CHAPTER 2 | ELECTRIC MOBILITY: BARRIERS AND CHALLENGES
2.1 Evolution of electric vehicles
The literature classifies the EV evolution in multiple perspectives. Some authors consider this by using a timeline division of 50 years, others by technology evolution or major historic factors. I choose remarkable phases to classify EV evolution, as shown in Table 2.2.
Table 2.2: EV evolution by remarkable phases
1801-1896 | 1st phase 1897-1965 | 2nd phase 1966-2000 | 3rd phase 2001 - Present | 4th phase
Almost 100 years Almost 70 years 34 years 18 years
From the invention of the battery to the production of the first EV
From large-scale production to near extinction of EV
Renewed interest in EV Renewed growth of EV mass production
The first observation of the EV timeline is that each phase significantly reduces the duration time compared to the previous phase, due to the natural advances of knowledge, especially in the area of science, with inventors, scientists and engineers contributing to the development of the electrification of transport. In the first phase of EV evolution, from 1801 to 1896, the evolution occurred mainly due to the advances in the development of technologies that later led to the discovery of the battery.
1820 The first device that transformed electrical energy into mechanical energy was invented (Britannica 2018c)
1828 The first electromotor was built by Ányos István Jedlik from two magnet coils (Kokowski 2006)
1832 A crude electric-powered carriage by non-rechargeable primary cells was built (Guarnieri 2012)
1834 The first direct current electrical motor was created (Center 2014)
1859 The first electric storage battery widely used in the automotive sector was produced (Britannica 2018a)
1880 A satisfactory material for filament vacuum tube lights that improved commercial generation and distribution of electricity was made (Britannica 2018d)
1888 The invention of the AC motor by Nikola Tesla was patented (History 2018)
1890 The first four-wheel electric road vehicle in the USA was built (Britannica 2018b; JournalHistory 1995)
1896 An electric version of a cab for major American cities was built (Mom 2013)
Figure 2.2 – The remarkable facts on electric vehicles evolution from 1801 to 1896
The EV presence started in the second decade of the 19th century with the invention of the first 1801-1896 | First phase
evolution of battery research allowed the electrification of the first vehicle (a carriage) in the 19th
century. The early EV evolution phase was the design of the first EV cab. This was realized in 1896 by Henry G. Morris and Pedro G. Salom as a result of the evolution of the USA popular horse drawn Hansom cabs (Mom 2013; New World Encyclopedia 2018). The remarkable facts of this phase are shown in Figure 2.2.
The second phase started in 1897 and was characterized by the large-scale electric automobile production by Pope Manufacturing Company. They produced a line of electric cabs for use in New York City, USA and a few years later in London, United Kingdom. The first cab could run at a speed of about 15 kilometers per hour for 30-50 kilometers on one charge. Other industries such as the production of batteries and electric bicycles began to emerge in the USA and Europe to support the growth of electric mobility (David Corrigan 2018). The following years experienced fast-growing sales and EV were responsible for around one third of the market share in the USA (Guarnieri 2012).
The success of the EV began to be negatively affected with the emergence of the Internal Combustion Engine Vehicle (ICEV) and the increased use of petrol as a fuel for road transport. The launch of the Model T by Henry Ford in 1908, inaugurated the assembly-line production process and reduced the price of ICE cars, and as a result they were a market success. The ICE cars had a greater range, were faster, had less refueling time, were easier to maintain and cheaper when compared to EV. The ICEV Model T attracted the interest of the consumer. With the sales growing quickly, the Golden Age of the gasoline cars started (Bak 2003), and the EV quickly disappeared from the market. The remarkable facts of this period are shown in Figure 2.3.
