Electric and electronic Car AMNIMARJESLOW GOVERNMENT 91220017 LOR SPEED CYCLOTRON LJBUSAF

  
        
The electric car (EV) is a relatively new concept in the world of the automotive industry. Although some companies have based their entire model of cars around being proactive and using electricity, some also offer hybrid vehicles that work off both electricity and gas. An electric car such as Nissan Leaf, Ford Focus Electric or Tesla Model S, Chevrolet Volt is a great way for you to not only save money, but also help contribute towards a healthy and stable environment.
Cars produce a lot of carbon emissions that are ejected into our natural atmosphere, leaving us vulnerable to things like pollution and greenhouse gases. In order to help positively the environment we live in, an electric car is a great step forward. By buying an electric car, you can also receive government subsidies for being environmentally conscious. Although you may end up paying more for your vehicle, the positives greatly overshadow the negatives. However there are still two sides to consider when you’re thinking about investing in an electric vehicle. 

EV’s get their power from rechargeable batteries installed inside the car. These batteries are not only used to power the car but also used for the functioning of lights and wipers. Electric cars have more batteries than normal gasoline car. It’s the same kind of batteries that are commonly used when starting up a gasoline engine. The only difference comes in the fact that in electric vehicles, they have more of them which are used to power the engine.


 

Advantages of an Electric Car

An electric car is a great way for you, as a consumer, to save a lot of money on gas. However, there are so many different reasons why you should invest in an electric car in the modern day of technology.
1. No Gas Required: Electric cars are entirely charged by the electricity you provide, meaning you don’t need to buy any gas ever again. Driving fuel based cars can burn a hole in your pocket as prices of fuel have gone all time high. With electric cars, this cost can be avoided as an average American spends $2000 – $4000 on gas each year. Though electricity isn’t free, an electric car is far cheaper to run.
2. Savings: These cars can be fuelled for very cheap prices, and many new cars will offer great incentives for you to get money back from the government for going green. Electric cars can also be a great way to save money in your own life.
3. No Emissions: Electric cars are 100 percent eco-friendly as they run on electrically powered engines. It does not emit toxic gases or smoke in the environment as it runs on clean energy source. They are even better than hybrid cars as hybrids running on gas produce emissions. You’ll be contributing to a healthy and green climate.
4. Popularity: EV’s are growing in popularity. With popularity comes all new types of cars being put on the market that are each unique, providing you with a wealth of choices moving forward.
5. Safe to Drive: Electric cars undergo same fitness and testing procedures test as other fuel powered cars. In case an accident occurs, one can expect airbags to open up and electricity supply to cut from battery. This can prevent you and other passengers in the car from serious injuries.
6. Cost Effective: Earlier, owing an electric car would cost a bomb. But with more technological advancements, both cost and maintenance have gone down. The mass production of batteries and available tax incentives have further brought down the cost, thus, making it much more cost effective.
7. Low Maintenance: Electric cars runs on electrically powered engines and hence there is no need to lubricate the engines. Other expensive engine work is a thing of past. Therefore, the maintenance cost of these cars has come down. You don’t need to send it to service station often as you do a normal gasoline powered car.
8. Reduced Noise Pollution: Electric cars put curb on noise pollution as they are much quieter. Electric motors are capable of providing smooth drive with higher acceleration over longer distances.
Many owners of electric cars have reported positive savings of up to tens of thousands of dollars a year. Considering the demand for oil will only be going up as the supplies run out, an electric car will most likely be the normal mode of transportation in the coming future. Companies like Nissan and Tesla offer great electric models with an outstanding amount of benefits for people who decide to invest. You’ll be saving not only yourself, but also your family a huge amount of money. The environmental impact of an electric car is zero, as well – meaning you’re reducing your carbon footprint and positively affecting the economy. 

