AQTR.2018.8402776(1)

Electric Cars – Challenges and Trends
Szilárd Enyedi
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Automation Department
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Szilard.Enyedi@aut.utcluj.ro
Abstract—Electric mobility and particularly electric cars are
seeing a comeback. Several mass manufactured models have even
already seen updates. Established and newcomer car
manufacturers are scrambling to bring new models to market and
considerable research resources are invested to solve the
problems. This paper looks at the current challenges and probable
future trends regarding the cars, their batteries and the charging
infrastructure. Global, European and regional conditions for
electric car adoption are also discussed.
Keywords—electric car; charging station; EVSE; electric car
battery; IEC 62196; CCS
I. INTRODUCTION
With the thinning supplies of oil, the world is turning to
electric mobility. The vast majority of today’s cars is still using
an internal combustion engine, although hybrid cars are a normal
sight nowadays and purely electric ones are also gaining
recognition, with the global share of plug-in cars reaching 2% in
December 2017 [1]. They are actually simpler to manufacture
and to maintain, but the range is lower than that of cars with ICE
(Internal Combustion Engine), since battery technology has yet
to offer the same energy density as gasoline. The charging time
and charger availability are also hindering electric car adoption,
although it is accelerating and forecasts put it at 54% by 2040
[2].
Another plus of an electric car is its simplicity. Today’s
internal combustion cars and their engines are marvels of
technology, with hundreds of parts moving in a wellchoreographed
play. An electric drivetrain is much simpler,
having only tens of moving parts. This translates to better
reliability, at least regarding the drivetrain. The electric motor
also doesn’t need oil and has a faster response.
II. CARS
A. Electric car types
Although electric cars obviously convert electricity into
motion, there are several ways to create, store and deliver that
electricity to the motor.
A battery electric vehicle (BEV) is purely electric and gets
its power only from its battery. When the battery discharges, the
car has to be plugged in and recharged. The biggest drawback of
BEVs is with today’s batteries – they are heavy and hold too
little charge, which translates to low range. Since many consider
the battery electric vehicle the only true electric vehicle, they
often call it simply EV or AEV (all-electric vehicle). This is
probably the type of EV that will be prevalent in the future. In
the author’s opinion, improvements in battery technology and
lower battery prices will make battery electric vehicles the
default type of car in the future. Perhaps we will even find a
better way to store electricity onboard a car, than chemical
batteries – capacitors or some other solution.
A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) has an electric motor that
turns the wheels, but it also has some other energy source
onboard, usually an internal combustion engine. This engine
either generates electricity for the battery and the electric motor,
which then turns the wheels (series hybrid) or this engine turns
the wheels along with the electric motor (parallel hybrid). While
this gives better range for an electric car, the extra complexity of
the additional engine makes the drive system more expensive
and less reliable than a pure electric one.
A plug-in electric vehicle (PEV), regardless if it is a hybrid
or purely electric car, can be plugged in to charge its battery from
outside the car (from the national grid or a local energy source).
There are also variations of these. One is PHEV (plug-in
hybrids), that can be charged with a plug, but also have an
internal combustion engine, so they have the best of both worlds.
One example is Toyota’s Prius Plug-in Hybrid. Unfortunately,
the plug-in version of the Prius is about 9,000 € (11,000 $) more
expensive than the non-plug-in hybrid, as of February 2018, at
Toyota Germany.
FCV or FCEV (fuel cell electric vehicles), which get their
electricity from fuel cells within the car, instead of batteries,
essentially being series hybrids. Most of them use hydrogen (and
are also called HFCVs, like the Toyota Mirai), but some
carmakers are experimenting with ethanol instead (e.g. Nissan
[4]). The hydrogen fuel cells create water as byproduct, so they
are much cleaner than traditional internal combustion engines.
For now, their main drawback is the supply of hydrogen, since
they usually create electricity by combining oxygen and
compressed hydrogen stored onboard the car. Therefore, a fuel
cell vehicle needs its hydrogen tank replenished from a pump,
similarly to an internal combustion engine. The largest hydrogen
fueling networks are in Japan (91 stations in May 2017 [5]),
USA (39 in January 2018, most of them in California [6]) and
Germany (30 in June 2017 [7]).
