World EV Day 2022

World EV Day 2022 Electric vehicles are in demand and gaining widespread recognition. The alarming rates of emission and skyrocketing fuel p...

World EV Day 2022

Electric vehicles are in demand and gaining widespread recognition. The alarming rates of emission and skyrocketing fuel prices are among other factors driving the adoption of EVs. India, being the second most populous country, is one of the largest markets for EVs in Asia, behind China and ahead of Japan.

Nitin Kapoor, MD, Saera Electric Auto, said that if India achieves its true potential of 50 per cent electrification, every 10th EV globally sold could be manufactured in India, making it the global EV powerhouse.

As per the Electric Mobility Mission, there is a target of producing 6-7 million electric and hybrid vehicles in the country by 2025.

In addition, India's 2030 vision presented by Niti Ayog is a mammoth market opportunity, i.e., 70 per cent EVs in the commercial cars segment, 30 per cent private cars, 40 per cent buses, 80 per cent 2W and 3W sales to be electric, which translates to 102 million EVs.

EV Adoption On Rise

While EV adoption is on the rise, a lot needs to be done at the grass root level like improving the charging infrastructure, providing subsidies to industry players and converting public transport to all-EV in the near future. Nitin Kapoor said that when it comes to EVs, it is not only the carmaker but the industry that is composed of companies focused on its components.

Manav Kapur, Executive Director, Steelbird International, said that the steady growth of the EV sector in the country and around the world has prompted the need for an evolution in the auto component industry as well.

"The Indian component manufacturers are extensively chalking out strategies to expand their capacity and create new skill sets to adapt to the EV evolution and the revolution it is bringing about," Manav said.

EV Manufacturing In India

For a faster adoption of electric vehicles, the Centre and state governments are introducing various schemes to encourage people to switch to EVs and also boost domestic production. Under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, 75 companies plan to invest Rs 29,834 crore over the next five years.

Kunal Gupta, co-founder, EMotorad, said that gone are the days when EVs were just limited to golf carts. The world is changing significantly with the adoption of EV technology and vehicles.

"India is witnessing a huge shift with people moving to EVs. With proper EV adoption, we can move a step closer to net zero emissions by 2070 for India. The future is EVs not only here but across the globe," he said.

---------------

EFFICIENCY AND CO2 EMISSION ANALYSIS OF INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES (ICE) AND ELECTRIC VEHICLES (EV)

This blog is an addition to a study commissioned by the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology and the Federation of the Austrian economy [1]. We want to stress the significance of transparent information regarding the vehicles efficiency and the environmental footprint.

In Austria, an Electric Vehicle (EV) needs to drive 80.000km to have lower CO2 emissions as an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) due to the electricity mix of the country. In countries with an electricity production depending heavily on coal like Poland and China, the EVs will always have higher CO2 emissions than an ICE. To provide you a better overview a summary of the essential drivetrain efficiency and CO2 emissions is provided.

Analysing various fuel productions and drivetrains:

For an objective analysis of the overall efficiency of a drivetrain, the entire energy chain must be examined. At the moment this is called well-to-wheel analysis, which investigates the used energy and the efficiency from the energy source to the wheel. The overall efficiency is strongly influenced by energy production. The well-to-tank analysis provides information on the efficiency of energy generation (how much energy is lost during e. g. electric power generation). The tank-to-wheel analyses refer to the used energy in vehicles from the tank system to the road.

Figure 1.1 explains the well-to-wheel analysis with the subcategories well-to-tank and tank-to-wheel.

Figure 1.1: Conceptual illustration of Well-to-Wheel analyses for efficiency and CO2 emissions

Well-to-tank analysis:

Figure 1.2 gives an overview of the efficiency in energy production of fuels. Minimum or fixed values are displayed in violet. Values that are dependent on the efficiency of the used production method are striped violet. Values for the EU electricity mix are marked in blue and the values for the Austrian electricity mix are marked in red.

With little effort raw natural gas is produced by drying and desulphurisation at efficiencies around 90%. The production and supply of fossil fuels, such as petrol and diesel, are also produced at high efficiencies of up to 85%. Production efficiency of bio-fuels gaseous is strongly dependent on the raw material and the processing method, typical efficiencies between 15 and 50%. Hydrogen can be produced at efficiencies of between 10 and 80%, both in the production from methane and in the production with electrolysis, values of up to 80% can be achieved. The generation of electricity takes place between 15 and 90% efficiency.

Figure 1.2: Well-to-Tank analysis of the efficiency

Figure 1.3 shows the CO2 emissions of the well-to-tank analysis. The production of fossil fuels cause emissions of approximately 50 g CO2/kWh for petrol and diesel. Biogenic fuels are often described as CO2-neutral, because of the collected CO2 due to photosynthesis during the growth process of the plants. However, depending on the raw material used and the manufacturing process, a broad spectrum of greenhouse gas emissions is produced. Some production methods produce higher CO2 emissions than fossil fuels and some produce fewer greenhouse gases than the plant collects through photosynthesis. For electricity, the values lie between 15 g CO2/kWh when generated from wind energy and over 1000 g CO2/kWh from lignite production. With the EU electricity mix 340 g CO2/kWh are produced. If hydrogen is produced by electrolysis, the emission loads can vary from 21 g CO2/kWh to 1400 g CO2/kWh. The value for the European electricity mix is approximately 425 g CO2/kWh and for the Austrian electricity mix 129 g CO2/kWh.