Disadvantages of an Electric Car

Although the evidence of the positives has become very clear, there are also some downsides that each individual needs to consider before they decide to make an electric car their next big investment. These reasons are:
1. Recharge Points: Electric fuelling stations are still in the development stages. Not a lot of places you go to on a daily basis will have electric fuelling stations for your vehicle, meaning that if you’re on a long trip and run out of a charge, you may be stuck where you are.
2. Electricity isn’t Free: Electric cars can also be a hassle on your energy bill if you’re not considering the options carefully. If you haven’t done your research into the electric car you want to purchase, then you may be making an unwise investment. Sometimes electric cars require a huge charge in order to function properly – which may reflect poorly on your electricity bill each month.
3. Short Driving Range and Speed: Electric cars are limited by range and speed. Most of these cars have range about 50-100 miles and need to be recharged again. You just can’t use them for long journeys as of now, although it is expected to improve in future.
4. Longer Recharge Time: While it takes couple of minutes to fuel your gasoline powered car, an electric car take about 4-6 hours to get fully charged. Therefore, you need dedicated power stations as the time taken to recharge them is quite long.
5. Silence as Disadvantage: Silence can be a bit disadvantage as people like to hear noise if they are coming from behind them. An electric car is however silent and can lead to accidents in some cases.
6. Normally 2 Seaters: Most of the electric cars available today are small and 2 seated only. They are not meant for entire family and a third person can make journey for other two passengers bit uncomfortable.
7. Battery Replacement: Depending on the type and usage of battery, batteries of almost all electric cars are required to be changed every 3-10 years.
8. Not Suitable for Cities Facing Shortage of Power: As electric cars need power to charge up, cities already facing acute power shortage are not suitable for electric cars. The consumption of more power would hamper their daily power needs.
9. Some governments do not provide money saving initiatives in order to encourage you to buy an electric car.
10. Some base models of electric cars are still very expensive because of how new they are and the technology it took to develop them.

Just because there is a variety of factors doesn’t mean they have to be overwhelming. Doing a fair bit of research into different models, and maybe even hybrids, will help you make an accurate decision moving forward. However, no matter how you look at it, an electric car can save our precious environment.


The study has identified not just electric car charging points but also "positivity" lamp posts and fingerprint-activated door locks as some of the most sought-after features for home buyers in the next two decades. "Positivity" lamp posts are supposed to beam colorful lighting during winter to combat SAD (seasonal affective disorder).

As for the electric charge points, seen as how there are already over 60,000 home chargers in the UK, we could hardly call this a trend reserved only for the future. In fact, presently, around 90% of electric car charging is done at home.

Other results indicate that most people believe electric cars will become an essential part of housing development across the UK, with nearly 72% saying they expect EVs to be the most common type of vehicle on residents' driveways. Only 26% of people think hydrogen cars will become a more familiar fixture in the future.

Furthermore, people think that technology will make them more willing to share a vehicle with their neighbors in the next 20 years, with over a tenth of people believing that it could lead to a stronger relationship between neighbors.

"Electric cars are high performing, fun, exciting and financially compelling. There are currently over 75,000 on UK roads, a growth of 37% in a year, based on sales from January to September. Their role both now and in the future is unquestionable, as indicated by the £80m invested by government in further improving the nation’s electric vehicle infrastructure," stated Poppy Welch, head of the Go Ultra Low campaign.

    


  



As electric vehicle sales take off, the charging infrastructure is keeping pace and paving the way for convenient all-electric driving. Combine that with constant improvements in our battery performance and we believe the tipping point for mass EV uptake is upon us. As with similar breakthrough technologies, the adoption of electric vehicles should follow an ‘S-curve’ of demand. A gradual uptake from early adopters accelerates to a groundswell of consumers buying electric vehicles just as they would any other powertrain", 

 

 

                                  For future electric cars, a faster way to charge

 

 

 

As electric vehicles start to offer more miles on a fully juiced battery — enough to take a real trip rather than shuttle between home and office — the stations that recharge them will need to improve too.

So on Thursday, a Campbell company is unveiling a recharging station it estimates will be good for the next 10 years of electric-vehicle evolution.

ChargePoint plans to introduce its Express Plus high-speed charging stations, with installation scheduled for July. The stations can recharge any currently available electric car at the maximum possible speed — a speed determined by the specifics of each car and its battery pack.

 

But the stations are also designed to be future-proof.

According to the company, they can deliver more electricity in an instant — up to 400 kilowatts — than any current plug-in vehicle can handle. That means as electric cars hit the market with better battery packs, the Express Plus stations will be able to charge them at their fastest possible rate as well.

 

It will support any battery pack that’s even being considered,” said Pasquale Romano, ChargePoint’s chief executive officer.

Most publicly available charging stations, known as level 2 stations, add roughly 25 miles of driving range in an hour and aren’t suited to short pit stops. True to their name, DC fast chargers are quicker, offering up to 40 miles of range for every 10 minutes, but fewer have been deployed.

