Our planet earth has been going through an environmental crisis for quite some time and the major aspect of this crisis is global warming.
According to reports, the current average rise in global temperature is already 1°C above pre-industrial levels, and in order to limit this to 1.5°C, fossil fuel emissions must be halved within the next 11 years.
Fossil fuels, also a non-renewable and finite resource, release greenhouse gases into our atmosphere when burned, causing the global temperature to rise.
Initiatives have long started looking for alternatives to this finite energy source that we may run out of if not used in control.
While its non-renewability demands limitation on its usage, other reasons to reduce dependency on these fuels include its contribution to our health problems, air and water pollution, etc. The world has already been running on fossil fuels for most of its operations and a humongous part of these fuels' consumption occurs in the transportation sector.
Therefore, as part of developing an innovative technology to tackle its consumption, electricity can work as a spectacular alternative resource for the transportation sector. Thus, the future of transportation is moving towards the Electric Vehicle or EV.
In the last 10 years, global interest in the EV industry has brought in large-scale investments. With Tesla essentially defining the market for EVs in the early stages, traditional giants like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi have recently stepped into the fray, bringing with them more than 100 years of institutional knowledge in automobile manufacturing. Growing at a continuous rate, by 2030 the EV industry is expected to reach 39.2 million units from its current 8.1 million units. With governments all around the world actively encouraging its growth, consumers themselves are now developing demand for transport systems of cleaner energy. Companies are preparing themselves to achieve carbon neutrality by tracking their CO2 emissions and using solutions to reduce or offset those emissions.
For example, Audi has announced that all its car plants will be carbon neutral by 2025, with their factory in Brussels, Belgium already earning carbon neutral status back in 2018. The firm's Gyor plant in Hungary consists of solar panels covering the size of about 22 football fields that produce ‘green electricity' for the factory.
Along with being beneficial for the environment as a whole, electric cars also present individual advantages for their owners.
EVs have proven to be more cost-effective to operate and maintain as they contain fewer parts than a traditional Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and require less energy to run. Built using cutting-edge technologies, EVs are smarter than ICE vehicles and also much more efficient in saving energy.
Some EV models, like the Audi e-tron, can recuperate energy from their regenerative braking, which is great for the stop-start nature of driving in Dhaka. Since the majority of energy consumption in EVs happens while running the wheels, it takes only 1% of its consumption power to stay idle.
This is ideal for a city like Dhaka with its heavy traffic jams as an EV will use up much less of the car's energy in those moments than the typical fossil fuel-powered vehicle.
Additionally, EVs provide an exceptional driving experience, offering instant acceleration and super-easy controls for braking and steering.
By providing a great user experience and also co-existing with nature responsibly, in every way, electrical vehicles are proving to be the next game-changer in transportation.
