E-Mobility is the future of transportation. Electric cars are becoming more and more popular, but it’s still a small market compared to gasoline-powered vehicles. This is because there are many limitations on how far an electric car can go before needing to be recharged.
Electric vehicles are gaining traction
The EV market is growing. In fact, it’s expected to grow faster than the internal combustion engine (ICE) and hybrid markets. The numbers are telling: from 2013 to 2018, the number of EVs sold worldwide increased by a factor of 11—from roughly 200,000 in 2013 to more than 2 million in 2018. This year alone, sales are expected to reach a total of 2.6 million units globally.
Plug-in hybrids are a bridge towards full e-mobility
They can be charged at home or at work, which makes them more efficient than conventional vehicles. The plug-in hybrid has been around for quite some time now, but it’s only recently that we’re seeing them becoming mainstream as automakers start to offer competitively priced models with better range than ever before. The Tesla Model 3 is perhaps the most popular example of this trend; it’s an affordable car that offers impressive range and performance while still including a gasoline engine for long journeys when needed.
Charging infrastructure rolls out with increasing demand
To make EVs a reality, charging infrastructure needs to be built across the country. We don’t have that yet, but it’s happening:
- In 2016, there were 4,500 public EV charging stations in the U.S., almost double from two years earlier.
- That number is expected to grow by another 24% by 2020 (to 5,000), and then another 50% by 2022 (to 7,000).
Improved batteries enable EVs to go further, faster
There are several reasons why e-mobility is currently the preferred option for many drivers. One of them is that batteries are getting better. They are lighter, more powerful, more efficient, and smaller than they were even just a few years ago. In addition to these improvements in performance, battery technology has also become much less expensive than it was previously. For example: Tesla’s Model S 70D comes with a 70kWh battery pack which weighs 1120kg (2300lbs) – about 45% as much as its gasoline counterpart’s engine would weigh on its own!
Fuel cell electric vehicles enable long-range driving
Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are an emerging technology that is poised to become the standard for long-distance driving. FCEVs have a higher energy density than battery electric vehicles, which means they can travel farther on one charge. They also have better efficiency and are cleaner. That’s because they use hydrogen fuel instead of fossil fuels like gasoline or diesel. And unlike other zero emission vehicles like battery electrics, FCEVs don’t require plugging into an outlet to recharge their batteries, so you can drive them anywhere—even internationally!
Electric mobility will be a major contributor to help reduce global CO2 emissions
- The electric vehicle is the future of mobility. By 2030 there could be more than 150 million electric vehicles on the road. By 2050, this number could rise up as high as 600 million!
- Electric vehicles are most efficient. In contrast to internal combustion engines, which use fuel inefficiently and emit harmful pollutants into our air, EVs are cleaner for the environment.
- This increased efficiency has many benefits: not only does it lower costs for consumers because they don’t need as much fuel; but also because they produce fewer emissions during operations due to reduced reliance on fossil fuels such as coal or natural gas.
What we’ve seen is that electric mobility has already made significant advances that could help us reduce CO2 emissions. The next step is for governments to put in place policies and regulations that will make it easier for everyone from individual drivers to large corporations to switch over from fossil fuels to eMobility. What is the next step towards e-Mobility, the future of transportation?
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