With changing market conditions and the UK government’s decision to eliminate petrol and diesel cars by 2040, the electric vehicle market is exploding in 2018. Just 5 years ago, in 2013, a total of 3,500 electric vehicles were registered in the UK. This number has soared to 4,000 new registrations each month by 2017.

Many manufacturers are now moving to the electric vehicle revolution and trying to come up with all-electric or hybrid versions of cars with feministic looks. Nissan Leaf has turned out to be the clear winner in this war for EV supremacy. Nissan Leaf has sold more than 283,000 cars since its launch in 2010, second only to the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. However, the car is available in all new variant this year that provides 50% better battery performance than its predecessor.

With an improved battery, the car will now last 50% longer. This could make the Leaf, Europe’s number 1 electric car this year. It is also coming with a one pedal driving system that could comes with a single e-Pedal which can be maneuvered to start, accelerate or even brake the vehicle. This could make the cars even more fuel efficient.

We talked to VW dealership, Vindis to explore the developments in the EV industry in 2018.

Better batteries

As Nissan Lead has demonstrated, customers now expect more from their EVs. They wanted faster charging batteries. Currently, it takes 8 hours on an average to charge a car fully. Even the rapid car charging mechanisms available today charge a car 80% in 30 minutes. However, Express reports that a new system could help in charging the battery more easily and quickly. The research report published in the newspaper suggests that fluid electrolytes can re-energize batteries quickly, instead of charging on a port.

Charging points will change too

The UK currently hosts 4,300 charging locations with 6,700 charging devices and 12,500 connectors for EV owners. However, as the popularity of these vehicles is increasing, it is highly unlikely that the current number of ports will be enough to handle the demand. These charging locations will also have to accommodate rapid-charging points to reduce charging times and handle higher demand. UK fuel stations could add 3,000 rapid charging points soon, thanks to a new multimillion pound deal between InstaVolt and ChargePoint.

Top manufacturers are also looking forward to create large networks of charging points across Europe. BMW Group started the IONITY network which is supported by VW Group with Porsche and Audi, Daimler and Ford. The partners aim to have 400 points across several European locations by the end of 2020. They already have 20 operational ports and 100 will be added in 2018.

Long distance travel with EVs will now become a reality as number of charging points increases. If manufacturers could keep adding vehicles that charge faster, build more innovative batteries and come up with more charging points, people will start buying more of electric vehicles. Cost efficiency will also be an important factor in their adoption. However, for now, we can see rising demand in the industry.

 

Sources

http://www.nextgreencar.com/news/8211/ionity-ultrarapid-charging-network-launches-in-europe/

http://www.nextgreencar.com/electric-cars/statistics/

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/813735/Electric-car-charging-battery-new-technology