The energy density of hydrogen is much higher [8] than that
of gasoline or batteries today [9], as shown in figure 1.
The author believes that when fossil fuels run out and there
will not be a readily available, high capacity solution to store
electricity onboard the vehicle, those who need very long range
or high power from their vehicles without recharging often, will
turn to fuel cells, much like today’s hybrids bridge the gap
between low range EVs and high range internal combustion cars.
978-1-5386-2205-6/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

Lead-acid battery
Nickel-metal hydride battery
Li-ion battery
Natural gas
Hydrogen
Energy density (kWh/kg)
Gasoline
0.04
0.08
0.15
Fig. 1. Typical energy density of various car “fuels”
12
B. Current models
There are several electric car models manufactured today.
The established car companies, as well as previously unknown
startups, promise upgrades and new models in the following
years. Here are some of the most successful cars whose
propulsion is fully or mainly electric.
Tesla Model S and Model X are the best known purely
electric cars today, as mentioned above. They offer the best
range of any mass produced electric automobile. The Model S
100D has a range of 594 km at 100 km/h and 20° C external
temperature. Current Model S cars have an all-wheel drivetrain,
with one motor per axle, with the ability to control energy
transfer and to balance torque by the millisecond. In the quick
P100D version, Tesla uses a high performance motor on the rear
axle and a high efficiency one on the front axle, making it
possible for the car to accelerate from zero to 100 km/h in 2.7 s.
Nissan have been developing their electric car technology for
a long time and have invested heavily in their future. They made
EVs a core part of their business, which is a bold move for a
traditional car manufacturer. The 2017 update of the Leaf brings
also a 284 km range and a mature design. Essentially, the Leaf
was already the people’s electric car [3], a distinction that Tesla
is hoping to take over with the Model 3, but Nissan seems to be
ahead.
Like Nissan, Renault also designed from scratch their Zoe to
be an electric car and started deliveries in 2012. It is currently
the best-selling electric car in Europe [10], probably due to its
affordable price and traditional handling with a dynamic, but
understated exterior design. In 2016, they introduced a higher
capacity, 41 kWh battery, which gives the car a 300 km real
world range [11].
The BMW i3 is another electric car that is popular in Europe,
but also in the USA. The company started deliveries in 2013. As
the other successful EVs mentioned above, BMW built the car
to be an electric one, from the ground up – including a new,
renewably powered factory for this model. The car uses carbon
fiber reinforced plastic and recycled materials extensively and
also has one-pedal driving.
A particularity of the i3: it can also be bought with a “Range
Extender” (REx), a small gasoline engine and generator,
15
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
34
powerful enough to maintain the battery’s charge, alleviating the
driver’s range anxiety.
The Chevrolet Bolt, commercialized as Opel Ampera-e in
Europe, is another EV long awaited by the public. General
Motors started delivering the car in 2016. The Bolt’s main allure
is the combination of reasonable price and high range, which is
over 400 km [12].
Also Hyundai have a successful electric car, the Ioniq. It
comes in three variants: battery electric, hybrid and plug-in
hybrid. It has an excellent drag coefficient, 0.24, similar to
Tesla’s Model S. This, together with the drivetrain, battery and
controller, give it a range of 200 km. This is quite low, compared
to its peers, but of course, Hyundai is preparing upgrades, with
a better battery.
Volkswagen, after the Dieselgate scandal, have set their eyes
on electric cars. Their most successful electric car to date, the e-
Golf, is praised precisely for its traditional look and feel.
C. Compliance cars
Governments in several countries or states mandate car
manufacturers to have a given percentage of electric cars built
additionally to their internal combustion ones. This lead to the
situation that several car companies officially developed their
electric cars and sell them, but the cars are neither the best they
could be, nor are they marketed or sold with an effort to actually
benefit the buyers. These are nicknamed “compliance cars”,
because the companies made them only to comply with
regulations and be allowed to continue selling their traditional
ICE cars.
