Overview

In this book I have tried to describe the current state of electric vehicle technology at the beginning of the year 2001. It seems clear to me that before the first 20 years of this century are over, increasing pressure on the environment will result in increasingly severe regulation of emissions from vehicles in urban areas. This, together with the rocketing cost of hydrocarbon fuels, will ensure that personal transport needs will have to be met by a mixture of highly economical, relatively low-performance gasoline- or diesel-fuelled cars and by a range of electric cars of various types.

Because of the high price of hydrocarbon fuels it will be necessary to use the fuel that is available in a much more efficient and environmentally friendly way than at present. One way is to burn coal, gas or heavy oil fuels in a power station with sophisticated emission controls to drive efficient turbines to produce electricity that can then be used to charge batteries in electric cars. The overall energy efficiency, taking into account all the energy losses measured from the extraction of the coal or oil from the ground through to the road wheels of a vehicle, is not much better in the case of the pure electric vehicle than it is in the case of the internal combustion-engined vehicle (about 19 per cent for the electric vehicle versus 18 per cent for the ICE vehicle). However, the emissions are potentially much more controllable at the power station than...