Main Trends and Challenges in Road Transportation Electrification

Abstract Climate changes and pollution are putting high pressure on finding more sustainable and effective transportation means. After Kyoto Protocol in 1997, Paris Agreement at COP 21 in 2015, and posterior announcements of limitations to internal combustion engine vehicles’ (ICEV) sell and circulation by several key countries and cities are clear demonstrations of this increasing will. It is quite likely that a pure ICEV produced today will not be allowed to freely circulate everywhere during all the extension of its lifetime, especially if it is a diesel car. Therefore, every major car manufacturer is announcing new electrified models for the next years and some of them are stating that all their models will be electrified in less than 5 years. As a consequence of the impressive price decrease and performance improvement of the batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs), the typical battery capacity of a regular passenger car rose from 20-24 kWh to 30-40 kWh in just 3 years without significant car price increase. The total cost of ownership (TCO) of the EVs is approaching and will be lower than that of ICEV in less than 5 years. In some cases, the TCO is already lower than that of ICEV. Autonomous cars and the shift from individual car ownership to transportation sharing poses additional challenges. In this paper, the main trends and technical challenges related to the electrification of the road transportation are presented, as well as some defies for the transportation sector.