 

Electric vehicles have developed a passionate following in California, but they have largely failed to catch on nationwide. According to the Edmunds.com auto information service, they accounted for just 0.37 percent of new car sales in the United States last year.

Cheap gasoline prices have played a big part in blunting their appeal. But so have the limited battery range of most electric vehicles — less than 100 miles per charge, for most models — and the lack of public charging stations, particularly those that can operate at higher speeds.

Palo Alto’s Tesla sidestepped the problem by creating its own network of chargers and giving Tesla owners free access to them. The system has proved so popular that the company announced in November that it would stop offering unlimited free charging to future Tesla buyers. (In a tweet this week, Tesla said that prospective buyers have until Jan. 15 to lock in free charging.)

“It gives buyers a more traditional car ownership experience, where you can drive from San Francisco to L.A., and you’re not necessarily tethered to your home,” said Jeremy Acevedo, senior analyst with Edmunds. “The ability to charge your vehicle no matter where you’re at, that certainly can do a lot to get people over range anxiety.”

Romano said, however, that ChargePoint’s new stations aren’t intended to become the primary means for drivers to fill up their vehicles. Instead, the company wants to place the stations along freeways to facilitate long-distance travel. Most users, Romano said, will still do their primary charging at home or at work, using slower chargers.

“For highways and major corridors, it’s imperative to have it as fast as possible, because people are trying to go beyond their maximum battery range, and they don’t want to stop for more than a coffee,” he said. 

 

 

 

 

                            Are Plugless Electric Vehicles the Future of Transportation?  

 

 

 

    

                                   Graphic of In-Ground Wireless Charging  

 

Has the time come to cut the cord?

Electric Tram in Korea

Should an electric vehicle be able to travel down the road endlessly, without the need to ever plug in?

That is the ultimate goal of a research team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), which developed  an “on-line electric vehicle” (OLEV) system.  This is by no means a revolutionary idea, as other firms have toyed with and tested similar systems, but KAIST seems to be ahead of the game in this arena.

By embedding transmitting coils in roadways, electric vehicles, equipped with receiving coils, could constantly charge by driving down the road.  Range becomes a non-issue and the plug disappears forever.  At least in theory.

Implementation of such a system on a grand scale is prohibitively expensive and not practical, but the system works.

Research at KAIST began in 2009 KAIST with funding of $25 million.  In March 2010, an electric tram emerged at Seoul Grand Park that was recharged by coils embedded under the concrete.

Today, the tram continues to loop the park without a cord thanks to 370 meters of buried transmitting coils.  The transmitters send 62 kilowatts of juice to receiving coils on the underside of the tram.  The tram operator need only keep the tram aligned with the coils to maintain charge.

In theory this works and since the tram employs a battery that’s 40 percent the size and weight it would need if it couldn’t charge wirelessly, the tram is significantly cheaper to manufacture.

This system and setup makes perfect sense, but tearing up roads to embed transmitting coils is not financially viable.  However, if when roads were due for replacement, transmitting coils were installed, then bit by bit an OLEV system could become reality.  But we’re doubtful it ever will. 

 

the slotless slot car 

 

 

Wireless power transmission from the road to an electric car is improving.  (via IEEE Spectrum) .. still a lot of problems (cost in particular), but there are domains where it might make sense.

Ultimately electric vehicles probably win as their efficiency, even if they use lossy wireless transmissions schemes, are are greater than vechiles that use heat engines.  A practical and inexpensive air-metal battery would have a dramatic impact, but we're some time away from that goal. 

 

WINSmartEV^TM - Electric Vehicle (EV) Integration into Smart Grid with UCLA WINSmartGrid^TM Technology

California constitutes a significant automotive market - a place where demanding and energy-conscious consumers come together with creative designers from Hollywood, resulting in an environment rich in ideas on automotive innovation. As a result, California is home to some of the most significant innovations in EVs including Tesla and Fisker. As these innovations come on line their integration into the smart grid of the future becomes the next big challenge. We are developing a scalable and robust architecture utilizing wireless and RF-monitoring and control technologies derived from our REWINS^TM research called WINSmartGrid^TM that allows smart vehicle and energy storage and consumption management for vehicles in home or in the office. As part of the challenging long-term research project, we are developing a series of demonstrations both at home and in the office. The first phase - developing an on-campus demonstration within UCLA - requires conducting research and demonstration on UCLA's internal electric vehicle (EV) fleet and charging stations at UCLA for its integration with our local utility's managed grid.

