It’s all about the battery…
Looking back at the history of the automobile, I think it’s fair to say most people don’t realize how close society came to embracing electric cars over its gas counterpart. A couple of very pivotal moments in history forever laid the groundwork for gas motors to become the mainstream mode of transportation dating back to the early 1900’s. Luckily for Henry Ford the landslide favor of his Model T over the electric car lead to the birth of a massive industry that would span across multiple continents etching the gas engine into the lives of every human on the planet.
Fast forward 120 years and we find ourselves on the brink of a major shift in the automotive industry with the introduction and standardization of electric cars around the world. As you may know, electric cars have existed in many formats for decades and while innovative they could never replace the gas engine for reasons often related to performance. As time passed, we watched automotive manufacturers develop and release hybrid models that incorporated both electric and gas propulsion, but still highly reliant on the gas motor for operation. This was arguably the beginning of the electric movement in transportation proving battery power technology had real application in the automotive world.
Shortly after the introduction of hybrid cars by many manufacturers a significant milestone was reached when Tesla entered the market. Now before I get ahead of myself I will point out Tesla was not the first company to deliver the all electric car, but they certainly established a technology that by all means is sustainable and quickly became a household name around the world.
Today Tesla is at the top of the game with electric cars and battery technology making them one of the world’s most valuable companies with an estimated worth of $1 trillion. It’s hard to believe a company that released their very first electric car, Tesla Roadster, in 2009 is now worth more than any other automotive company in the world. Given this innovation and huge success the automotive industry has responded and now it’s either get in the game or get run over and left behind.
The reason I chose to start Charged Outdoors is because I see a similar shift coming to the recreational vehicle market in the near future. Sure there are and have been a handful of electric motorcycles, UTVs along with other EVs, but they have yet to replace conventional designs. As the automotive industry continues to innovate all this technology will trickle down into these smaller markets and it can’t help, but to force the hand of manufacturers to respond. Just like in the automotive world, the recreational market can’t help but make the shift given the sustainable technology that makes this possible.
Since Tesla began releasing production cars in 2009 the shift to electric cars has made profound headway with dozens of new automotive companies we have never heard of putting their name in the hat. The reason I point this out leads into the reason for this post….the simplicity of developing an electric car relative to a gas car significantly lowers the barrier to entry. If we think about the tooling required to build a gas motor that requires hundreds of parts vs. an electric motor that has just a handful of parts it makes sense.
Consider a company like Ford that has a massive offering of cars and trucks and throughout their line up are multiple power plants necessary to address the performance standards required of the respective models. Now think about having to design and build multiple engine blocks and the hundreds of associated parts for each just so you can adequately power the cars and trucks in your product line. On top of that you have to create a level of reliability to sustain that product line. It’s almost incomprehensible when you think about what goes into the conventional gasoline powered vehicle. It becomes clear why only a handful of automotive companies exist around the world because it’s a massive commitment both financially and from a production standpoint to compete on a global level and deliver reliability.
This brings us to our new reality and that is the electric motor and the respective simplicities as it relates to production. Electric motors can be built with very few parts when compared to combustion engines and upsizing the output from these motors does not require an entirely new design. The hold back for incorporating these motors, at least in the automotive industry, was restricted largely by battery technology. Prior to lithium-ion the batteries were extremely heavy and bulky and honestly could not meet the power demands for a sustainable solution. You may be reading this article on a laptop or tablet and you can thank an ExxonMobil chemist dating back to the 1970’s for this very capability. The lithium-ion battery has revolutionized our mobile world and this design is leading us into a new reality of electric vehicles. Most of the technology has been formalized and will continue to advance as we develop ways to shrink the footprint of the battery while balancing available power. Engineers state we can anticipate a 2-3% gain in lithium-ion innovation year over year.
We have reached a significant milestone and we are seeing the results firsthand on the roads and highways everyday in the form of automobiles like Tesla. Once we start diving into the performance comparison of the combustion engine vs. an equivalent electric motor it becomes obvious who has the edge. The shear torque the electric motor can produce at will is almost incomprehensible. In combustion engines there is a power band, which is when the engine creates its most capable torque and generally that is not until you reach high RPMs. None of this happens until the motor has worked its way up to that RPM range, which is significantly inefficient if you think about it. Conversely an electric motor has max torque from the moment the energy is released. When you add up the capability of the electric motor and consider the few moving parts it become clear why it is said to have greater than 90% efficiency.
Circling back to my previous comments regarding how much simpler the manufacturing of electric motors vs. combustion engines has become the market can’t help but see dozens of new companies arise with offerings in the world of recreation. Yet another reason for launching Charged Outdoors as a way to highlight these new products and start a discussion with fellow enthusiast as to the merits of these products.
I look forward to watching this eventual shift in a decades old application as I really believe it will prove its recognition as the preferred technology in the end.