Electric Vehicles: Transitioning into a New Era

It may come as a surprise to many that the history of electric vehicles is as older than the history of combustion-engine vehicles. The 17th and 18th centuries were the age of steam engines. But, once the much more advantageous electric vehicles arrived, they quickly ousted steam engine vehicles and gained widespread popularity in 19th century. But a similar event happened in the beginning of the 20th century when electric vehicles fell out of place with the advent of internal combustion engines.

Electric vehicles, commonly called EVs in modern times, gained popularity as clean, quiet and easy to operate vehicles during the end of the 18th century. Many scientists experimented on electric engines since then and the results started to become visible in the 19th century. Some of the most noteworthy of them are the Gross-Lichterfelde tramway in Germany, the world's first commercially successful electric tram, the trolleybus by Werner von Siemens, electric car with high capacity rechargeable batteries, personally built by Thomas Parker, etc. The interest in electric vehicles increased greatly in the late 1890s and early 1900s and there existed many production electric vehicles. Unlike gasoline engine vehicles, vibration, noise or smell were not associated with electric cars and they also didn't require gear changes. The prime disadvantage of electric cars were their short range and slow speed and thus, were used as city cars. However, the main advantage electric cars had was that they didn't require manual effort to start unlike gasoline powered cars where the engines had to be started using hand cranks. As such, electric cars enjoyed widespread popularity in the late 1890s and the 1900s.

Flocken Elektrowagen, widely regarded as the first ever electric car

Despite their popularity, electric engines couldn't completely dominate the market. The invention of internal-combustion engines (ICE) kept combustion engines in the competition. However, electric cars had the upper hand due to significant drawbacks in combustion engines. This changed with the invention of mufflers in 1897, reducing the noise produced by gasoline engines. In 1912, the electric starter motor was introduced, which removed the laborious process of starting engines using hand cranks. Combustion engines had much better range and were much faster than electric vehicles. Along with the invention of mufflers, electric starter motor and petroleum fields all over the world , combustion engines were now unanimously better than electric engines and thus, electric vehicles faded away within a few years and combustion engines became the norm. 

For more than a century, internal combustion engines were the preferred choice due to their evident advantages over electric vehicles. However, they had a fatal flaw which was not paid attention to. These engines operate by burning fossil fuels. As we know, burning fuels releases carbon dioxide gas, a significant contributor to global warming. As such, it has become a global mission to slowly stop using fossil fuels. As a major contributor to burning fossil fuels, it was decided that, the combustion engines must be replaced with something environment friendly. There were two options, century old electric vehicles and Hydrogen operated vehicles. But after many car manufacturers experimented with both types of engines, hydrogen engines turned out to be impractical and it was decided that reviving electric vehicles is the way to go.

The impractical electric vehicles of the past have become much practical today thanks to the invention of lithium-ion battery. These batteries are very high energy density, giving them very high range. Along with the invention of fast charging technology, EVs are as practical as traditional vehicles. Now, the only focus is on making EVs as efficient as possible. EVs are on average, costlier than their combustion engine counterparts, mainly because lithium-ion batteries are expensive. But, using them is actually cheaper in the long run as the cost of electricity required to operate them is very low. All the major car manufacturers are focusing all their research and development into plug-in electric vehicles. News of technological breakthroughs regarding EVs are being heard frequently. Governments are incentivizing owning of electric vehicles. And so, EVs are now more popular than ever. Their numbers are increasing extremely fast. It can be definitively said that electric vehicles are here to stay.

The initiative to build electric cars were taken as early as the 1960s. Since then, many concept cars and a few production cars were built mainly using nickel-cadmium batteries. In fact, many of the cars went to production with high anticipation, but all of them failed in the market for obvious reasons. In the early 1990s, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the government of California's "clean air agency", started pushing zero emission vehicles, like EVs. Automakers including Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda, Nissan, Toyota responded with their own electric models. It is noteworthy that the Nissan Altra EV miniwagon, out of these, was the first ever electric vehicle to use lithium-ion battery. These vehicles garnered significant consumer interest. Unfortunately, oil industry lobbyists  accused these companies of complying with CARB to sell vehicles in the lucrative Californian market. They made an

2024 Toyota Prius

The iconic 2008 Tesla Roadster

impression that customers were not interested in EVs, which could not be further from the truth. This resulted in a sudden decline in the interest in EVs in the 90s. But, as the interest in EVs declined, an old, yet new innovation emerged called hybrid vehicles. In 1997, Toyota released the Prius, which is the world's second ever hybrid energy vehicle. Along with an ICE , hybrid cars also have an electric motor and a small battery which can be charged using a dynamo, thus making the car much more fuel efficient. Until we fully adopt all-electric vehicles, hybrid cars are the next best thing as they address the problems of suddenly shifting to all electric vehicles while reducing carbon emissions to some extent. While hybrid vehicles were a welcome innovation, they were but a temporary solution. In 2008, Californian car manufacturer Tesla Inc. (the then Tesla Motors) introduced the Tesla Roadster, an all-electric car, which contained lithium-ion batteries. It boasted a range of 393 km and great fuel efficiency, unprecedented at the time. It proved that electric cars can be as good as traditional cars, maybe even better. It became an instant hit and sent a message to the world that electric cars are the future. The Tesla Roadster brought about a revolution in the automotive industry inspiring car manufacturers all over the world to produce electric cars. It will forever be an icon in the world of automotive industry.

After the success of the Roadster, many electric cars were produced. Noteworthy among them are the Mitsubishi i-MiEV(world's first highway capable mass production electric car)  and the Nissan Leaf(became the best-selling electric vehicle of all time in 2011). Most major car manufacturers started making their own EVs and putting them on the market. But when Tesla stopped manufacturing the Roadster and introduced the Tesla Model S in 2012, they took the market by storm. They later released the Model X in 2015, Model 3 in 2017 and Model Y in 2020. In 2021, they released the Tesla Model S Plaid, the fastest road legal 0-100

Tesla Model S Plaid

miles/hour accelerating vehicle in the world during it's release. That title is now held by another EV called the Rimac Nevera. Tesla Model Y and Model 3 are the best-selling and the second best-selling EVs of all time and together outsell all other electric vehicles combined. Tesla is the most popular EV manufacturer today, but their competitors are not far behind and slowly catching up. Some of the best and most popular EV models from other brands include: the BMW 'i' series,  Mercedes Benz EQS, Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Porsche Taycan, Polestar 2, Renault Zoe, etc. Newer manufacturers who solely focus on manufacturing EVs are also entering the market along with their impressive line up of EVs. With the number of EVs in the road increasing everyday, and all kinds of people actively trying to adopt to EVs as they envision a cleaner, greener and electrifying future, it is clear that, EVs are going to completely replace traditional fossil fuel powered vehicles in the near future.