- Clean Air: Low or zero tailpipe emissions
- Inexpensive: Low operating costs when using electricity instead of oil
- Energy independence: EVs could use local supplies of electricity from a wide ranges of sources rather than imported oil
- Performance: excellent vehicle handling (due to the high torque of electric motors), quiet operation
- Infrastructure: extensive electrical infrastructure can be extended to meet industry growth, particularly with the advent of "smart grids"
A battery electric vehicle (BEV) uses electrical energy stored in a battery for motive power. A BEV has few moving parts and only 4 principal components: i) battery, ii) electric motor, iii) motor-controller and iv) on-board charger. It is sometimes referred to as a zero-emission vehicle or ZEV.
A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) extends a conventional hybrid concept to enable two "refuelling" options. Current hybrid vehicles charge or "refuel" the battery only with the fossil fuel dependent internal combustion engine. A plug-in hybrid offers the flexibility of "refuelling" directly with electricity or indirectly with fossil-fuels. By definition, a PHEV describes a wide spectrum of vehicle designs that vary with the ratio of electric drive to conventional drive. At one end of the spectrum, a PHEV could refer to a mild hybrid design augmented to allow the flexibility of "plugging-in". On the other end of the spectrum, it could refer to a dominant electric drive design such as full electric vehicle with a conventional drive "range-extender" for long journeys.
For further background on electric vehicles, Electrovaya recommends exploring www.electricdrive.org
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