Another game changer are innovative smart grid solutions. The combination of energy grid and driver data allow for smarter charging management for each individual vehicle and on a larger scale even allows for collective charging strategies to avoid both shortages and high prices. There are three main types of smart charging:
- Off-peak charging: Uses simple signals, such as a time-of-use tariff to incentivise users to charge during off-peak hours or when there is a surplus of generation from renewables.
- Unidirectional managed charging: Charging time, rate and uration are controlled and optimised by adapting to price signals and power system needs. It requires signals on grid and renewable supply availability to be sent by a power system operator or an aggregator.
- Bidirectional managed or vehicle-to-grid (V2G): Charging for EVs that are technically able to input electricity into the grid. In this practice, EVs serve as distributed energy storage, dynamically charging at times when system availability is the highest and providing additional power supply when called upon
Source: IEA Global EV Outlook 2022 (page 204)
Emerging markets are lagging behind
Unfortunately solid-state batteries aren’t expected to represent significant market shares before 2030 and to date only the UK, Italy and Germany fulfill all the requirements to actually implement smart charging solutions. The majority of emerging countries are far from benefiting from these types of advanced solutions. “A lack of fiscal incentives for EVs, charging infrastructure availability, and higher purchase price hurdles contribute to lower EV sales shares in many countries. Across other regions (remark author: excluding major industry nations), in the Stated Policies Scenario, the EV sales shares averages about 6% for both LDVs and buses, and 1% for trucks in 2030.” (Source: IEA Global EV Outlook 2022, page 106)
Conclusion: Usefull bridge technologies hydrogen and efuels
The future of mobility is electric, but it could become a risky game to put everything on the line with just one solution. Critical ressource shortages, limited energy storage capacities and regionally varying levels of market readiness raise concerns when it comes to reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 with eMobility only.
This is where complementing technologies and solutions come into play. Whether we like it or not, problematic energy carriers like methan, LNG, coal and nuclear power are still part of the energy mix in most regions. Leaving these ressources behind quickly in exchange for cleaner solutions will most likely demand for a wide range of different energy carriers for different markets and applications. Due to its high energy density hydrogen will be a powerful medium for long distance transport and storage of renewable energy. However, it won’t be possible to use hydrogen in today’s combustion engines.
Synthetic fuels, which are produced using renewable energy sources in fact can be used in existing combustion engines. According to a report by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), synthetic fuels can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90% compared to fossil fuels.
However, efuels production is currently expensive and energy-intensive, and their widespread use would require significant investments in infrastructure. Worries are that the high investments into bridge technologies like efuels could slow down the expansion of e-vehicles and the respective charging infrastruture. On the flip side, rejecting the possiblity to explore and nurture alternatives for carbon free mobility could come at an even higher cost: critical economic and as a consequence geopolitical dependencies, potential conflicts for ressources and the continuous use of fossile fuels in emerging countries.