The great electric car race is just beginning

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Battery packs are assembled inside Audi's e-tron factory in Brussels CNN Business | James Alexander Michie

Battery packs are assembled inside Audi's e-tron factory in Brussels. - Credit: Stefan Warter/AUDI AG

It is already well known that electric cars are used to transport people or goods, which are powered by one or more electric motors, using electric energy normally stored in rechargeable batteries. It is important to mention that electric motors provide electric cars with instant torque, providing rapid acceleration from standstill and continuous. In addition, they can be up to three times more efficient than an internal combustion engine.

It is appropriate to mention that in December 2018 it was announced that there are at least 5.3 million electric vehicles in circulation in the world, counting pure electric and plug-in hybrids.

That being the case, one could say that the great electric car race is just beginning. In reference to this, several questions arise, as well as, can Tesla maintain its leadership in the global race towards the electric car?

Undoubtedly, established car manufacturers around the world are improving their business models in the hope of adapting to a new world in which electricity replaces gasoline and diesel. Factories are being checked to produce electric cars, and car manufacturers are running out of all the batteries they can find.

Whatever the cost is necessary

It should be noted that the high cost of developing electric cars is already forcing some companies to find partners and turn others into acquisition objectives. And the need to comply with strict emission standards in China and Europe means that executives are paying much more attention to the policies being implemented in Beijing or Brussels, than what rivals are building in Detroit or Wolfsburg, the Volkswagen’s hometown.

It has been said that the Volkswagen group has batteries stacked on the beams. And it is that thirty-six battery modules the size of a shoebox, each with a dozen lithium-ion cells, are packaged in seven-foot-long battery packs and hung under the floor of each vehicle Sports utility produced. The first electric SUV of Volkswagen’s luxury Audi brand, the e-tron, can travel 400 kilometers in a single battery cycle and recharge in just half an hour. The style is conventional, the interior is luxurious and the trip is almost silent.

For its part, the German group, which also has Porsche, Bugatti, Skoda, Lamborghini, and SEAT, is up to the challenge with a radical transformation that has no parallel since World War II. The company is spending € 30 billion ($ 34 billion) over the next five years to make an electric or hybrid version of each vehicle in its line and plans to launch 70 new electric models by 2028. By the end of 2030, it wants four out of every 10 cars it sells are electric.

Certainly, the initiatives are expensive. But the investment level of Volkswagen and its competitors, along with the aggressive emission targets set by the regulators, show that there is no turning back.

Continue reading: article in CNN Business

Source: Charles Riley | CNN Business

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