As an Automobile Engineering student, I know a bit about vehicles and in this article, I'll attempt to present a complete breakdown on why Electric vehicles are much better than the outdated gasoline and diesel-powered automobiles. I'll highlight all the negative aspects of the common automobile technology and explain the advantages of EVs over IC engine vehicles.
I'll delve a bit deeper into the technical aspects but I'll also try to keep it simple and concise considering the general readers who aren't well-acquainted with the technical terms.
Not many people are aware of the fact that Electric vehicles aren't a new innovation but it simultaneously existed alongside fossil-fuel powered vehicles in the early era.
In fact, it was more popular than other kinds of automobile technologies. But due to the limited advancements in battery technology at that time, electric vehicles were deemed relatively inefficient. Therefore, fuel powered vehicles gained more popularity among the masses later on, and massive funding was poured onto it by the governments and wealthy investors for its development.
Due to low funding for research, expensive battery manufacturing costs, limited technology and less mass interest, development of Electric vehicles was almost dead and EVs were left behind in the race.
It's only been a few years Electric vehicles have been resurrected and serious efforts are being put by some large automobile companies to develop the EV technology.
I'll try to explain the major points why the commonly used automobiles today are outdated and why we need to adopt electric vehicles.
Complicated and Outdated Technology
Typical internal combustion engines look like these.
Image Source: TATA CUMMINS
A typical IC engine alone has more than hundred moving parts and thousands of major static parts.
Image Source: Commons Wikimedia
Internal combustion engines are one of the most complicated technologies mankind has ever developed. There are so much of engineering principles crammed into it, that one needs to have a vast amount of knowledge in Physics to grasp the complete inner workings of a typical IC engine. Even the tiniest of details you find while dissembling an Engine part has a significant function and a deeper meaning to its structural design.
With every small advancement and with every new iteration, the anatomy & construction design gets more and more complicated and new accessories and parts are being added every day with an attempt to cover up the flawed base-technology. But the new designs aren't much effective and every new feature that gets added up has its own trade-offs...
They're just filling up the bigger holes by digging up other smaller ones.
This is a motor (the engine equivalent) of an Electric Vehicle
Image Source
As you can see in the image, it only has two major parts in which the rotor is the only moving part. The construction design is similar to most of the other motors used in everyday machines. Most EVs use 3-Phase 4-Pole AC Induction Motor invented by sir Nikola Tesla in the 19th century.
There are only three major parts in an electric vehicle... the battery, the inverter and the electric motor. EVs are simple in design, efficient, noise-free and better than IC engines in power output.
A wise man once said,
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction."
- E. F. Schumacher
Why use a complicated mess, when there's a simpler alternative?
IC engine vehicles have served us for decades but considering the negative effects on environment, cluttered and outdated design, inefficient energy to work conversion ratio and massive size & weight, it's time we upgrade our vehicles with better technology. It's clear that EVs will be more preferable to the masses in the near future because people will always shift towards the technology which is less complicated and user-friendly.
IC Engine Vehicles Vs Electric Vehicles
One of the main reason why EVs are more superior than it's IC engine equipped predecessors is due to the reason that when you use a powerful motor to propel the vehicle instead of an IC engine, you get significant advantages like costs reduction, weight reduction, space reduction, noise reduction, pollution reduction e.t.c, with an increment in power output, efficiency, speed and manoeuvrability.
Unlike the traditional automobiles which use mechanical linkages, hydraulic & pneumatic pipes to run most of its systems, Most of the automobile systems in EVs are electronic which not only increases the accuracy and efficiency of the systems but also reduces a hell lot of weight, material costs & space. Plus it requires very little maintenance and the upkeep prices are low.
Drawbacks of IC engine vehicles
- IC engine vehicles consist of more than 10,000 moving parts and hence they produce excessive vibrations and it's very noisy in operation.
- It emits a lot of pollutants like Nitrous oxides, Carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulphur oxides and various particulate matters.
- IC engines are energy inefficient and convert only 30% percent of the energy input into useful work. Rest is lost in heat and friction.
- Further power loss occurs in the bulky transmission system during the power transfer through the engine to the wheels.
- Expensive in the long term.
Advantages of Electric Vehicles
- EVs have less than 200 moving parts and it produces very less vibration which results in a noise-free operation.
- EVs are eco-friendly and it produces zero emissions.
- EV converts about 90% of the energy input into useful work.
- It consists of simplified power-train in which the electric motors are in direct drive with the axle so there's no friction loss in transmission.
