Energy & Decarbonization

Trucks have to clean up their act if they are not to become illegal under the impending 2025 and 2030 legislation and those that jump the gun will probably gain market share because that clean up typically comes with fuel saving key to profitability in fleet operations working on wafer thin margins. Everyone agrees about that - but how to do it? Complete disagreement.

The conference "Electric Vehicles: Everything is Changing" in Berlin 27-28 April was a great success. Here we give only a glimpse at the rich insight and information presented. IDTechEx deliberately pitched the event as different from other electric vehicle conferences in looking firmly at the future including the speculative and ill-defined.

This article shares some of the research for the new IDTechEx Research report, Electric Vehicle Traction Motors, Belt Driven & Integrated Starter Generators 2016-2026. It is no longer contentious to say that the future of land, water and air vehicles is to be more and more electric.

Something is stirring in the field of fuel cell vehicles.

The electric bus market is growing at a CAGR of 20% in terms of unit sales. The rapid growth is a game changer for the battery market as electric buses require large-sized batteries ranging from 74 kWh (fast charging e-bus) to over 300 kWh (slow charging e-bus). This is why IDTechEx Research forecasts that the e-bus battery market will overtake the consumer electronics sector by 2020.

Installing photovoltaics in roads seems a daft idea at first. It sounds expensive and unlikely to work unless cleaned, free of snow and ice and in direct sunlight - all too infrequent in most places. Indeed, roads are constantly dug up by utilities, repairmen and others. How do you do that with sheets of glass?

Summary of the key information tracked during the Electric Vehicle conference held in Santa Clara USA.

Organo-lead halide perovskite materials, commonly used in high-efficiency perovskite solar cells, are materials that can easily decompose in moisture conditions. They cannot survive even for one day without proper encapsulation.

The most dramatic new advances and visions have no name initially. So it is with electric vehicles that need no external charging or refuelling - no, not even wireless charging.

Perovoskite photovoltaics promises over 20% efficiency, low cost materials and even flexible, transparent and stretchable versions dearly needed for new applications. Record power to weight ratio is needed for the electric vehicle end game, the land vehicles, boats and aircraft described in the IDTechEx report, Energy Independent Vehicles 2016-2026.