Figure 1.3: Well-to-Tank analysis of CO2 emissions

Tank-to-Wheel efficiencies and CO2 emissions

Despite these developments, the combustion engine is not very efficient compared to alternative propulsion technologies. Tank-to-wheel analyses refer to the used energy in vehicles from the tank system to the road. The petrol engine can achieve an efficiency of up to 35% at the best point, and an average of 20% in a driving mode according to the NEDC driving cycle. The diesel engine reaches approx. 45% at its best point and approx. 28% in a driving mode according to the NEDC driving cycle.

The battery-powered electric vehicle can achieve an efficiency of more than 85% at the best point, in driving mode (NEDC driving cycle) an average of 60 – 75% is achieved. The fuel cell vehicle can achieve an efficiency of more than 65% at its best point, in transient driving mode (NEDC driving cycle) an average of 40-55% is achieved.

Figure 1.4: Tank-to-Wheel analysis of CO2 emissions of different vehicle segments and drivetrains

The emissions in g CO2 per km tested on the NEFZ cycle for different vehicle segments (B/small cars, C/medium cars, F/luxury cars) and drive trains is shown in Figure 1.4. Vehicles with battery-powered electric motors or hydrogen-powered FCEV as well as hydrogen-powered combustion engines are CO2-free in operation.

Well-to-Wheel efficiencies and CO2 emissions

For an objective analysis of the overall efficiency of a drivetrain concept, the entire energy chain must be examined. This is called well-to-wheel analysis, which investigates the used energy and the efficiency from the energy source to the wheel. The overall efficiency is strongly influenced by energy production. For petrol engines, the Well-to-Wheel efficiency drops and reaches between 14% and 20%. The diesel engine still achieves 21% to 26% overall efficiency.

With BEVs, the well-to-wheel efficiency drops to approx. 32% with the EU electricity mix. With the Austrian electricity mix, an overall efficiency of approx. 50% is possible. With FCEV, the well-to-wheel efficiency drops to approx. 22% due to the high energy consumption with the EU electricity mix. With the Austrian electricity mix, an overall efficiency of approx. 34% is possible. This corresponds to a higher degree of efficiency than with combustion engines.

For the determination of the total CO2 emissions, the values of the well-to-tank and tank-to-wheel are summed up for the well-to-wheel analysis, shown in Figure 1.5. The range of the BEV reaches from a CO2 free operation with energy from renewable energy sources to electricity produced with lignite. For FCEV and internal combustion engines the range is between electrolysis from renewable electricity to lignite produced electricity. The Austrian Energy mix is shown with red bars and the EU energy mix is marked with the blue bars.

Conclusion:

With the Well-to-Wheel analysis it is possible to assess the efficiency of drivetrains and the energy transport/production. The analysis above was made with the NEDC test cycle. It is to be expected that with the new WLTP test cycle the CO2 emissions will increase about 20%. Another disadvantage is: the analysis gives no information about the raw material production (steel, aluminium, …), the production of the vehicle itself, the recycling and the disposal of the vehicle. An analysis considering the use phase, the energy supply and the product life cycle is called Cradle-to-Grave analysis. Only with the Cradle-to-Grave analysis the vehicles can be compared objectively and as a whole. The other methods will lead to insecure customers and false information.

What can be seen very clearly with the Well-to-Wheel analysis is that the electrification of the drivetrain requires an energy revolution towards sustainable energy production.

Looking to integrate electric vehicles (EVs) into your organization's fleet?

Here are 3 essential steps to help you get started:

Determine your environmental fleet goals and budget

Review our HEV, PHEV and BEV comparison chart below to help you assess different options

to find suitable EV candidates based on vehicle type, geography, and usage

Electric vehicles can generally be broken down into 3 main categories: Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV), Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) and Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV).

It is expected that the competition, availability, and value-proposition of battery-powered vehicles will continue to increase dramatically over the coming years. With increasing regulatory restrictions on emissions and the heightened sensitivity of environmental concerns, many businesses have slowly started to integrate Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) or Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) into their vehicle fleets.

3 different electric vehicles
3 different types of EVs and their fleet use case
Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV)

HEVs combine an internal combustion engine and an electric vehicle drivetrain. The electric vehicle drivetrain allows the vehicle to achieve significantly better fuel economy. However, an HEV does not require an external power source to recharge the battery. Instead, recharging of the on-board battery is done through regeneration, including regenerative braking. HEVs are not commonly considered to be a Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) by climate organizations or government agencies since they rely on the internal combustion engine to recharge the battery.

Fleet use case: HEVs can be a solution for drivers without access to an external power source for recharging of the vehicle's battery.

Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV)

PHEVs have a hybrid engine that use both an electric motor and gas engine to operate and can be powered by both a battery and fuel. The battery can be recharged through an electrical power source and the vehicle's tank can be refilled with fuel. The battery can typically last for around 50 kilometers, after which the engine requires gasoline or diesel to continue. The battery in a PHEV can be plugged in to a power source to be charged and, in some cases, can be recharged through regenerative braking. PHEVs are considered a ZEV by many climate organizations and government agencies as they can be recharged without relying on an internal combustion engine and can travel short distances relying solely on electrical power.

Fleet use case: PHEVs are ideal for fleet drivers who typically travel less than 50 kilometers (31 miles) a day but on occasion travel longer ranges.

Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV)

BEVs, also referred to simply as electric vehicles, have motors that are solely powered by rechargeable batteries with no internal combustion engine and no harmful emissions. The batteries for these vehicles are recharged through an external electrical power source. The driving range for BEV vehicles can vary from 200 kilometers (125 miles) per charge up to more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) per charge depending on the specific model of the BEV. BEVs are considered a ZEV by most climate organizations and government agencies as they rely solely on electrical power to travel

Fleet use case: BEVs are the most environmentally-friendly choice for fleets. These vehicles often require the installation of specific charging capabilities at the residence or workplaces of each driver to facilitate charging of the vehicle.