The electric car is here to stay, and sustainable mobility is on everyone’s lips, but what has this evolution been like, what was it like before and what will it be like after it?
Nowadays, the electric car is a reality. There is already a wide range of vehicles whose propulsion is based on the use of rechargeable batteries with longer life in terms of travel times, contained charging times and, the most important thing, zero emissions in mobility. The electric car is already among the favourite ones of sustainable mobility and is here to stay, but how has this evolution been?
Since Palaeolithic times, gatherers and hunters have travelled between 6 and 22 kilometres every day on foot to perform their daily activities. Today, however, most citizens travel these kilometres in vehicles powered by combustion engines.
In the midst of the 21st century, we live in a society of immediacy under a vertiginous life pace in which we must have a resource as necessary as a vehicle to carry out our everyday activities. We use our car to go shopping, go to work, visit a relative, go to the gym, and even to go buy bread. In short, we use it for any activity related to mobility.
“We use our car to go shopping, go to work, visit a relative, go to the gym, and even to go buy bread.”
A paradigm shift in mobility?
It would be best to regard it as a turning point, which must bring about a mind shift since, in order to transform cities, it is necessary to change the minds and desires of the people who live in them. As Mariano González Tejada commented in his article for El País, in the 1950s, globalisation and the values associated with consumption and progress placed the car under the spotlight in major cities, widening streets and expelling trams and everything that was considered an obstacle. Well, now, a change in society seems to be glimpsed to limit and restrict the use of unsustainable automobiles. Is it time for sustainable mobility? It involves a number of benefits that we already discussed in our previous post.
Aoday, there is already a wide range of cars available at a lower cost, whose propulsion is based on a rechargeable electric battery.
Evolution of the electric vehicle
The first electric vehicle prototypes date back to the 19th century, even before the combustion vehicles we know nowadays, although their development was hampered by the advance of combustion engines thanks to their greater operating range, cheaper fuel and the introduction of the starter engine.
The cost of electric vehicles is decreasing and has been decreasing in recent years.
Nowadays, there is already a wide offer of cars at a lower cost whose propulsion is based on an electric rechargeable batteries with greater operating range in terms of travel times, contained charging times and, most importantly, zero emissions in mobility: The electric car is a reality.
The key, the cost of the electric battery.
In this sense, the cost of electric vehicles is increasingly lower, and it has been decreasing in recent years due to battery cost reductions. Currently, this is a reduction of around 40% of the total electric vehicle cost (a few years ago, the percentage of the battery cost with respect to the total vehicle cost was much higher, reaching even 60-70% of the total cost). And, as commented in the article, the Digital Economy Journal: “In three years, the electric car will be cheaper than petrol”
Evolution of electric vehicle sales from 2015 to 2040. Source: Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
On the other hand, charging infrastructure for this type of engine is being increasingly developed, so it is really feasible to go from point A to point B without worrying about running out of energy halfway. This is a topic that we will address in the next post: Types of connectors and electric car charging modes.
“The actual development of charging infrastructure, as well as the improvement in battery technology, make the electric vehicle a totally feasible and necessary alternative.”
Charging stations, individual charging points or “electric charging points” are a growing reality, having moved from being something imagined for the “near future” to being a reality of the “present”.
Therefore, the actual development of charging infrastructure, as well as the improvement in battery technology for longer battery life and shorter charging times, make the electric vehicle a totally feasible and necessary alternative to traditional combustion vehicles.
To learn about the types of charging modes, points and connectors for electric vehicles available in Spain, do not miss our next post.
