Negative And Positive Impacts Of Electric Vehicle

Effects of EV

No doubt that transportation will get new electric vehicles in the future, but there are some areas which will be affected. Electric vehicles impacts the environment, economy, and electrical systems to a agreat extent. Now adays EVs are popular as these fulfill the demands of their customers but at the same time there are some problems too. Below figure illustrate the impacts on the power grid, economy and environment.

Negative Impacts

EVs impacts the power distribution system directly.A Nissan Leaf (24KWh battery pack) consume electricity which is similar to be required for a single European household. Even the current demand of electricity has been raised by 7% (From 17% to 25%). The situation will become out of control when the charging will be started at the peak time, beacuse this will put more load on the power grid.Due to this process there will be shortage of energy, instability, reliability will be decreased and finally quality of power will be degraded. In order to avoid this, charging should be done when required and it should be after midnight when demand of electricity is low. In this way there will be proper balance of electricity between peak hours and after peak hours and load on the grid will be decreased.

Positive impacts

Talking about the positive side, a new concept coined with EV and that is V2G( Vehicle to Grid). In this process EV can provide power to grid, so vehicles act as loads during drawing energy. Even, EVs are the source of energy during peak time. EVs act as a dynamic loads because power flows in it are bidirectional and unidirectional. EVs have energy storages which are not used for long time, so at the time of power shortage, it will be helpful. Furthermore, study reveals that vehicles stay parked 95% of the time[17]. So, EVs are act as virtual power plant(VPP).

Impact on environment

The major factor which incresed the EVs popularity is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Internal combustion engine vehicles burn fuels directly and lead to create some harmful gases which includes carbon dioxide and carbomn monoxide. No doubts that some EVs(HEVs and PHEVs) have IC engine but emission value is low. But there are some theories which states that eneergy consumed by EVs can give rise to GHG emissions from power plants. This is because of more load on grid due to EVs. But the plus point is this that sound pollution has been reduced.

Impact on economy

In respect to the EV owners, there is less operating cost of EVs and the reason is superior efficiency. EVs efficiencies are up to 70% whereas it is in the range of 60% to 70% for ICE vehicles[19]. It has been predicted that current high cost of EVs will come down from mass production and better energy policies. This will enhance the economic value of owners. V2G also providing financial benefits to those who provide power to grid.

Safety Concerns

Safety is first all the time and concerns about this is rising. The issue is that, if hydrogen escapes from tank than it will cause serious issue as it is highly flam-mable. Furthermore, there are chances of tank explode in case of collision. To counter with this kind of issue, automakers are ensuring the integrity of tanks. Tanks are wrapped with carbon fibres(In case of Toyota Mirai). In the scenario of EVs, the hydrogen tanks are placed outside the cabin, so that if leak happens, hydrogen disperse easily. Moreover, owners also make an arrangements of seal the tank outlet in order to avoid any accident during high speed collision.