Electric Cars
The Ultimate Guide, 2021
1 st edition published June 2019
This 2 nd edition first published in December 2020
Copyright Keith Chamberlain
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ISBN: 978-1-9161414-5-2
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all the people who have knowingly and unwittingly contributed throughout more than 20 years of my green transport career, by helping refine and enhance my knowledge and understanding of the electric car sector and its supporting infrastructure in general. These people, too numerous to mention, have helped shape the world of electric cars as we know them today and have ultimately assisted in my accumulated knowledge over the years, in producing this invaluable Electric Cars: The Ultimate Guide . Huge thanks must also be given, recognised and acknowledged, to my past clients and colleagues, many of whom are now lifelong friends and are still enthusiastically passing on their electric transport knowledge and benefits, to both the adopters and the unconverted.
I would also like to thank all the car manufacturers press and media departments for allowing me to use official photos and images in this book.
Finally, thanks go to the team at Greentech publishing who have provided the perfect balance of critical feedback and support, leading to this books second edition in what will be an ongoing update of ELECTRIC CARS: The Ultimate Guide .
To my friends, family, colleagues and fellow researchers, who for many years shared my vision of a global electric transport revolution.
The future is now.
Contents
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the second edition of Electric Cars - The ultimate guide 2021. My motivation for creating this guide for both potential and current EV users, was the sheer lack of unbiased information that is available on electric cars in this format. I trawled bookshops and the internet for months and could only locate highbrow academic papers focused on just a just a single facet of EVs, or at the opposite end of the scale, very poorly researched and produced manuals, that were so far out of date, that they were by now, consigned to history.
I have owned petrol, diesel and electric cars, and I can say with absolute conviction that the most satisfying to drive, the most economical, the most ecologically friendly and by far the best performing, have been electric cars. But I will let you be the judge after reading this guide. Ultimately, the first steps in this process is to gather as much information as possible, then draw up a shortlist, followed by a weekend test drive. Only then will you be able to make an informed decision.
I am an electrical engineer by profession and have worked on EV concept designing, prototyping, market testing, production and collaboration. Most recently I have been fortunate to be involved in pioneering EV charging infrastructure, including Europes largest 20 bay multi-point battery supported rapid charging centre, based at Heathrow Airport in London. Having worked in the electric vehicle industry for more than 20 years, I decided to investigate the most up to date information available on electric cars to bring to market an informative guide encompassing the history, technology and buying and running an electric car.
The result is this guide, focused only on pure Battery Electric Cars, powered purely by an integrated battery pack, without any additional assistance or back up, such as Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) hybrids or ICE range extenders. The latter two are in my opinion not the future and are therefore not discussed.
This sector and its technology are changing at such a rapid rate, that I will be producing a new edition of this book at least every two years. The rate of change in the last 10 years has been incredible. We have gone from the rather pedestrian and low rent lead-acid battery powered G-Wizz, with a range of 40 miles and top speed of 50mph, to the current raft of EVs, some of which break the 350-mile real-world range per charge and top out at more than 140mph. By the time you have read this book, I hope that you will appreciate what an electric car is, how it works, the pros and cons, how far we have come technically and how far we are powering into the future. If you decide to proceed and purchase an electric car, you will have a greater understanding of the potential pitfalls, features, advantages and benefits of owning a piece of 21st century, in-use emission free technology.
Will petrol and diesel powered vehicles be completely replaced by electric vehicles? Many governments, including the UK, have pledged to ban the sale of all new petrol and diesel vans and cars by 2040. The main factor behind this date is almost wholly down to reducing harmful emissions to further improve the environment, and through reading this guide, I hope to highlight the impact that EV ownership will have on the future health of our planet, as we witness the transition to a carbon free world.
1. THE HISTORY OF THE EV
The electric Vehicle is nothing new, they have been around for almost 200 years, long before the development of the internal combustion engine. EVs grew in popularity to a remarkable level at the beginning of the 20th Century, confronted extinction between 1910 and 1920, suffered almost complete oblivion following the arrival of the cheaper, mass market Model T Ford, then witnessed a renaissance around the 1970s, making a mainstream comeback in the 21st Century [1]. This is a snapshot into the often, neglected history of the EV.
The pioneering years
The first practical electric car came in the 1830s and was produced by the pioneering British inventor, Robert Anderson. His car ran on non-chargeable batteries and was smitten with many set-backs including maximum speed of 1.5mph and range of about two miles [2]. Then Holland, Britain and the United States produced some of the first EVs, but it wasnt until the latter half of the 1800s that British and French inventors created some of the first practical EVs, with greater range and speed.