The objective of this project is to reduce energy cost and usage and to increase the stability of local power system by managing the charging operations of the EVs. This will be accomplished using the smart grid wireless system under development at UCLA called WINSmartGrid^TM.

In this project, EV usage information and electric grid status will be collected wirelessly to determine better efficient and economic charging operation of the EVs. Due to different grid stability/reliability, geographical location of the EVs and driving patterns of the EVs, effective management of charging and backfill operations may be used to lower electricity rates and flatten electric load curve. Each EV will be equipped with a handheld device to allow the driver to receive instructions or seek advice to better manage his/her EV's battery charging/backfill process.

For example, an alert can be issued to the driver when the battery capacity is below a threshold level. The alert can include a list of near-by charging station's location, distance, current and projected energy cost based on the time of the day and use an intelligent cloud-computing the driver the optimum course of action.

The batteries on the EVs when not in driving status can also be collectively used to serve as the energy storage which can backfill into the local electric grid to prevent power outage during peak demand. In this scenario, an alert is issued to the driver when a predicted instability in the grid is detected. The alert can instruct the driver to bring the vehicle to the appropriate charging station to serve as backfill battery.

Existing EVs and charging stations usage patterns will be studied to determine the appropriate sensors and wireless communication modules to be installed. Communication and alerting systems will be implemented by integrating WINSmartGrid^TM with our local utility's Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and the Demand Respond project.

Major areas of this research/demonstration include:

• WinSmartGrid^TM Technology - WinSmartGrid^TM platform is used as the infrastructure to i) connect to EV electric power sensors, GPS chips, and other EV data and ii) control and utilize the wireless network for communication iii) allow data filtration, aggregation and messaging, and iv) provide a portal for data integration and decision making.
• Smart Energizing - the management of EV batteries' charging rate and extent of the charge backfill based on various data from grid stability, energy cost, vehicle location, battery status, driver's preference, and driving patterns.
• Grid Balancing - grid management and prediction of peak and off-peak hours to store excess capacity, or to handle demands for large numbers of EVs charging efficient, economically and safely.
• UCLA-WINRFID^TM Technology - including RFID tags/readers on the EVs and charging stations to track and identify usage and preference information of each EV. Automatic charge/discharge intelligence stored within smart RFID tags managed by UCLA-WINRFID Technology.
• Cyber Security - study and integration of cyber security technologies for secure wireless communication between battery and infrastructure or between two batteries, as part of the smart grid architecture.

Toyota Develops System that Enables Electric Vehicles To Power Your Home



The demonstration and results of this project will provide vast amounts of data, information and knowledge to allow an effective and large scale roll-out of grid-integrated EVs across the region and in the country. 


READ MORE...        

Toyota just announced that it has developed a new vehicle-to-home (V2H) power system for the mutual sharing of power between electric vehicles and homes. The two-way electric power supply system can supply power from home to vehicle as well as from vehicle to home. Toyota is going to start testing the system in ten households at the end of 2012 with the help of the Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid vehicle....

 

 

  

 

 

    

 

Connected Vehicle Components and System

Integration

"Connected System Thinking" is at the core of how we approach Connected Vehicle system design and integration challenges.

Consulting, Design, Integration, Testing, and Validation for Connected Vehicle Systems

FEV has extensive experience designing infotainment and telematics solutions for automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.  We design embedded modules and also integrate, test, and validate complex end-to-end connected vehicle systems with the help of our technically sophisticated, industry first, test and automation tools that provide the ability to validate the system in a robust, controlled, flexible and repeatable environment.

FEV's Connected Vehicle Services Group performs system design, integration, test case development, validation, and testing.  FEV's state-of-the-art telematics system test methodology and tools redefine telematics system testing to reduce startup time and increase effectiveness and robustness.

FEV’s processes and methods rely on thorough features and applications test plans as well as tracking tools that provide our customers with comprehensive test reports and a high level of transparency.  Our overall methodology follows FEV's "Connected System Thinking" approach.