1897 The first large scale electric automobile was manufactured by the Pope Manufacturing Company (Handy 2018)
1900 38 percent of all automobiles produced in the United States of America were electric (Handy 2018)
1908 The internal combustion engine (ICE) Ford Model T was introduced (Handy 2018)
1920 There was no EV in mass production (Center 2014)
1935 The EV was almost obsolete due to the popularity of ICEV (Center 2014)
Figure 2.3 – The remarkable facts of electric vehicle evolution from 1897 to 1965
The third phase, from 1966 to 2000, was characterized by renewed interest in EV (Figure 2.4). The renewed interest in the EV was basically influenced by two components: the concern with the environment (reduction of GHG emissions from vehicles using fossil fuels), and energy security due to the oil crisis of the 1970s and 1980s that substantially raised the price of a barrel of oil (Energy Information 2007). These two facts contributed to the introduction of the first bill by Europe and the USA endorsing alternatives to gasoline automobiles in an attempt to reduce air pollution. Many
incentives were provided for research programs for the development of alternative vehicles mainly focused on hybrid and battery electric vehicle (EV).
The first hybrid car was developed for testing in 1982, and in 1995 Toyota debuted the Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show. It can be said that in relation to the EV the remarkable fact in this period was the launch by General Motors (GM) of the EV1 electric car project. To comply with the Zero Emissions Vehicle5 (ZEV) mandate, in 1996, GM started the production of a car, called the EV1. Based on GM's EV1 program, some manufacturers announced investments in EV, with some EV models being released such as Honda's EV Plus, Ford's Ranger pickup EV, Nissan's Altra EV, Chevy's S-10 EV, and Toyota's RAV4 EV. Most of them were available for lease only. However, GM withdrew EV1 from production at the end of 1999 and the following year all of the major automakers' advanced all-electric production programs were discontinued (Paine & Confidential 2006; Hanssen 2002). The remarkable facts of this period are highlighted in Figure 2.4.
1966 The United States Congress introduced the first bill endorsing alternatives to gasoline cars to reduce air pollution (Gubrud 1975)
1973 The oil crisis; Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has led to high oil prices led to renewed interest in EV (Energy Information 2007)
1976 The French government launched the "PREDIT" program to foster the acceleration the Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) of EV (Anderson & Anderson 2010)
1982 The first modern hybrid car was presented (Yak Max 2018)
1995 Toyota debuted the hybrid electric vehicle (Toyota 2008)
1996 General Motors began producing electric car EV1 (Hanssen 2002)
1997 The first hybrid Toyota Prius went on sale in the Japanese market (Yak Max 2018)
2000 Hybrid cars are a “success case” (Yak Max 2018)
Figure 2.4 – The remarkable facts related to electric vehicle evolution from 1966 to 2000 The fourth phase, from 2011 until now, can be characterized by the third attempt of EV to become mainstream technology. The main aspects in this new phase are: a) environmental – issues such as climate change, low air quality of urban centers, and the quest for the circular economy being highlighted (Dijk et al. 2013; Radkau 2014); b) the energy transition – focus on increasing the share of renewable energy aimed at reducing energy dependence on fossil fuel (Geels et al. 2017; Schwedes et al. 2013); c) technological diffusion – focus on the diversification of energy sources as well as their
2003 Tesla Motors (USA) and BYD (China) started EV operation (Tesla Motors 2018; BYD 2018)
2008 Oil prices reached more than USD 145 per barrel. The gas prices reached record highs of more than $4 per gallon in USA (Trigg et al. 2013)
2008 Tesla Motors released Tesla Roadster with more than a 300 km range and EV Smart For-two debuted in the USA (Tesla Motors 2018)
2009 Somehybrid cars debuted and UK decided to promote the use of electric cars (Hybrid Cars 2009;
Herald 2009)
2010 The EV Nissan LEAF is launched (Trigg et al. 2013)
2011 Autolib: the world’s largest electric car-sharing service is launched in Paris, France. The global
EV stock reached peak of50,000 units (Trigg et al. 2013)
2012 Theglobal EV stock exceeded 180,000 units (Trigg et al. 2013)
2013 Theglobal EV stock exceeded 360,000 units (IEA 2018c)
2014 Tesla Motors broke ground on the Gigafactory in Nevada, USA. Theglobal EV stockreached
665,000. Spotlight on China with EV sales: 230 million e-bikes; 83,000 e-cars and 36,500 e-buses (IEA 2015; Tesla Motors 2018)