D. Chinese EVs
“6 of 10 big electric car companies are in China” [13]. With
the pollution in major cities, the Chinese government stepped up
and offers support, as well as generous subsidies, to the domestic
car manufacturers and buyers who choose electric cars. The
Chinese are ahead of Europe and the USA, working to become
the best in the field of electric cars and, arguably, they are.
For example, BYD is currently the “largest maker of electric
vehicles” [14]. BYD, SAIC, FAW, Geely, BAIC and Dongfeng
are active not only in China, but have partnerships with
established EU and US car makers, as well (SAIC with
Volkswagen and GM, FAW with Audi and Toyota, Geely with
Volvo, BAIC with Daimler, Dongfeng with Renault/Nissan).
E. Promises
Most car manufacturers have announced deadlines or at least
promised that they will slowly “electrify” their model ranges.
Volvo is slated to have electric motors (pure electric or
hybrid) in their cars, starting from 2019 [15].
Volkswagen pledged that they will offer an electric version
of every model in their large portfolio, by 2025 [16]. Mercedes-
Benz made the same promise, but with a 2022 deadline [17].
Ford promised 40 hybrid/electric models in their range, by
2022 [21].
Jaguar/Land Rover also plan to switch to hybrid/electric in
their cars, by 2020 [18].

F. Pedestrian warning sound
The quietness of electric cars increases the danger of
pedestrians not hearing them, so the European Union mandates
that all new vehicles must be fitted with an Acoustic Vehicle
Alerting System (AVAS), from July 2021. This generates a
speed-dependent sound in the 0-20 km/h speed range [19].
Similarly, the U.S. Department of Transportation requires all
“quiet” vehicles to emit warning sounds from standstill to 30
km/h, starting from September 2020 [20].
G. One-pedal driving
As mentioned before, some electric cars have this feature.
The accelerator pedal acts as accelerator, but only on the lower
part of its motion range. Above that, there is a neutral region,
and when the driver lets the pedal move above that area, the
control unit activates regenerative braking and the car slows
down. This allows driving the car without using the brake pedal,
accelerating and braking with the same pedal. The braking pedal
is used only as last resort emergency braking situations.
H. Measuring the efficiency
In the USA, the Environmental Protection Agency measures
the efficiency of electric cars in “miles per gallon gasoline
equivalent” (MPGe), considering that 33.7 kWh electricity ≈ 1
gal gasoline [34].
Europe used the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC), but
this old method was replaced by the Worldwide Harmonised
Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) in 2015 [35], [36]. Other
countries are also planning on switching to WLTP.
I. Battery upgrades
As battery technology progresses, several manufacturers not
only upgraded the capacity of their newer models, but they offer
battery upgrades for the older models, too. This includes
exchanging old, decreased capacity batteries to fresh, full
capacity batteries of the same type, or to newer, higher capacity
batteries, in some cases.
For example, since the new battery pack for the BMW i3 has
the exact same dimensions as the old one, but is of 33 kWh
instead of 22 kWh, the firm offers it as a capacity/range upgrade
also for the older cars, in select markets, at a cost of 7000 EUR,
after turning in the old battery pack. Samsung SDI, the
manufacturer of the BMW i3’s battery cells, plans the next
capacity upgrade towards the end of 2018, with a 43 kWh
battery for the i3 [37].
Renault offers a similar battery upgrade to their customers,
from 22 kWh to 41 kWh, at a cost of 9900 EUR [38]. Batteries
J. Overheating
An important byproduct of engines, motors and batteries is
heat, especially in high performance vehicles. For example,
several Tesla Model S and Model X owners have experienced
lowered performance from their cars, after a long trip at
sustained high speed. The battery and controller overheated and
the software reduced the power available to the driver, in order
to protect the battery [22]. This will probably not affect
“regular”, i.e. medium performance electric cars, but it still
presents an interesting case study problem: people who go to
meetings in other cities are used to pushing their cars to the limit
on the highway, for 300-500-800 km. A big internal combustion
engine can sustain the high speed for that distance, maybe with
a 15 minutes stop for refueling. However, the battery in an
electric car battery will have its lifespan considerably shortened
by the heat, due to the continuous, high power flow. This can be
mitigated by better battery chemistries in the future, or
alternative means to store electricity onboard the car.
