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2.2- HISTORY AND RELEVANCE
The first successful battery-powered carriage creation is dated from between 1832 and 1839 by the Scottish inventor Robert Anderson. After him, many efforts in experimenting and improving the electric automotive technologies were carried all along the XIX century by diverse engineers, emphasizing the special contribution of the French Gaston Plante and Camille Faure, who improved their contemporary batteries, that made possible the electric vehicle to be competitive in the posterior automotive market.
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General Motor's EV1, introduced in 1996 and leased until 2003. Graphic source: <www.altfuels.org>
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After losing its relevance against the gasoline, an important period of abandon took place between the 20s to the middle 60s, when the internal combustion engine tailpipe emissions, as well as the oil importing crisis, motivated governments to invest in the BEV, starting test programs in car rental companies and fleet operators. One of the 90's most relevant successes carried by a great company was the General Motor's EV1, a two passenger utility vehicle with an autonomy range of 130 km that was rent to some Californian companies and private users. Even thought the good acceptance of this vehicle, as well as others like Toyota's RAV4 EV and Honda EV+, car industries took those vehicles off the market once the lending contract expired, alluding financial non-viability.
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Renault's Twizy and Zoe battery electric vehicles (from left to right). Graphic source: <www.rpmgo.com> |
Nowadays, many small capital-intensive enterprises are commercializing and designing those cars. A popular example is Tesla Motors, which has released a $100,000 pure electric luxury sports car that overpasses in autonomy range any previous BEV (offering about 387 km per charge), along with Fisker Automotive's luxury PHEV Karma. Bigger companies, such as the Indian REVA Electric Car Company, offer more affordable BEVs (of around $6,000 and $20,000 in general). Besides, established carmakers like Toyota and Honda have opted to follow the progressive path selling HEVs (hybrid vehicles using gasoline and electricity) with the intention of combining the advantages of both electric and internal combustion cars.
In this day and age, the pure battery electric vehicle has not any commercial relevance in comparison to the ICV. Despite of that, the French trademark Renault has planned to be pioneer in this area mass-producing and commercializing four different BEVs in 2011, assembling one of them in the Spanish city of Valladolid.
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