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Battery Electric Vehicles

Many people don’t know what a battery electric vehicle is: it is an electrical vehicle built so that it uses chemical energy from rechargeable battery packs. They are also called BEVs. Just like other electric vehicles, the battery electric vehicles, they use electric motors and motor controllers and not engines with internal combustion.

Sometimes people use the name BEV for all-electric vehicles in general. Not many people are aware of the fact that hybrids are battery electric vehicles as well. Still, vehicles that use both internal combustion engines and electric motors are not considered to be genuine EVs on account of the fact that they work in a charge sustaining way. Most regular hybrids cannot be externally charged. The ones that can be externally charged are called plug-in hybrids.

On the other hand, such hybrids and all electric vehicles can be charged from an off-vehicle electric energy source. This source can’t be connected to the vehicle while it’s being driven, because this source is autonomous.

The thing with battery electric vehicles is that they use charged batteries for propulsion. These batteries are on board. Even though in the beginning they posed numerous difficulties, now with the new Lithium Ion batteries, things are getting better and easier. These batteries have higher power and a lot of energy density, which means a greater possibility of accelerating.

You might be familiar with the light trucks and the neighborhood electric vehicles. Think of the milk float: it’s so obvious it should be a BEV. Since it has to make so many stops using an electric vehicle is much more economic than using a regular internal combustion vehicle. Most of the milk floats that were used in the 20th century were battery electric vehicles made in U.K. Now they make garbage trucks that are BEV. In Beijing for instance, they’ve replaced all old garbage trucks with battery electric vehicles.

 

Read Hybrid Vehicles: Training Programs and Educational Resources 
by Liz Lipton		 Read State Farm Web Cast on Hybrid Vehicles for Emergency Responders
by Liz Lipton