K. Battery swap
One solution to the long charging times is swapping the
empty battery to a full one. Tesla demonstrated this in June 2013,
their robotized station swapped the batteries for two of their cars
one after the other, while one of their colleagues was filling an
Audi with gas. However, in 2016, Tesla has shut down the pilot
program and concentrated on building their charging network
instead [45].
This solution is promising in theory, but the various cars and
their different batteries do not bode well for the swapping
system. Unless car manufacturers agree on a few physical
battery sizes, which is unlikely, or build them with swappable
modules, it is prohibitively expensive for a manufacturer to cater
to every car model that they themselves produce, not to mention
the cars from other manufacturers and the “swapping station”
logistics.
On the other hand, fast charging has and will continue to
improve, to the point of a charging session taking only a few
minutes. This will make swapping the battery unnecessary.
L. Demand and supply
A deciding factor in electric car prices is the price of
batteries. Nowadays, the cost of the battery is about 20-50% of
the car’s price. A reason for this is simply that batteries of such
high performance were not needed on a large scale, until now.
As production ramps up, prices will go down, as they already
have, until now.
EVs need big batteries and demand for them is bigger than
the supply. Several predictions, including the author of this
paper, state that this imbalance of EV battery demand and supply
will favor those car manufacturers which secured their supplies
of battery cells.
Tesla is building a “Gigafactory” in Nevada, to make
batteries for their cars and for others’, and is already planning
for a second one in Europe and a third one in China [23].
Ironically, the Gigafactory has difficulties with production, but
because they bought up a big part of the world’s lithium-ion
battery making equipment and raw materials, now there seems
to be an incoming shortage of cells for other electric car battery
manufacturers [24].
Several other companies have recognized the critical
advantage of controlling their battery supplies, so they are
building their own factories, as well. Daimler’s Accumotive
branch, for example, poured half a billion Euros into a battery
factory in Germany, in April 2017. In January 2018, Mercedes-
Benz announced their plans to make electric cars in six factories
on three continents, and they will complete their sixth battery
factory in 2018 [25].

LG Chem is planning to invest in a new battery factory in
Poland [26].
Samsung SDI, the company’s battery division, is also
working on electric car batteries, including their experimental
“graphene ball” technology [27].
However, it is China again, who is forcing its way to the top.
Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. (CATL) sells the most
batteries for electric cars in China and they plan on building a
new battery factory, close in size to Tesla’s Gigafactory. “China,
unabashedly, wants to be the Detroit of electric vehicles.” [28]
Lithium-ion battery prices have decreased, they are forecast
to drop even more by 2020 and by over 70% by 2030 [29].
M. Raw materials
The world has enough lithium reserves, but the mines have
to pick up the pace necessary for global electric car battery
production, although lithium can be substituted with other
minerals, as well. Australia, Chile, Argentina and China were
the top lithium producers in 2017 [31].
It is the cobalt that is rare, for these batteries [32]. Figure 2
shows cobalt reserve status in the world, as it was in 2016.
Additionally, some of the major battery manufacturers came
under fire for using cobalt from mines with child laborers [33].
Manufacturers are working on batteries that need less cobalt in
their composition.
Cuba
Australia
Congo
4200
5000
5100
10000
Fig. 2. Global cobalt reserves
Global cobalt reserves
34000
66000
0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000
Mined in 2016 (metric tons)
Reserves (x100 metric tons)
N. Second life
The seniors of the modern electric car revolution – Tesla,
Renault/Nissan – propose a new use for old batteries which do
not satisfy the needs of an electric car anymore. One use is in
home backup power. With the appropriate control software and
hardware, batteries can act as an intermediary between the
daytime solar, wind and other generators, the expensive daytime
energy from the grid, and the nighttime drop in power from solar
and cheap electricity from the grid.
