Whichever side of the argument you find yourself on, there’s no denying that electric vehicles are here to stay. Although hydrogen fuel cell vehicles may seem like the ideal replacement for our combustion-engined cars, the technologies and processes currently don’t exist to make or dispense hydrogen as cost-effectively as fossil fuels. For numerous reasons, EVs have seen the investment and legislative attention needed globally and in India to start making them viable, up to a degree where they seem the only option if you can’t or don’t want to use a combustion-engined vehicle anymore.
Upfront costs
A big disadvantage that EVs face, especially in a value-driven market such as India, is their high initial costs. Electric cars are much simpler than combustion-engined ones in their construction - usually built around a fairly straightforward ‘skateboard’ architecture. But adapting currently available battery technology to this application has been a challenge. The present industry-standard lithium-ion technology has been around in laptops and phones for a while but nowhere near in the sizes or usage cycles that are needed in an EV. Another challenge is the absence of a readily available global supply chain for the rare earth metals these batteries need, lithium, nickel and cobalt, on the scale needed for higher proliferation of BEVs.
This relative shortfall isn’t surprising with the roughly 100 years of infrastructure building that combustion-engined cars have on their side. But to the credit of EV manufacturers, the rate of progress has been significantly quicker than with combustion-engined cars, both in terms of the energy density of batteries as well as battery costs. Reports suggest that the cost of manufacturing a lithium-ion battery has dropped by 98 per cent since 1990 and by 50 per cent just from 2016.
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Denne historien er fra May 2021-utgaven av Overdrive.
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Volvo XC40 Recharge
Volvo's first pure electric car promises performance and range a level above what its size suggests
Maruti Suzuki XL6
Mildly facelifted, but with core mechanical updates and feature upgrades to help take on new competition
Safety Ratings In For Creta, i20
GNCAP crash test results in for Hyundai Creta and i20, in their base variants with ABS and two airbags
Volkswagen Returns To Play A Two-Pronged Game With The Virtus
Volkswagen returns to play a two-pronged game in the mid-sized sedan space with the Virtus
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The X4 looks gorgeous and the diesel engine is bonkers! Read on if you still need more reasons to give it attention
BYD Han EV Enroute To India?
Overdrive has spied the BYD Han EV at the BYD facility near Chennai.
INDIA VS EV FIRES
More stringent standards to be set for electric vehicle batteries
DATSUN SHUTS SHOP IN INDIA
Japanese carmaker Nissan has discontinued its subsidy brand Datsun in India owing to low sales numbers
HONDA TO MAKE ADAS STANDARD ACROSS INDIA LINE-UP
At the unveiling of the Honda City e: HEV, Honda Cars India announced that all new models that the brand launches in India will come with the Honda Sensing suite of advanced driver assistance systems.
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