What is e-mobility? (Much) more than electric passenger cars
From electric trucks, e-bikes, and e-scooters to drones: e-mobility encompasses much more than just electric cars. Looking at the bigger picture, it’s clear that e-mobility isn't just a thing of the future, but a transition already well underway across a broad range of land, air, and sea vehicles. The industry should therefore prepare for a growing number of e-mobility batteries that are ready to begin a second (and third, and fourth) life after their initial use.
What exactly is e-mobility?
You can hardly open any magazine or news site these days without coming across the topic of electromobility or e-mobility.
If you immediately think of fully electric cars, you are not the only one to make this mistake. E-mobility is a term that covers a surprisingly wide range of meanings. Not tomorrow, but right now.
E-mobility is the collective term for vehicles, boats and aircraft that are partially or fully powered by electricity. They get their energy from the electricity grid and store it 'on board', in most cases in a lithium-ion battery.
Categories within e-mobility
Let us first look at the different categories of electrically powered vehicles. We will also explain a few abbreviations that are often used when talking about this subject. Some umbrella terms are EV - Electric Vehicles and EFV - Electrified Vehicles. These both have several subcategories:
- Passenger cars
- Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV)
- Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEV) - electric vehicles with a plug
- Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) - hybrids with a plug
- Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) - hybrids without a plug
In addition, there are:
- Passenger Light-Duty Vehicles (PLDV) - cars for passenger transport and Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV); mopeds and golf carts
- Electric and hybrid trucks
- Electric and hybrid buses
- Construction equipment vehicles (diggers, dump trucks, loader cranes, etc.) and goods handling vehicles (such as forklifts, internal transport, street sweepers, etc.)
- iWheels: electric mopeds and motorcycles (two or three wheels), e-scooters, Segways, hoverboards, mobility scooters, one-wheelers, etc.
- Electric bikes (from city bikes, recumbent bikes, pedelecs to cargo bikes or carrier cycles)
- Drones, models, microlights and other small aircraft
- E-yachts or pleasure craft, including inland shipping vessels and boats for freight transport
The main reason for the growing popularity of e-mobility is that electric vehicles meet the low-emission standards that are becoming increasingly important in the protection of our climate. But they also have several other advantages: they are quiet, energy-efficient, and they provide many opportunities in the bustling city life. For example, consider electric scooters that are popping up all over our cities and efficiently transporting city residents from A to B.
Lithium-ion batteries: the light, powerful driver of e-mobility
The connecting thread through all these categories is that (almost) all of them are powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. These are powerful batteries with a high energy density.
Almost all of them, because modern drones, model planes and other radio-controlled electronics nowadays mostly run on a LiPo battery under the hood. LiPo stands for lithium-ion polymer, powerful batteries that are much lighter than NiCd (nickel-cadmium) and NiMh (nickel metal hydride) batteries. Not unimportant when it comes to aircraft.
The LiPo battery is a special kind of battery, one ‘with a manual’. Remember that LiPo batteries are known mainly for their large capacity per weight and the fact that they can be charged up quickly, generally in 1.5 hours. However, this means that they have to be handled with the requisite care. So please do handle with care.
Rapid e-volution for electric driving
Electric driving is rapidly gaining popularity. We see its market share increasing across various categories, such as passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, and even trucks. We are also cycling more electrically, and in urban environments, we are increasingly seeing e-scooters, iWheels, and e-motorcycles.
In industry, an increasing number of electrically powered vehicles are being used in factories and storage locations, on mining sites, construction sites, and so on. Governments and bus companies are increasingly focusing on 'zero emission' and experimenting with hybrid and electric buses. And so forth.
Why do companies invest in e-mobility?
he rapid shift to e-mobility is not happening by itself. Companies have good reasons to invest in the transition. We list the most important ones here:
- E-mobility reduces CO2 emissions. Today, many companies are striving to achieve carbon-neutral status. The switch from fuel-powered vehicles to e-vehicles is a big step in the right direction.
- Electric vehicles reduce transport costs for companies (especially for vans or trucks travelling more than 150 km per day). Electric vehicles may be more expensive to buy, but they are much cheaper to run than conventional fuel vehicles.
- Electric vehicles are often lighter, smaller and more flexible. All these new means of transport are fuelling creative solutions that were not possible before (urban sharing concepts, shuttle services, more efficient movement within large warehouses, more efficient delivery services...).
- It improves workers' health. Companies are increasingly investing in e-bikes for their staff, providing them with more healthy exercise than if they came to work by car.
Stream of batteries incoming
The entire automotive sector - importers, manufacturers, demolition firms, etc. - would be well advised to prepare for ever greater numbers of EV batteries that will reach their end-of-life. In other words: once they have fallen to 70-80% of their initial capacity, or if they are damaged or defective. At that point, lithium-ion batteries:
- are recycled (i.e. raw materials such as cobalt and lithium are recovered),
- refitted for reuse as traction batteries, or
- prepared for second-life applications such as for energy storage.
Collection, transport, storage, dismantling, diagnosis, transfer for recycling, reuse or second life: this is the trajectory in which Bebat specialises. After all, it is known as the “aftercare” trajectory for a reason. EV batteries have to be handled with great care and all sorts of safety measures before they can begin their second (third, fourth, ...) life.