Another use of old batteries is in fast chargers. Since the
capacity of electric car batteries is increasing, the time needed to
charge them also increases. With new batteries and new
charging circuits, that time can be reduced, but then the power
supplied to the car will have to increase. The new bottleneck will
be the grid, supplying the charging station, unable to transfer all
that energy in a short time. The solution is “buffer” batteries in
the charging stations, which charge all the time, when idle,
slowly. Then, when a car is connected to be charged, the battery
pack transfers its stored charge into the car’s battery, in a matter
of minutes.
In these “second life” applications, battery performance is
not as critical as in the car, on the road, but of course, the
viability of this solution depends on the battery’s “first life” [30].
III. CHARGING
Charging an electric car should be easy, and it is. Essentially,
electricity is ubiquitous these days. Even if you are on a twisty
road on the side of the mountain, or in a forest road, all you need
is a small cabin with electricity, or a farm with electricity, and
you can “refuel”. This would be “destination charging”, where
you have plenty of time to charge, probably overnight. There are
many times more ordinary power sockets in the world, than fuel
pumps.
However, when one charge is not enough to reach the
destination, the car will need “en-route” charging. Here, the car
should be charged as quickly as possible. The travelers will
accept a coffee break’s time, or even a lunch, but not more, or
the electric car will be worse than an internal combustion one,
with respect to their comfort.
The high power transferred into the car during these fast
charging sessions is dangerous, much more than a used cord of
a washing machine. Additionally, the charging stations are
usually outside, exposed to the elements, which they have to
survive without endangering anyone.
A. AC charging
Although an electric car’s battery is direct current, the global
electrical grid carries alternating current. This is the reason why
most charging stations give AC current. On the other hand, this
means that each car needs to have fancy rectifying circuitry
inside, so that it can charge the battery.
Today, most cars charge from AC, but the goal is to shift this
towards DC charging, which is also ready and standardized. This
will remove most of the charging circuitry from the many cars,
into the charging stations, which are fewer.
There were several electric vehicle charging standards,
regarding the plugs and sockets, voltages and currents,
signaling. However, today, thankfully there are only a few, so
that most cars can use most charging stations.
B. IEC 62196
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)’s
standard no. 62196 deals with many aspects of charging electric
vehicles, including the plugs and sockets and signaling.
Charging modes range from Mode 1 (AC, passive, 16 A
max.) to Mode 4 (max. 600 V/400 A DC).
The most common plug/socket types are Type 1 (also called
Yazaki) in USA, Type 2 (Mennekes, since 2013, figure 3) in
Europe, Type 4 (CHAdeMO, figure 5) in Japan, but also in
Europe and in the USA, and of course there are Tesla’s
proprietary charging connectors.

Fig. 3. Type 2 socket
Fig. 4. European
CCS plug
Fig. 5. CHAdeMO
plug
Typically, Type 2 charging sockets offer 22 kW (32 A) three
phase power, which is widespread in Europe. The connector
carries the three phase lines, ground, neutral and two signaling
lines: Proximity Pilot (PP) for pre-insertion signaling and the
Control Pilot (CP) for post-insertion signaling.
The car and the charging station – EVSE (Electric Vehicle
Supply Equipment) – communicate by setting resistances on the
signaling pins, while the EVSE tells the car about the available
current by setting an analog PWM (Pulse Width Modulation)
signal’s fill factor to a predefined value.
C. DC charging
European and US car makers founded the Charging Interface
Initiative (CharIN) consortium and came up with the Combined
Charging System (CCS) in 2011. It has both a US and a
European version. The connector (figure 4) was designed so that
a single, combined socket on the car side can accept either a
Type 1/2 AC plug, or a CCS DC plug. The consortium has also
developed 350 kW charging rate.
CCS uses HomePlug GreenPhy to communicate, which has
been criticized as not being a good choice neither for the car, nor
for the charging station.
“CHArge de MOve” (figure 5) was developed by Japanese
electric car manufacturers, in 2009, as a DC fast charging
system. It communicates through CAN (Controller Area
Network), the de facto standard for communication between a
car’s components. Europe and the USA opted for CCS instead,
although there are many more CHAdeMO charging stations,
than CCS ones, for now.
