Skip to main content

Battery vehicle ‘now viable for very long distances’

The Tesla 3 gets nearly double the range of the Nissan Leaf by using nearly double the amount of battery but engineers are using a multitude of work rounds to do better: aerodynamics, light-weighting even including structural electronics where dumb structure is replaced by supercapacitors or solid state batteries. Add more efficient motors and powertrain, says Dr Peter Harrop, chairman of IDTechEx Research in its report Industrial and Commercial Electric Vehicles on Land 2016-2026. He goes on to say that
June 23, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The Tesla 3 gets nearly double the range of the 838 Nissan Leaf by using nearly double the amount of battery but engineers are using a multitude of work rounds to do better: aerodynamics, light-weighting even including structural electronics where dumb structure is replaced by supercapacitors or solid state batteries. Add more efficient motors and powertrain, says Dr Peter Harrop, chairman of 6582 IDTechEx Research in its report Industrial and Commercial Electric Vehicles on Land 2016-2026.

He goes on to say that fuel cell hybrids retain the cachet of most expensive solution with a long on-road charging time if you factor in the time to find that rarity, the hydrogen charger. Very long distance with large hydrogen tanks is impracticable.

However, IDTechEx believes that there is an excellent solution being proved for the long distance battery vehicle, starting with trucks. The battery does not expand to an unwieldy 400kWh.

A new dynamic charging approach was presented at EVS29 Canada by Patrik Akerman of 189 Siemens. Dynamic charging is a term most often applied to coils in the road that charge the vehicle as it goes along but, as he pointed out, this has severe difficulties with roads wearing out early, safety and damage from vehicles and roadworks. Height variations, snow, dirt, cost and other problems have been cited by others. Following a study, Siemens has decided not to work on this. Akerman favours the elegant, affordable solution of intermittent overhead catenary at a mere Euros 2.2 million per kilometre for charging trucks on the move which means that they can still overtake (the old trolley buses could not).

The whole of Germany could be served in this way with only 400 km of catenary. The German authorities find it feasible and desirable. There are trials now in several other countries. Cost is a fraction of fuel cell and other alternatives: installation is easy. IDTechEx finds that inductive charging is great for the car at home and premium cars are adopting it.

IDTechEx believes that fuel cell vehicles will succeed in niche markets when attractive unique selling propositions are identified.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Heliox delivers charging infrastructure for e-buses in Czech Republic
    November 13, 2018
    Heliox has delivered a fast-charging network for electric buses operating in Ostrava, Czech Republic, in a bid to reduce emissions. The deployment supports the country’s stated ambition to gradually phasing out diesel-powered buses. Heliox’s OC 450 kW chargers are expected to provide Ekova Electric’s e-buses with ‘opportunity charging’, which allows batteries to be charged several times during the work cycle (usually eight hours). The company says the system utilises a pantograph to begin chargin
  • Cellular communications drive the way forward for tolling
    January 18, 2012
    For more than 20 years prior to joining the ITS industry, Mike Payne of Idris, part of Federal Signal Technologies, worked for Vodafone - the world's biggest mobile operator. Here, he considers how the road tolling sector can grow and learn from the cellular industry. The global cellphone has been one of the most successful collaborative technology projects in the last 30 years. Mobile phone technology developed throughout the 20th century with the first public service in the early 70s. This was followed by
  • Vitronic enforcement technology for French truck toll system
    June 25, 2012
    German company Vitronic has been selected by Thales Group to supply key components for all fixed enforcement gantries for the nationwide truck charging system to be implemented on 15,000km of French roads. The multi-million euro contract is part of the prestigious Ecotaxe project, a distance based charge for trucks. From mid-2013 onwards, all vehicles over 3.5 tons in weight will have to pay a tax on national roads with the fee being collected by means of an onboard GPS satellite system. Vitronic has been s
  • Plug-in vehicles set to increase in popularity
    January 11, 2016
    The demand for plug-in vehicles (PIVs) has increased in the UK over the last number of years, says UK Construction Media. According to figures published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the number of electric car registrations has increased substantially over the past 12 months. An average of 2,400 electrical vehicles was registered per month in 2015 compared with just 500 at the beginning of 2014. It is estimated that the total number of electrical vehicles on the UK roads total