HOW ELECTRIC CARS WORK

Has it finally come? Is the future now? We’ve got jetpacks, hoverboards, holograms– all the things we only used to see in old sci-fi movies! (Well maybe not the jetpacks so much…) And now: electric cars you plug into the wall like a cellphone! So who came up with the idea, and how does the technology really work? Before we rejoice in the future, let’s first take a trip to the past… Oh, we’ll be going a lot further back thankyou think. You’ll probably be as surprised as I was to find out that electric cars aren’t a 21st-century invention. That is, electric-powered motors came out pretty much at the same time as petroleum-driven engines (that is, the ones that run on fossil fuels like gas and diesel). Almost two centuries ago, in 1828, a Hungarian engineer named Ány os Jedlik invented the first prototype of the electric motor and used it to power a small model car. And he wasn’t the only one with an interest in that sort of technology. In 1834, blacksmith Thomas Davenport created a similar device that could be driven at short distances using an electric track. Does that ring any bells? (Think streetcars later on!) And over in the Netherlands, university professor Sibrandus Stratingh built a tiny electric car powered with non-rechargeable batteries. Now, even though the idea of a battery-powered vehicle was to revolutionize people’s lives for the better, primary cell batteries (that’s the “use once and toss” kind) weren’t the way to go for obvious reasons. They needed too many batteries to run the motor over long distances at such low speeds. It wasn’t until 1859 when French physicist Gaston Plante invented the lead acid battery that changed the electric engine game for good. Many countries began producing electric three-wheeled cars until the US made a huge breakthrough. In 1891, they created the first electric vehicle, and get this: it was a 6-passenger wagon that could go up to 14 miles per hour. (Hey, that was major back then!) After that, people were thrilled, and the electric car market thrived. In the late 1890s, electric-powered tax is filled the streets of London. At that time, electric cars had many advantages over steam-powered and gas-guzzling engines. They didn’t vibrate, they didn’t give off that awful burning gasoline smell that we’re all familiar with, and, most importantly, they didn’t require much effort to start. By the early 1900s, almost one-third of cars in the US were electric-powered. But that wasn’t going to last long… By the late 1920s, infrastructure in the US had improved significantly, and vehicles needed to go further more efficiently.

So, fossil-fuel cars took the lead because they got the job done. You see, the top speed that electric cars could achieve was 15-20 miles per hour. That’s about how fast you can go pedalingon your bike! Another problem was that electric-powered engines back then could only travel 30-40 miles on one go, which means they’d need charging every couple of hours. And things were about to take a turn for the worse along with the improvement in infrastructure. That’s when the electric starter was invented, and gasoline cars began using it alongside mufflers, which made their noise a lot more tolerable. Electric cars took their final hit in 1910when Henry Ford began his mass production of gas-powered vehicles, which made them ridiculously cheap whereas electric cars cost a lot more. Companies then realized that there was no room for electric automobiles on the market, so they stopped producing them altogether. Fast-forward to the 21st century. We now have advancements in technology and a greater concern for the environment. Add a fear of running out of resources to fuel our vehicles, and it’s no wonder automotive companies have decided to give electric cars another chance. The main difference between electric and fossil-fueled cars is that the E-cars can use a variety of generate their electricity.

In renewable sources to fact, the science behind the electric car is surprisingly simple. Its basic principle is the alternating current,for which we have Nikola Tesla to thank more than a century ago. Before you understand the science behind that,let’s back up and first cover the differences between direct and alternating currents (that’s DC and AC for short…or AC/DC if you’re into hard rock!). An electric current is the movement of an electric charge that carries electrons. An engine, for example, can be powered by direct current – which means that the electrons flow in one direction only. For most things that run on DC, that’s from the battery to whatever it’s powering. The electrons that move along an alternating current, on the other hand, periodically and consistently change direction. It’s pretty much all the electric power in your home, from your microwave to your game console. In short, if you could look at the two types of currents on a graph, direct would be a flat line and alternating would have regular uniform waves going up and down. Or, to put it even more simply, DC would belike water running out of a bucket with a hole in the bottom. AC would be kind of like watching the waters wishing around back and forth if you open the lid of your washer and look inside. Ok enough of that, so what about electric cars specifically? Well, most of them convert the direct current electricity from the batteries into an alternating current.

Since electric cars don’t have an internal combustion engine like gas-powered vehicles do, they use their space quite differently. You’d normally expect a big bulky battery to be in the front under the hood, but it’s completely different in electric cars. They have 7,000 lithium-ion batteries that sit under the flooring! This battery pack has a longer lifespan and a higher power density – which makes them ideal for powering a vehicle. But one of their vulnerabilities is overheating and thermal breakdown. That’s why electric cars have coolant running between them to prevent overheating. And there’s all kinds of interesting stuff at the back of the car. That’s where you’ll find the inverter, which is what converts that DC into AC and gives power to the engine. But it can’t do that without the induction motor. It’s also in the back, and it takes the alternating current that just came from the inverter and creates a rotating magnetic field that causes the motor to turn. Now, electric cars don’t have a gear boxor lever, and all of them are automatic. They have a single speed transmission that sends power from the induction motor to the wheels. This is how the electric motor transforms electrical energy into mechanical energy. That is, the physical power that turns thewheels and sends you on your way! But here’s where it gets even more interesting. When you accelerate while driving, the caruses more energy. But when you brake, the energy is transformedinto electricity through the induction motor. Then, that electricity travels all the wayback to the battery pack and is stored so that you can use it later! Now that’s efficient! An electric car gets “juiced up” by beingplugged into an outlet or a charging station, and they use three main levels of charging. The first level is the basic charging youcan do at home – it uses an outlet of 120 Volts and adds 2-5 miles of charging per hour. Then, there’s the second level – it usesElectric Vehicle Supply Equipment and has a higher voltage (220-240 Volts) to add 10-25miles per hour of charging.

Finally, the third and most efficient oneis the Direct Current charging station which does exactly what it says. It uses direct current to add up to 80% ofthe car’s battery charge in less than half an hour. The cost of charging an electric car is dirtcheap as well. It’ll cost you less than $5 to fully chargeyour electric vehicle at home, and you can get up to 150 miles on one charge. That, of course, depends on the size of thebattery. Bigger electric cars with bigger batteriescan cost up to $15 to fully charge, but they can cover up to 300 miles. So, where do I sign? Now, electric cars are less expensive to runand maintain if we compare them to fuel-powered vehicles, but there’s no denying that thecar itself comes with a much higher price tag. But still, according to a recent study, theaverage operating cost of an electric car is $485 a year, whereas a fossil-fuel automobileis $1,117. So, that higher initial price should pay itselfoff over time. But there’s still another problem. One of the most expensive components of theelectric car is its battery pack. It’ll cost you an arm and a leg to replaceif it breaks down – expect anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 for replacement! But most electric car manufacturers give thebattery at least an 8-year warranty for up to 100,000 miles if that makes you feel any better about purchasing. The good news is that we’re seeing a huge movement toward electric-powered vehicles as a strategy to tackle fuel emissions and reduce pollution. The head of automotive research in Europe predicts that by 2025, all cars in Europe will be totally electric or at least hybrid. And many countries are setting goals to lower their fuel emissions in the next few years. So, who knows? Perhaps sooner than later, we’ll all bezipping around in electric cars, and gas guzzlers really will be a thing of the past! What about you – are you interested in gettingan electric car? Let me know down in the comments! If you learned something new today, then give this video a like and share it with a friend. But – hey! – don’t go buy your Tesla just yet!

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