D. Plug & Charge
One of the problems with charging stations is that they need
a contactless access card or specific phone app to identify the
client. Since most of these stations belong to one of the
electricity providers in that area, or to another organization, a
traveler needs to have all the cards and apps, if they want to use
a charging station or another. Locally, that is not a problem, but
for a cross-continent trip with an electric car, there were cases
when charging was free, it needed only activation with a free
card from the utility – which they send on request, by mail.
Impractical for a tourist.
The ISO 15118 standard tries to solve that problem, moving
the access card “into” the car. The car has a unique ID and is
able to talk to and authenticate itself with the utility that owns
the charging station. This enables the traveler to simply plug the
cable into their car and automatically pay from their bank
account, either directly or by the cost being added to their
electricity bill at home. Unfortunately, this system is still
experimental.
E. Charging creates peak demand
Today, there are many more ICE cars, than electric ones.
However, when everybody will have one and will plug it in for
charging, the power load on the grid will be immense. One
simulation shows that in the USA, the grid can sustain 25% EV
penetration charging at Level 1 during the night. However, the
load on a transformer for six households exceeded its nominal
capacity as soon as one Level 2 EV was connected to it.
According to the research, the transformer’s lifespan decreases
“by two orders of magnitude when a transformer hits 50% above
its nominal capacity” [39]. This will need smarter load balancing
and scheduling, than in the present. A 1972 author sees the
possible transition to electric cars not risky for the grid – if it is
done gradually [40].
F. Vehicle to grid
Utilities that produce electricity do not like to shut down
their generators. It costs money. They prefer to even pay
factories and people to use the electricity they make, during
holidays or during the night. It happened in the UK [41], in
Germany [42] and other places.
The “smart grid”, the home backup batteries, and the cars
can all be connected and interact to smooth out the highs and
lows of electricity consumption during the day and night. Most
personal use cars spend most of their life either at home, or at
the owner’s workplace. The V2G solution is to plug in these cars
whenever they are parked, so that they not only charge their
batteries, but can also supply electricity back to the grid – when
the utility company asks them to. Both CCS and CHAdeMO
support this.
There are several trials for V2G right now, like already the
second one in Denmark (Nissan and Enel) [43].
The main criticism against V2G is that it will considerably
deteriorate the car’s batteries, over time. However, one
researcher found that with the proper algorithms, the V2G
network can be managed in a way that is actually beneficial to
the batteries [44].
G. Charging stations
DC charging stations are expensive, in the domain of several
thousand Euros, up to several tens of thousands. Not only that,
but they also need a substantial power line to supply them. They
are usually installed by municipalities, in collaboration with
charging station manufacturers and utility companies.
Medium power AC chargers, so called “wallboxes”, are
more widespread and can be found mounted also in private
garages, house walls or community buildings. These usually cost
a few hundred Euros and typically offer from 3.7 kW (1 phase,
16 A, 230 V), 7.4, 11 to 22 kW (3 phases, 32 A, 230 V) charging,
depending on the power available at the location. Some of these
are even Internet-enabled, so that the charging process can be
monitored or configured remotely.
One charger that is popular with the do-it-yourself (DIY)
community is the OpenEVSE charger. One can order it

assembled or as a kit, with a lower price, and then assemble it
themselves.
Portable chargers are typically up to 22 kW in power and are,
essentially, wallbox chargers crammed into an even smaller box,
considered portable, and which is then mounted on the charging
cable (complying with strict safety requirements). There are
several models, starting from 300 €, up to over a thousand. These
portable chargers are built to be versatile and often include
adapters to get their power from various versions of IEC 60309
sockets (“blue CEE” or “red CEE”), prevalent at construction
sites, camping sites or motels in Europe. Most DIY portable
EVSE designs use a microcontroller to “talk” to the car and then
close a relay to supply the electricity. However, there are some
very simple – and dangerous – versions, so small that they can
be built into the connector itself, and they simply keep sending
the PWM signal to the car, “convincing” it that it was connected
to a proper EVSE and can start taking the current.
“Granny chargers” are also portable, but are low power and
slow, because they plug into the standard household wall socket,
which, at least in Europe, safely delivers a maximum of 16 A at
230 V over one phase, thus 3.7 kW. This is used only when there
is no other option available and the battery charge is low,
because it takes at least a few hours to add some usable charge
to the battery. They are typically used for overnight charging.
