Follow PSR’s ongoing global coverage of eMobility across a wide range of segments, including electric cars, commercial vehicles, electric motorbikes and e-buses.
At 27%, the transport industry is the largest contributor to greenhouse gases in North America and Europe and within the transport sector, passenger cars contribute the most emissions followed by medium and heavy-duty trucks which contribute emissions at around 26% of the transportation industry. The move to reduce or eliminate emissions is one of the biggest priorities within the industry.
In a first, Ideanomics has announced that it successfully tested WAVE’s 500kW ultra-fast wireless charger at the Port of Los Angeles, which can charge class 8 electric trucks in less than 15 minutes. Installation of the wireless electric chargers is already underway at the Port of LA, and Ideanomics expects the first chargers to be ready for use in 2023
As companies seek to decarbonize their truck fleets, Ryze Hydrogen says that hydrogen combustion engines are the way to go– they are cleaner than diesel and they also make more economic sense, according to the company. Many companies today are looking at fuel cells in order to be able to use H2 as a clean fuel, but there is a growing movement toward the use of hydrogen combustion engines.
Cummins and Westpoint are cited as examples, with Cummins having unveiled a medium-duty concept truck using an H2-fueled internal combustion engine (ICE), which drew substantial attention in Germany at the IAA Transportation exhibition. Similarly, Westport Fuel Systems also unveiled its own HPDI hydrogen ICE engine for heavy duty vehicles earlier in September
An international group of researchers has demonstrated an aqueous zinc battery with excellent performance in terms of capacity, rate capability, specific energy, and output voltage. The battery is a hybrid supercapacitor-battery hybrid device which has demonstrated an unprecedented cycling stability of 99.2% capacity retention after 17,000 cycles at 100% depth of discharge.
This battery technology has been explored as a promising alternative due to its low cost, safety, environmental friendliness, and intrinsic non-flammable nature. However, their widespread adoption has been held back by their low Coulombic efficiency (The Coulomb efficiency is usually used to describe the released battery capacity. It refers to the ratio of the discharge capacity after the full charge and the charging capacity of the same cycle) and the notorious dendritic growth (dendrites are basically whiskers of minerals that grow inside batteries and can cause the devices they’re powering to lose power more quickly, short out, or in some instances, catch fire ) at the zinc-based anodes, along with the fast capacity fading of the cathodes.
Hydrogen fuel cells are still a bit mysterious and likely are unattainable in the near future, but you can actually buy them right now, whether in vehicles or as parts. To demonstrate how practical they are, Alfonso Delgado Ollero built a miniature hydrogen fuel cell to power an RC truck.
The practical concerns of producing the hydrogen in the first place and the energy density being relatively low are relevant when talking about the future of the automotive industry, but according to Alfonso Delgado Ollero, they shouldn’t prevent makers from experimenting with hydrogen fuel cells.
With the exception of 2022 (+7.6%), Battery Electric as a power source is expected to grow between 10% and 17% throughout the forecast period, while ICE growth rates start the period at -2.3% and then grow at less than 1% for 2023 to 2025.
Battery Electric is expected to grow from 12.8% of the market in 2022 to 21.2% by 2027, while during the same period ICEs are expected to decline from 85% of the market to 75%. PSR
Guy Youngs is Forecast & Adoption LeadAnalyst at Power Systems Research
Consumer adoption of EVs has gathered momentum this year, spurred by higher global oil prices. The Russia-Ukraine war has made EVs suddenly more appealing to many car buyers, accelerating adoption globally. The higher oil prices are driving EVs closer to cost parity with internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. In Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s most recent Electric Vehicles Outlook 2022 report, it projected EV sales to hit 20.6 million units by 2025.
On Tesla’s most recent earnings call, Elon Musk admitted, “We do not have a demand problem but a production problem.” Other car manufacturers such as Ford, for instance, says it can build its F150 Lightning and the Mustang Mach E fast enough to keep up with demand
Cummins $24 million stake in the startup VoltStorage gives them a foot in the door with new iron redox flow technology. There is nothing wrong with lithium-ion energy storage but global demand for energy storage has nowhere to go but up, and so are lithium prices. While lithium is relatively abundant in the ground, but current supply is falling behind demand. At the same time, lithium extraction is messy and has significant environmental impact, causing local opposition to new mines and other facilities which could stall development. Aside from accessing a recyclable supply chain that can avoid conflict issues, flow battery fans note a long list of advantages over lithium-ion technology including lower cost, longer duration, and ease of scalability
PSR Analysis: Cummins has been making investments into EVs (such as the purchase of Brammo in 2017 and Meritor in 2022) for some time and this low cost, long duration, grid scale energy storage battery is part of their plan. This diversifies their portfolio of alternative power systems and helps them in the gid scale storage market. One of the major advantages for flow batteries is that they aren’t lithium-based and are therefore not subject to the same massive and sustained price increases that lithium material is seeing. PSR
Guy Youngs is Forecast & Adoption LeadAnalyst at Power Systems Research
Vinfast has announced plans to export approximately 5,000 EVs to the U.S., Canada, and Europe by the end of 2022. This is the first time for them to export EVs. The company also plans to start construction of a new EV plant in the U.S. by the end of this year, accelerating its global strategy.
According to the plan, exports to the U.S. and other countries will begin in early November, with delivery to customers starting in December. Vinfast’s CEO revealed that the company has orders for approximately 65,000 EVs worldwide.
On Sept. 13, 2022, Honda announced it will eliminate gasoline-powered motorcycles by the mid-2040s. All new vehicles will be EV motorcycles; 3.5 million, or 15% of global sales, are to be EV motorcycles by 2030. Honda has already declared that all its four-wheeled vehicles will be EVs by 2040, but this is the first time the company has laid out a concrete strategy for decarbonization on two wheels.
From now on, Honda will pursue electrification exclusively with EVs. First, it will launch at least 10 EV motorcycle models by 2025. Since investment in new vehicle development and production facilities will be a heavy burden, Honda will use a common platform for batteries, motors, and other components for three large motorcycle models to be launched in Japan, the United States, and Europe between 2024 and 2025.
Formerly using chassis built by other companies, mainly BYD, Marcopolo has announced plans to build its own EV chassis. It plans to produce and offer a complete set of bus chassis and bus body. It plans to deliver of 30 units in different setups for Brazilian cities in 2023.
PSR Analysis: Marcopolo is betting that its own chassis is more competitive for the market from an engineering and product standpoint. While preparing to compete with its chassis suppliers and partners in the EV segment, it still depends on them for the main volume of transit and intercity buses that is ICE powered. PSR
Fabio Ferraresi is Director Business Development-South Americafor Power Systems Research