 

Design and Development of Infotainment & Telematics Control Modules & Systems

1. Vehicle electrical architecture for the connected vehicle 
2. Applications and integration
3. End-to-End system components

Integration of End-to-End Connected Vehicle Systems

1. End-to-End integration and validation strategy and plans
2. Connected vehicle system constraints and weakness analysis
3. Integration for automotive applications

Testing and Validation for Control Modules, Cloud Systems, and Cloud Applications

1. Testing (Lab, HIL, and field) in Infotainment and Telematics space
2. Test case development
3. In-house, state of the art VDA hands-free audio quality test lab
4. State of the Art Automated Test Systems
5. Mission Critical Testing Methodology 

Telematics Systems Design

Design and Development of Infotainment & Telematics ECUs & Systems

 Vehicle electrical architecture for telematics

 Telematics applications and integration

 End‐to‐End system components

Integration of End‐to‐End Telematics Systems

 End‐to‐End integration and validation strategy and plans

 Telematics system constraints and weakness analysis

 Integration for automotive applications

Testing and Validation for ECUs, Cloud Systems, and Cloud Applications

 Testing (Lab, HIL, and field) in Infotainment and Telematics space

 In‐house, state of the art VDA hands‐free audio quality test lab

 State of the Art Automated Test Systems

 Mission Critical Testing Methodology

 

“A lot of people will be surprised by how quickly electric cars will take over,”

In a way, the final hurdle for electric vehicles is the network needed to keep them running  —  the charging stations. Running cars with limited ranges on batteries harkens to our harried lives holding dead smartphones and searching for a power outlet. But charging stations aren’t nearly as ubiquitous and a dead car halts life a wee bit more than a dead smartphone.

What makes this a more frustrating hurdle to overcome is the inherent paradox: What comes first? The demand for cars or charging stations.

There isn’t a sufficient number of charging stations available today and what’s available (mostly in the US and China) is usually concentrated in a few urban areas (unlike the widespread distribution of fuelling stations). If an electric car is your primary (or only) transportation, it limits your ability to move.

 

But this is changing rapidly. Public utilities in the US are looking to invest in charging stations across various states 

 

 

Increasing the speed of charging has other implications. Rapidly increasing the amount of power a single EV can suck will create a spike in consumption that could even bring down the entire power grid which isn’t set up to handle these surges.

The solution would be to equip charging stations using intermediate storage (battery storage) that juices up on a consistent basis while offering surge charging to the cars that plug in. In the slightly longer term, the grid itself will get redefined to include storage devices (including EVs) essentially making everything one large interconnected network that can balance the power needs.

In a way this is the biggest challenge for electric cars  —  reshaping the infrastructure around charging and power distribution so they can scale.

 

For the future of electric vehicles, one size does not fit all

 

In an effort to jumpstart adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles, Toyota Motors earlier this month made more than 5,600 patents available to other carmakers. A few days later, General Motors introduced the electric Bolt, an electric vehicle designed to run 200 miles on batteries.
Automakers, meanwhile, continue to develop yet other types of electric vehicles: plug-in hybrids and hybrid electrics.
Electric vehicles are the most promising alternative to conventional gasoline and diesel-powered cars. But how is each technology different? And what are the relative benefits and commercial challenges to each?

How we got here

Let’s start with similarities. Plug-in battery electric vehicles (BEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are all electric vehicles. They’re all propelled by an electric motor and have batteries to store or supply electricity as required and absorb energy when braking the vehicle.
Some of these vehicles can also generate electricity on board, either through a gasoline-powered combustion engine or a hydrogen-powered fuel cell.
They all represent a fundamental break from the gasoline combustion vehicles we drive today in three ways: the drivetrain is electric, rather than mechanical; the engine under the hood is electrochemical instead of combustion-based; and the fuel is electricity and hydrogen, rather than gasoline.
The forces behind these technological shifts began in the late 1980s with automobile manufacturers’ acknowledgment that the long-term availability of petroleum is limited and that an alternative vehicle platform and fuel would be needed to assure a viable future business model. Hydrogen was selected as the fuel and a 25-year path for fuel-cell vehicle commercialization was established.
Since 1990, three additional forces have emerged to further affirm the decision to target the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle as the product of the future, including climate change, policies that favor fuel independence, and air quality regulations, notably in California.