One simple, but brilliant idea comes from Ubitricity, who
convert public lamp posts into charging stations [49]. They
started in London, when the city hall upgraded many posts to
LED lights, which consume less power, so the post has extra
capacity. Ubitricity made a deal with the city hall, they install
the chargers into the lamp posts and give their users special
cables with control boxes on them. The users plug one end of the
cable into a socket on the post, the other end into their car. The
controller identifies the user’s car, starts charging and measuring
the electricity flow, so that the firm knows how much to put on
the user’s bill.
H. The Chameleon charger
Renault wanted to reuse the Zoe’s electronics. The drivetrain
needs power electronics – the inverter – that can deliver the
battery’s power to the motor when driving, but the car needs
electronics also to charge the battery. However, the car does not
charge from the plug, while driving. Hence, they tried to reuse
the inverter and drivetrain power electronics, as power rectifier
to charge the battery from the plug, and that is how the Zoe had
its very flexible “Chameleon” charger, that accepted up to 43
kW AC. Unfortunately, it had higher losses charging, than
dedicated charging circuits; also, while driving, it did not give
the performance that could be had with dedicated drive
electronics. Therefore, it seems that Renault gave up and the new
Zoe does not work with 43 kW anymore, only 22 kW. It seems
that Tesla also thought of this at the beginning, but then they let
it go, probably due to the dual-purpose circuit’s inefficiency.
I. Finding a charging station
A somewhat peculiar aspect of travel with an electric car is
not only the hassle to somehow activate the chargers along the
way, but the challenge of actually finding them. In the case of
gas stations, it is true that big cities have them even in the city
center, sometimes, but most gas pumps are outside the cities,
sprinkled along the highways and major roads. Charging
stations, however, have the advantage of being easier to set up,
so they tend to be inconspicuously hidden in the middle of well
populated areas, where the electricity is. They are signaled with
large panels, colorful paint on them, on the parking space in front
of them, but they can still be missed by the drivers.
Several sites and mobile applications exist, some free, some
paid, some free but with paid premium features, that help the
electric car driver find the charging stations, plan their routes,
reserve a station or read other drivers’ opinions about a specific
station. Some of the most popular are PlugShare, ChargePoint,
ChargeMap.
J. Inductive charging
If conductive charging, with cables, is the standard today, the
future may well be that of inductive charging. Pads on the
bottom of the car glide over similar pads embedded in the road,
but the car can be stationary, as well, while energy is transferred
from the road, to the car.
Several companies are working on it, notably Qualcomm,
with their “Halo”. They made a demonstration in June 2017,
with 20 kW power transfer at highway speeds [48].
A less demanding inductive solution is experimented in
some car parks. This charges the car while parked, without the
need for cumbersome cables and charging posts, not even the
robotized charging arms that plug in themselves – the likes of
which Tesla and other car companies presented.
IV. INCENTIVES
Governments all over the world are subsidizing not only the
buying of electric cars, but also the installation of charging
stations and the building of green energy sources like solar or
wind.
A. Global
Many countries have vowed to clean up their cities, their air,
their energy [50], [51]. The Netherlands and Norway declared
that they will end gas and Diesel car sales by 2025. India pledged
to do the same, by 2030. The Scots will end the sales of such
cars by 2032. Britain and France, by 2040. Germany has said the
same, but did not fix a date.
China, selling 30% of passenger vehicles around the world,
has also announced, in September 2017, that the government is
working on a schedule to end the sale of internal combustion
engine cars, but also to gradually reduce the subsidies for electric
cars [50]. A drawback in buying a car in Beijing, for example, is
that the permits are given out based on a lottery. On the other
hand, electric car buyers do not have this hurdle, and they also
benefit from generous subsidies from the state: 7,900 $ for
electric cars that have ranges of over 400 km [52].
Many other countries offer subsidies or various benefits (free
parking or priority lanes) for the buyers of electric cars.
