In January 2021, Elon Musk became the richest person in the world because of his electric vehicle company named Tesla. Today, it seems like every major vehicle producer is turning to electric cars – so how do they work, and are they really better than traditional vehicles?

To start, it’s important to understand relevant terminology. The world of electric vehicles (EVs) is locked behind a set of confusing acronyms. The first thing everyone thinks of when talking about electric vehicles is the battery electric vehicle (BEV). BEVs are driven entirely by a battery powering an electric motor. On the other side of the spectrum, there’s the internal combustion engine (ICE). ICEs are traditional vehicles that exclusively use combustible substances like gasoline in their engines to stimulate a drivetrain and move the vehicle. In the middle are hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). HEVs and PHEVs use some combination of battery technology and traditional combustion engines. The small but significant difference between HEVs and PHEVs is that PHEVs can be plugged directly into the grid to charge their batteries, whereas HEVs can only charge their batteries off of the combustion engine while driving. This little technicality may seem small, but actually has a huge difference in how they operate and how much they cost. Finally, there’s the fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV). FCEVs use a hydrogen fuel cell to drive an electric motor. They are much less common than the other types of EVs, so when people talk about EVs, these are often left out of the picture. All of these different types of EVs can make them seem complicated. The actual technology behind EVs, however, is fairly simple. 

The most basic type of EV is the BEV, made of 5 parts. To start, there’s the charging point. There are a lot of differences around the world, but in the American market, there are 3 different power levels in increasing charging speed: level 1 (120 volts), level 2 (240 volts), and DC/fast chargers (480 volts). In North America, the J1772 connector is the standard for level 1 and level 2 charging, and a variant of the J1772 connector with 2 more pins called the CCS connector is the standard for DC/fast charging. All-electric cars manufacturers in North America use this standard with one very notable exception: Tesla. Tesla uses a proprietary charger that can handle all levels in one cable, which can also be adapted to the standard. Power from the charger heads to the battery is almost always made of a lithium-ion composite. Lithium-ion batteries are currently the most economical for their storage capacity and will most likely remain the standard for the near future. When the car starts up, it draws power from the battery. The problem engineers run into is that energy drawn from the battery is sent from the battery in DC current and needs to become AC current. The inverter changes that DC current to AC current for use by the motors. This allows for better energy utilization and more efficient motors. The number and location of the motors depend on the model of the EV, but the electric motor is a defining feature. All of these parts compose the electric powertrain, which is “lightweight, compact, and [provides] very little vibration with instant torque,” improving significantly on conventional powertrains in ICEs. All EVs have basically the same parts with some additional complexity depending on where they generate the energy from. In general, the simplicity of these systems is a major advantage over ICEs because they are less prone to damage and are simpler to repair. These innovations didn’t happen overnight; the modern EV builds on centuries of technological development.

Due to the recent political discussion and economic success, it can seem like electric vehicles are relatively recent inventions. In reality, EVs and ICEs were developed in the late 1800s alongside each other. In 1859, Gaston Plante invented the lead-acid battery, which was the first high-capacity rechargeable battery. This invention led to the first EVs in the late 1800s. By 1900, “38% of US automobiles, 33,842 cars, [were] powered by electricity (40% by steam, and 22% by gasoline).” At the time, electric vehicles had a very short range and therefore were almost exclusively used in urban centers. Over the coming decades, EVs fell out of fashion and were replaced by the cheaper, longer range, and more reliable ICE. The EV field was stagnant for most of the 1900s until the 90s, when General Motors decided to experiment with consumer EVs once more. Other companies followed suit, but EVs still didn’t really take off. In 2006, the newly founded company Tesla Motors revealed the Tesla Roadster, which went into production two years later. The Roadster was different from other EVs because it used lithium-ion batteries, allowing for almost double the range of the best consumer EVs, which relied on lead-acid batteries. This single car started a new revolution in consumer EVs. After the Roadster, the government started to invest in EV research and development for its environmental impact and potential improvements over ICEs. At this time, car companies started to take seriously the viability of EVs. Today there are an estimated 1.7 million EVs on the road. Many factors led to this recent explosion in EVs.

