EV Chapter 2: EVs and the types you’ll come across on the roads

You may come across a large number of electric vehicles on roads from e-2 wheelers, e-3 wheelers, e-rickshaws, e-cars and e-buses. However, these e-vehicles or EVs are further classified into the following types:

• Pure Battery EVs

• Hybrid EVs

• Plug – in Hybrid EVs

Pure Battery EVs (BEVs) are the ones which are fully electric. Instead of a combustion engine, they have an electric motor in place and use electricity from the power stored in batteries. They are considered better for the environment as there is zero-emission in these vehicles. The battery in the BEVs is charged through an external source of power such as DC fast charger or AC chargers. On average, these types of vehicles will take around 7-8 hours to get fully charged using an AC charger. Whereas, this time can be reduced to an hour if a DC fast charger is used for charging.

Hybrid EVs (HEVs), as the name suggests, combines conventional internal combustion engine systems with electric propulsion systems and are powered by both, electricity as well as petrol/diesel. The electricity in HEVs is generated by its own braking system. The heat produced by the brakes is converted into electrical energy, this is called regenerative braking. The motor in HEVs is used to start the vehicle, then, the internal combustion engine manages the propulsion.

Plug - in Hybrid EVs (PHEVs) also use both petrol/diesel and electricity and have two power systems, an internal combustion engine and a battery. PHEVs use batteries to power the motor and fuel such as gasoline or diesel to power the internal combustion engine.

Further, we can classify EVs beyond the above technology-based classifications by classifying EVs on the basis of their charging time, driving range, and the maximum load it can carry.