When we hear the word electric car, what comes to our mind? Let's take a dive into what the electric car really entails.
An automobile that is been moved or that is caused to move by a single or more than one electric motor which uses the energy that has been stored in a battery is called an ELECTRIC CAR. It is quite different from the conventional cars we know which uses fuel to function which are usually called the Internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in such a way that the electric cars doesn't have an exhaust emission and are usually very quiet than ICE vehicles, it also has low maintenance cost.
The charging stations is where the car can be charged and it can be a public space or a private space like one the owners house.
The electric vehicles started becoming much popular in 2020 as about 4.6% of it was sold among all cars sold in 2020 all over the world.
According to reports the Tesla Model 3 is the world best all time selling electric car in 2020 and in 2021 it surpasses the 1 million global sale landmark and there have been other models which their adoption is widespread as well such as the Japanese Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Nissan Leaf etc.
HOW ELECTRIC CAR WORKS
An electric car works when they are plug into a charging point thereby taking electricity from the power grid, they then store the energy received into a rechargeable battery that will.power the electric motor.
The electric motor is what turns the wheel of the car, the electric vehicles are faster than the conventional fuel vehicles thus they are lighter to drive.
Charging the electric car is more or less just the way we charge our mobile phones and laptops, to charge the electric car one need a public charging station or a home charger if he or she has paid for the installation in their home.
There are different types of charging types or charger and how long they take when they are been used.
1 Tethered charger
This kind of chargers are the ones that has a charge point with a cable attached with any of Type 1 connector or Type 2 connector. This is known as the rapid charger as it is rated from 43 kW and it's only compatible with electric cars that has a rapid charging capacity it uses majorly 30 - 60 minutes in charging.
2. Socketed charger
This kind of chargers has a charge point where any of the Type 1 or Type 2 cable can be connected to it. It is a fast charger rated between 7 kW to 22 kW with a charging time.of 3 - 4 hours, they are mostly used in supermarket, leisure centres etc.
3. Three pin charger
This kind of chargers can be connected to any 13 amp Socket they are quite slow in charging as they are rated 3 kW. They are best used to charge overvnight as they have a charging time.of 8 - 10 hours charging.
The distance an electric car can travel solely depends on the kind of vehicle it is, there are various model with different battery size range and efficciency.
There are some that can go up to 220 miles, some goes up to 250 miles and some 200 miles it depends on the product one buys. This solely is talking about a fully charge electric car.
What is the electric car made of?
The parts of the electric car is way limited than that of the internal combustion engine, the Electric car has the following parts
1 Drive train: this is the speed transmission that send power from the electric motor to the wheels.of the electric car.
2 Inverter: the inverter is in charge of transforming the electric current which is in direct current to the alternating current.
3 Electric motor: this gives power to rotate the wheel of the car which comes in two form either in Direct current or Alternating current but the Alternating current motor is more common
4 Batteries: this is where the electricity is stored, this is very powerful as if there is no stored electricity the electric car won't work. The higher the capacity of the battery the higher the range it will.go.
5 Charging port: this is where the charger is plug so as to send electricity to the battery
TYPES OF ELECTRIC CARS
There are three different type.of electric cars, the ones that solely depends on electricity, the ones that uses both electricity and fuel.
1 Hybrid - electricity:
This type of car uses fuel like.diesel and petrol mainly but it has an electric battery as well which is usually charged by the use of regenerative braking, they allow.you to change between using fuel or using the Electric car engine by the click of a button, they aren't chargeable with electricity but depends solely on fuel.
2 Plug in hybrid :
These are cars that run on electricity but also have a fuel.engine as backup, this is done so that whenever one run out of electricity one can switch to the fuel engine and use the car, the car produces fumes when running on the fuel engine buy doesn't produce emissions when using electricity. They can be charged with an electric source.
3. Plug in electric:
They are the cars that run mainly on electricity and usually get all the power needed when it is plugged into a power grid. They don't need any petrol whatsoever and they don't produce any fume like.ICE cars.
BENEFITS OF ELECTRIC CARS
1 One of the advantage of electric cars over the conventional car is that it reduces air pollution because they don't emit fumes such as hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, lead, ozone, orgabic compound or a series of nitrogen oxid3s from the exhaust
2 They have faster acceleration than the conventional cars
3 The batteries used in the electric car has alot of weight which makes the electric car more heavier than conventional cars, thus whenever there is a collision, the occupant has less serious injuries than those in a lighter car. The more the weight the fewer the injury incurred.
4 The battery that is configured in a skateboard way lowers the center of gravity of the electric car thereby reducing the risk of loss of control of the car.
In conclusion, it has been estimated that in 2030 the global sales of electric car would have been up to 31 million this is said by Deloitte whole the international enegry agency predicted almost or equal to 145 million by 2030 if the current policy is still made available or about 230 of there is a new policy that encourage sustainable development.
REFERENCES
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0972262919875548
https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-how-electric-vehicles-help-to-tackle-climate-change