The promise of EVs

The electric vehicle revolution, driven by advancements in battery technology, decreasing costs, and global adoption, is transforming transportation and displacing fossil-fuel vehicles despite ongoing challenges like range anxiety

- KRISHNA GUPTA

In the various mitigation strategies to address climate change, we have discussed renewable energy sources so far: solar, wind, wave & tidal, nuclear, and biomass. We also discussed the importance of grid flexibility. We will now turn our attention to the Transport sector and discuss various mitigation strategies in this sector: from Electric Vehicles to Battery technology to Mass Transit and Buses, Trains, Trucking, Aviation and Shipping. We will begin with a discussion on Electric Vehicles.

Electric vehicles: importance in mitigation

Electric cars are not new and have been around for hundreds of years, with the first prototype built in 1828 by Hungarian physicist Anyos Jedlik. In 1891, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison collaborated on making an electrical car. Even though Edison pitched for electric cars and was working on efficient batteries, Ford was more inclined to the combustion engine.

The Model A and Model T, invented by Ford became runaway hits. Even after that, electric cars were popular in the US all through the 19th century because of their simplicity and longer range as compared to steam-powered engines. The Internal Combustion Engine and the massive highway development in the US allowed longer distances needed to be traversed, for which the electric cars were not equipped.