there are still big challenges that could slow down the development of the electric car market. These include the design of the electronic components of the vehicles, the accessibility of charging stations and how they will impact the electricity grid and the battery technology.

Image Credit

The problem is that your average electric car comes with an average of 30,000 components and parts. All these parts have to withstand braking and accelerating and different types of terrain and weather conditions. And while electric vehicles are much more efficient at transferring energy than internal combustion vehicles, due to the close proximity of so many component parts, electromagnetic interference can be a problem.

You can also still see the difference between electric and petrol cars on the road but when the design has become easier and easier soon you won’t know.  Maybe a good way to show the difference is to install Buggy Whips on to the vehicles from companies similar to Wisuk. You could also think about getting these for our work vehicles to make them stand out more which is very important in darker environments like warehouses.

Design flaws

Electric vehicles are designed in such a way that the lines carrying power to the motor are also used to send power to information providers such as the temperature and charge status in addition to the battery’s control system. Electromagnetic interference can cause losses in efficiency causing the vehicle to overheat which can compromise the accuracy of the vehicle’s data.

It’s essential that firms and engineers that design electric vehicles realise the importance of creating vehicles where the electrical control components don’t interfere with one another resulting in power quality problems.

The internal combustion vehicle and its component parts have benefitted from more than one hundred years of innovation and advancement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_automobile.

Once electric vehicles can sort out the problems revolving around their component design they will be in a far stronger position to provide a more environmentally friendly alternative to diesel and petrol cars.