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs)

In the past five years, though, there’s been a resurgence of battery electric vehicles, which rely solely on battery power. Examples include the Nissan Leaf, the GM Spark and the Kia Soul. After 40 to 60 miles, the batteries are depleted and need to be recharged by plugging into a residential circuit or 220-volt, purpose-built charger at a commercial center or workplace. Charging time depends on the voltage, the charger technology and the battery “state of charge” (i.e., how much the battery has been depleted) but generally requires one to six hours to fully charge the vehicle.
A BEV is attractive because its range satisfies the majority of trips taken by the public, recharging at home is convenient, and driving is vibration-free and quiet. The size of the vehicle is relatively small, providing good maneuverability and relatively easy parking, and there are no air pollutants during driving. BEVs also have the potential to balance the electric grid by charging overnight when grid resources are under-utilized.
Working against BEVs is the time required to recharge the vehicle and the range anxiety – that is, concern over limited driving range – experienced by drivers, which effectively reduces the useful range of the vehicle. Also, charging can stress the electric grid and there are cases where there is no charging infrastructure available, particularly for people who live in apartments. 


Following California’s zero emissions vehicle mandate, BEVs were first commercialized in the 1990s but the market waned in the 2000s. With a number of passenger cars available for sale or lease, the market is being tested today to assess public demand for this limited-range, but convenient vehicle. Advances in battery technology have the potential to increase range.

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs)

Hybrid electric vehicles are a BEV with a gasoline combustion engine on board to generate electricity and move the car in conjunction with the electric motor. They can provide the same 300-mile range people expect with a conventional gasoline vehicle. And with advanced software controls, the combustion engine interacts with the batteries to achieve high efficiencies and low emission of pollutants.
HEVs have been offered for sale in the United States since 2000, with the Prius, first introduced by Toyota in Japan in 1997, a prominent example. In 2012 and 2013, the Prius was the best-selling vehicle in California with over seven million vehicles sold, reflecting consumers’ remarkably positive acceptance of the vehicle.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs)

PHEVs are a HEV with added battery capacity that can provide an electric drive range of between ten and 60 miles. The Chevy Volt, for example, can drive nearly 40 miles on battery power before a gasoline generator kicks in. This allows the convenience of recharging the batteries overnight at home and a daily electric range that the majority of the US public does not exceed. And the PHEV provides the 300-mile range which the driving public is accustomed to.

A plug-in Prius has a larger battery and has an all-electric range of about 10 miles before going into hybrid mode. Toyota

Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs)

Fuel cell vehicles are hybrid electric vehicles with two major differences. A fuel cell, an electrochemical device that takes a fuel, such as hydrogen, and oxygen from the air to generate electricity, replaces the gasoline engine under the hood. The fuel cell has remarkably high efficiency (three times that of the conventional gasoline automobile) and zero emission of air pollutants when driving. The product of the reaction is water, which is exhausted through the tailpipe with nitrogen and some oxygen remaining from the air. And instead of a gasoline tank, there are hydrogen storage tanks. The refueling time of a fuel cell vehicle is comparable to a conventional gasoline automobile and fuel can be sourced domestically.
Some of the challenges associated with fuel cell vehicles are the limited number of hydrogen fueling stations nationally. California has the most hydrogen fueling stations in the US, with 51 projected to be operating by the end of 2015, over 70 by the end of 2017, and 100 by 2020. Sixty eight stations are considered the initial minimum to support acceptance of fuel cell vehicles in the State.

Going forward

The market is discovering that the BEV is an attractive complement (not replacement) to the conventional gasoline vehicle. The gasoline-powered HEV and PHEV are emerging to meet environmental regulations while maintaining the overall driving experience of range and size the market is accustomed to.
The cost of the vehicles and the cost of driving the vehicles are, for all practical purposes, competitive and compelling. Depending on the cost of electricity and the cost of gasoline, the cost per mile can favor one or the other. The PHEV provides the customer with the option of using either electricity or gasoline.
The fuel cell electric vehicle is emerging as a natural evolution of the hybrid and plug-in electric hybrid. As a result, one can foresee that the BEV and the FCEV represent the next-generation alternatives to the conventional and hybridized gasoline vehicle for fulfilling light-duty transportation needs. The BEV provides convenience and maneuverability, and the FCEV provides range, flexibility in vehicle size, and rapid fueling. Both vehicles achieve fuel independence, a separation from geo-politics, and attractive environmental attributes.
The purchase cost and operating cost of battery electric and fuel cell vehicles are comparable today. It’s likely that the cost of hydrogen will decrease in the future due to market competition and advances in technology and that the cost of electricity will increase. That means the per-mile cost of operating a fuel cell electric vehicle, compared to a battery electric vehicle, will likely become lower.