Tesla has built, and is still expanding and upgrading, their
Supercharger network, which they offer for free to their
customers, for life. Their USA network is impressive, but so is
their European one, although it is mostly in Western Europe, so

are the Chinese, South Korean and Japanese networks, and the
Australian one.
CHAdeMO, in particular Nissan, is expanding their charger
network and upgrading it [53].
In the USA, Volkswagen and BMW state that the entire East
and West coast are covered with chargers.
B. Europe
In 2011, Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, Porsche and
Volkswagen formed the IONITY venture. Their stated goal is to
build a “High-Power-Charging” network of 400 fast charging
stations across Europe, from the UK to Hungary to Estonia, each
capable of delivering 350 kW, which they will install until 2020
[54].
In 2010’s Portugal, the disparate networks of charging
stations were brought together with the MOBI.E smart card and
its wide acceptance among the charging station operators. Then,
in 2011, the charging stations were left unmaintained. In 2015
however, the network got a new life, several fast chargers were
installed and the network is operational [55].
The Dutch Fastned was founded in 2011 and promised one
charging station every 50 km, all over the country [56]. Their
fast chargers will charge a car in 20-30 minutes (if the car
supports fast charging).
Ultra E is another fast charging European network for the
Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Austria. They, too, plan for
350 kW stations. The network is planned to be ready in 2018
[57].
Fortum Charge & Drive and Allego are planning to build the
Mega-E network of 322 fast chargers through 20 countries, until
2025 [58].
Many gas station chains declared that they will install
electric car charging stations at their gas stations, in the coming
years.
Some of the most generous European subsidies for buying
electric cars were/are: 16,500 € per car in Estonia (ended in
2014); 10,000 € in France (valid in 2017); Romania subsidizes
10,000 € (but no more than 50%) of a new electric car’s purchase
price (valid in 2018, possibly 2019).
C. Romania
In addition to the aforementioned subsidies, the city halls of
several Romanian major cities offer additional benefits to
electric and hybrid car owners: free parking, use of the public
transport lane, low taxes.
The first public fast charging station networks in Romania
were set up by the supermarket chain Kaufland, on the East-
West corridor, in their parking lots. The plumbing and electric
installation retailer Romstal also have several charging stations
at their locations, throughout the country. Hotels also started
installing wallboxes, typically with one socket, since electric
vehicle penetration is still very low in the country.
V. CONCLUSIONS
Electric cars have good and bad parts, like gasoline cars.
However, the good parts currently outweigh the bad ones, and
as electricity will become cleaner, batteries will have higher
capacities, lower prices, and charging networks will expand,
then electric cars will slowly gain traction, and then they will
become the default, instead of gasoline cars.
One visionary predicts that a tipping point [46] will be when
electric range will reach 200 mi (320 km) and people’s range
anxiety will subside. Around 2020, EVs will reach price parity
with ICE cars, mainly due to mass production of batteries and
the battery prices dropping.
Capacitors with very large capacity – supercapacitors – are a
hot research topic, especially built with new materials like
graphene. Although the energy storage capabilities of these
capacitors are currently very far from that of batteries, it might
change someday.
Although CCS is the official standard for fast DC charging,
both in Europe and in the USA, the existing base of CHAdeMO
chargers outnumbers the CCS chargers by far, and Nissan & co.
is expanding the CHAdeMO network, relentlessly. In any case,
it is estimated that fitting a CCS charging circuit and plug to an
existing CHAdeMO charger adds only 5% to the cost, so multistandard
chargers will be a reality, for several years [47].
We will probably see motors at each wheel, for better
handling than today. High speed, ubiquitous connectivity
between the servers and cars, between the cars – already here,
but 5G and the Internet of Things will make it even better –,
centimeter-grade GPS and advanced sensors, all feeding the
car’s artificial intelligence, will finally allow fifth level
autonomous driving.
Governments and car manufacturers alike, are promising
subsidies, charging networks, wonderful cars with endless
ranges and the Moon. Since the beginning of the last century,
electric cars have had their ups and downs. Maybe this time, our
thinning oil supplies will make the electric car stay for good,
even if this author foresees a busy and drawn-out transition
period.
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