2015 The global stock of EV reached around 1,450,000 million units and Norway is the first and
the only country that EV reached a market share above 20 percent (IEA 2016)
2016 Tesla Motors secured an estimated 500,000 pre-orders for the Model 3. The global electric
car stock surpassed 2 million vehicles (Randall 2018; Electec 2016; IEA 2017)
2017 More than a million EV were sold and the stock exceeded three million units. Norway EV market share reached almost 40percent. Electric bus sales were about 100,000 units and sales of two-wheelers were estimated at 30 million (IEA 2018c)
2017 Private chargers at residences and workplaces estimated to number almost 3 million
worldwide (IEA 2018)
2018 There were 174 PHEV models worldwide of which 99 were EV, as shown in Appendix A,
Table A1 (in 2012, there was only 9 EV) (WattEV2BUY 2018; InsideEVs 2018)
Figure 2.5 – The remarkable facts regarding electric vehicle evolution after 2000
This new phase was unlike previous times when the attempt to produce mass-market EV was motivated primarily by the energy crises that involved oil production causing peak prices such as those that occurred in the second half of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century (Energy
Information 2007). In this new phase there are new drivers for mass-market EV such as electric mobility (EM) potential to contribute to climate change goals, to mitigate CO2 from the transport sector, to
improve air quality (specially in urban centers), and to improve efficiency (EV versus ICEV). After all, the size of the road vehicle fleet globally and the anthropogenic emissions derived from transport are much more expansive than in 1897 when automakers first thought of producing large scale EV. In this context, the governments of some countries, especially in Europe, North America and part of Asia, are working to improve alternative transportation such as ZEV to improve air quality (Dijk et al. 2013; IEA 2018c).
In addition, the quest for energy efficiency and to increase the share of renewable energy puts the EM evolution into a different perspective when compared to the other two phases. The concern and
attempt to decarbonize the energy sector has received continued global attention (Dijk et al. 2013; IEA 2018c). In Brazil, light-duty electric vehicles (LDEV) did not circulate until early in the 21st century.
The diffusion of LDEV in Brazil is still in an early stage. Across the country from 2011 to 2016 around 3,500 LDEV were registered (the majority in research projects). In this same period, more than 15.3 million ICE light-duty vehicles (LDV) were registered (ANFAVEA 2017). The first electric vehicle to be circulated in Brazil was a trolley car owned by Ferro-Carril in Rio de Janeiro. The vehicle entered service on October 8, 1892 (Bazani 2017; Brandão & Martins 2017). The first electric bus was introduced in 1917, also in Rio de Janeiro, and circulated between 1918 and 1928 (Bazani 2017). In 1947, electric trolleybuses began operations on April 22, 1949 by the Municipal Company of Collective Transportation.
The development of the modern electric bus in Brazil took place through Eletra – Traction Technology Electric, which started in 1990 in Sao Bernardo do Campo Sao Paulo. Eletra's electric vehicles serve mostly the population of Sao Paulo, but it supplies its products to other regions of the country and abroad. Eletra offers four products: hybrid buses, trolleybus, pure electric bus and dual bus (possibility to operate more than one technology). Eletra, since its foundation, has marketed more than 400 thousand units of its buses (Eletra 2018).
Despite the initiatives and potential for the development of electric mobility in Brazil, the participation of passengers transported by electric vehicles in the country is almost negligible compared to the national passenger numbers transported by public transportation.
Finally, EV as a disruptive technology (Geels 2002) has gained some increments in mobility due to: a) the increase in battery density, increasing the range of the EV; b) the possibility of using the EV batteries as a back-up for intermittent renewable sources; c) the potential of balancing the electric network with the use of the EV (Vehicle to Grid – V2G6), especially for consumption at peak time; d) diversification of production; i.e. Plug-In Electric Vehicle (PHEV) and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV); e) the emergence of fast charging station technology; f) the demand for mobility diversification as Car-as-a-Service (CaaS), and g) the higher efficiency of EV when compared to ICEV.