What is an EV?

An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that can be plugged in to charge its onboard batteries or use an onboard hydrogen fuel cell to create electricity.

‘EV’ refers collectively to:

• battery electric vehicles (BEVs)
• hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs).
• plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs)

Traditional hybrids are not considered EVs because they can’t drive very far on battery alone and cannot be plugged in to charge. They’re sometimes referred to as ‘electrified vehicles’.

Zero emission vehicles refer to those that release no exhaust emissions. These only include BEVs and FCEVs as neither release exhaust emissions.

In the case of an FCEV, its only ‘exhaust’ is water vapour.

Zero emission vehicles produce no emissions while being driven. However, emissions may occur during their manufacture and in the production of their fuel (electricity or hydrogen).

How EVs work

Electric vehicles are similar to traditional petrol or diesel vehicles except they have electric motors, don’t require liquid fuels and don’t produce exhaust emissions.

Instead, EVs have a rechargeable battery connected to an electric motor that drives the wheels—similar to how the battery in your electric drill drives the drill bit.

EVs also recoup energy and store it in the battery whenever you slow down or go downhill. This is called regenerative braking.

EVs have fewer moving parts, which means there are less things that can go wrong. For example, an EV may have as little as 17 moving parts compared to a few hundred in an internal combustion vehicle.

Electric motors don’t require regular maintenance, so the main thing that wears out is the tyres.

As with petrol-powered cars, travel distance between charges depends on the size of the car, the capacity of the battery and driving patterns.

EV ranges get longer every year and many EVs can now travel more than 500km per charge.

Charging infrastructure is also expanding and soon there will be public chargers every 150km on Queensland’s major highways.