EVs are orders of magnitude better for the environment than traditional ICEs. Much of the recent EV expansion can be attributed to new governmental policies centered around the environmental impact of vehicles. While it is generally agreed upon that EVs are better for the environment than traditional vehicles, most people don’t understand the extent to which they are. The first misconception arises from the fact that electricity must be generated from somewhere. Generally, energy in the US comes primarily from fossil fuels – the same stuff that powers ICEs. It can seem like EVs are just shifting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the vehicle to the power generation source. The total emissions of any vehicle can be called the well to wheel (WTW) emissions. In a study of WTW GHG emissions comparing PHEVs and ICEs, “The PHEVs that employed petroleum fuels, E85 [a biomass fuel mix], and hydrogen… were shown to reduce petroleum energy use by 40–60%, 70–90%, and more than 90%, and GHG emissions by 30–60%, 40–80%, and 10–100%, respectively, compared with those of a conventional gasoline ICEV.” These GHG emissions were significantly lower even between PHEVs and ICEs. The energy saving of BEVs is most likely higher because they use even less combustible fuel. The wide-ranging percentages have to do with the regional energy production; some places will have an energy mix that emits less GHGs than others. Another misconception is that the environmental impact of producing new EVs offsets the lower environmental impact of day-to-day driving. It’s true that EVs have a higher environmental impact mostly due to mining specific rare materials for batteries when they come off the factory belt. In the long run, however, the WTW GHG emissions of EVs are significantly lower and therefore make EVs much better for the environment. Because of the environmental benefits of EVs, the governments of many countries have implemented policies to bolster EV development and adoption. Part of that has been economic incentives as well.

One of the major reasons for EV’s recent spike in popularity is their economic benefits. As it currently stands, the second owner of an EV has a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than a comparable ICE and it is predicted that all EVs will have a lower TCO versus ICEs by 2025. A lot of this will be due in part to lower battery and fuel cell costs. This calculation takes into account purchase price, maintenance, and fuel cost. Additionally, EVs provide consumers with the ability to purchase an EV suited to their range needs. Consumers have the option to purchase a cheaper, shorter-range EV if they don’t need the long haul capabilities of top-of-the-line EVs. Current trends also predict that the price of EVs will drop in the coming years due to new technological advances. Finally, EV powertrains are less prone to wear and tear, so they don’t need to be repaired as often. At the same time, parts that need to be replaced are more expensive so, depending on the statistic, EVs and ICEs cost about the same to maintain. 

Calculating the cost of charging is a little tricky. While it is generally agreed upon that EVs are cheaper to charge, the actual difference between EVs and ICEs depends heavily on the price of gas and electricity. Currently, nationally on average, it is $9 cheaper to charge an EV for 100 miles than it is to fuel an ICE for an equivalent distance. This data assumes consumers are paying market price for home charging. The difference in price changes considerably when charging is mostly done on commercial chargers. According to one study, it is $4 more expensive per 100 miles to charge an EV off of mostly commercial chargers than it is to fuel an ICE. This is one potential issue with EVs.

There are a lot of benefits to EVs, but it is naive to say that they are perfect. To be fairly honest, there’s a reason every car on the road right now isn’t an EV. The first and most obvious reason is that production capacity is simply not there. To reach President Biden’s ambitious goal to make 50% of all new vehicles sold by 2030 EVs, there needs to be 15 times more production capacity than is currently available. The world’s major vehicle producers have just not made the transition yet to EVs. This issue is coupled with the lack of charging infrastructure. The current private sector ICE fueling industry (i.e. gas stations) is unwilling to fully commit to EV charging. Electric charging companies stick to mostly dense urban areas (where the return on investment is high) and choose not to build out the larger long-distance grid needed for EV viability. Additionally, the current electric charging grid and its expansion are held up by government intervention. According to Daniel Yergen of Politico, “A long-term viable EV charging system needs a business model that is also based on the private sector and is not dependent on the federal government and shifting policies.” In general, a lot of the EV ecosystem is held up by government subsidies. In the future, consumers will need to deal with the disappearance of these subsidies that allow the current cost of EVs to be so low. The world just isn’t built for EVs just yet, but soon it will be.

At the end of the day, EVs are significantly better ecologically and economically. EVs are complicated systems on the surface, but the basic concept behind them is the same as a battery-powered toy car. EVs can be economically cheaper than ICEs as well as better for the environment. They face many challenges today, but one thing is for sure: electric vehicles are the future, and are only a few years out from taking over.