- It's cost-effective in the long-term
Safety Issues & Maintenance issues
In the traditional IC engine vehicles, The engine generates power through internal combustion of the fuel inside the combustion chamber of an engine where deadly explosions of the air-fuel mixture are occurring every second. The rapid expansion of gases exerts a large amount of pressure on the pistons inside the combustion chamber which in turn transfers power to a crankshaft through a connecting rod. This way the linear motion of the piston converted into rotary motion which is then used to rotate the wheels through a power transmission system.
Another safety issue is the engine seizure problem which happens pretty often when one of the other systems like lubrication system or the cooling system of the engine fails to perform effectively. The cylinder blocks are precisely machined by providing sufficient gap between the cylinder walls and the piston to let it move up & down with less friction, and at the same time, it's made as tight as possible with very little clearance so that the lubrication oil beneath the piston doesn't enter the combustion chamber. It's all done accounting the normal operating temperature of the engine and coefficient of the expansion of metals.
This engineering setup works well under normal conditions but there are times when there's insufficient cooling or insufficient lubrication in the Engine parts due to various reasons (like leaks and damaged parts in the cooling system & lubrication system) which causes the engine to overheat and exceed extreme temperatures. As the temperature rises, excessive expansion of the metals causes the piston surface & cylinder walls to collide and the engine comes to a dead stop. Countless of deadly accidents that have already occurred due to engine failure and engine overheating problems.
There's also another major issue known as 'hydrostatic lock' that occurs when the coolant, lubrication oil or water gets inside the combustion chamber due to some mechanical failure or leaks. And since liquids are incompressible, the piston suffers a violent jerk when it tries to compress the air-fuel mixture + the liquid inside the combustion chamber. Not only it brings the engine to a dead stop and damages the parts like piston, connecting rod and cylinder walls heavily; It also puts you at a serious risk of an accident.
And I have barely scratched the surface here. A typical IC engine Vehicle is like a Rube Goldberg's machine.
With more than 10,000 moving parts, there are so many things that can go wrong that you'll need to perform regular maintenance of your vehicle and replace the old parts every now and then if you want a smooth performance. You're literally riding a Final Destination vehicle if you're not keeping your Vehicle in optimum health.
On the other hand, EVs require very less maintenance and the parts used it in it usually has a longer lifespan than the Electric vehicle itself. And unlike IC engine vehicles, you don't need to frequently change lubrication oil or anything because for most of the parts, it doesn't need it and those parts which need it, the lubricants are usually in an enclosed system which doesn't require to be replaced for a lifetime. EVs doesn't require a complicated cooling system like IC Engines too. Plus, it's hundred times safer than Jurassic technology of explosion powered vehicles.
Other advantages of EVs
The speed of an electric vehicle is controlled by the variation of the frequency in the AC power supply provided by the inverter to the motor, so there's no need for shifting levers and gears to control vehicle speed.
Most of the vehicle operations are carried out mostly by a smart software which provides high response and effective control of the vehicle.
Also, for various engineering reasons, it's a bit easier to integrate autonomous systems in EVs as compared to other automobiles. So it's more likely that all the future EVs will have autonomous systems integrated into them.
EVs also has power regeneration technology which allows the vehicle to regenerate the power when you decelerate the vehicles or apply the brakes. The same motor that's used to propel the vehicle acts as a power generator during deceleration, and the regenerative braking system regenerates power and re-routes it to the battery packs.
Closing thoughts
Range Anxiety, lack of infrastructures or charging networks, expensive batteries, long charging time and high initial costs of EVs has attracted a fair amount of bitter criticism. But all these issues are slowly fading away due to the recent technological innovations of the EV companies like Tesla.
Besides a few issues, EVs are better than IC engine Vehicles in every conceivable way.
Every innovator wants to design a machine with peak efficiency and low affordable cost. But it's ironic that even though EVs are better than IC engine vehicles in both performance and operating cost, a lot of brilliant innovators, investors and governments still prefer Fossil Fueled Vehicles over Electric Vehicles. Even though there are lots of design flaws, they still keep clinging to the outdated technology.
In my theory, it has something to do with a psychological flaw known as Complexity bias.
Complexity Bias is a logical fallacy that leads us to give undue credence to complex concepts.
In other words, it's a psychological bias where the fascination around a complicated concept (like Rube Goldberg's Machine ) blinds the logical reasoning & critical thinking ability... making the innovators go to extreme lengths, just to perform a simple task.
Within a decade or two, IC Engine automobiles will be rendered obsolete because there would be no reason why people won't choose Electric Vehicle over Jurassic Age Technology.
EVs are the best transportation alternative towards a sustainable future.
References:
- Inside Electric Vehicles
- Tesla Motors Youtube
- Tesla Motors official site
- History of Electric Vehicles
- Giphy
- Complexity bias
- Rube Goldberg's Machine
- How does electric car work?
