The Anatomy of an Electric Vehicle

This is an article in continuation to my post on the 9th of June. Are Indian EV's Truly Indian? Are they Truly Made in India? or are they just Assembled and Re-Branded in India as "XYZ EV Made in India"?

While Electric Vehicles and its close cousin Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles look the same appearance-wise, don’t go just by what you see only. Because under the hood they both cruise quite differently with a different arrangement of components altogether.

We are all familiar with how traditional vehicles function but have you ever wondered what goes inside an Electric Vehicle?

How does an EV work?

To put it simply, Electric Vehicles uses an electric motor powered by a controller. They are charged by the rechargeable batteries installed inside the vehicle. When the EV is started, energy is taken from the batteries by the controller to the electric motor. The Electric Motor then converts that electrical energy into mechanical energy which runs the vehicle.

Essentially, these are the primary components that compose an electric vehicle – The Motor, The Battery, The Controller, The Control Unit, The Charger.

The Motor:

When the battery produces electric energy, it is transferred to the Motor and it’s the motor that converts the electric energy into mechanical energy that moves the wheels. It is responsible for the reduced noise of an electric vehicle as compared to a regular ICE vehicle run via an engine. In addition to this, the motor also converts the mechanical energy back to electrical energy while the vehicle is slowing down or is in neutral gear. This helps adding to the energy economy of the vehicle.

The Battery:

As they say, the Battery is the heart of any electric vehicle. It is what fuel tank is for ICE vehicles. Higher the capacity of the battery, higher the range one gets from an electric vehicle. The battery consists of thousands of mini-cells that need to be in a similar condition to the others in order to optimize the battery’s durability and performance.

The battery is what stores the electric energy as DC charge and is charged to run the vehicle. The most conventional and efficient battery technology is Lithium Ion batteries that are lighter in weight and uses DC charging which enables faster charging. The other battery technologies are Lead Acid Batteries and Nickel Metal Hybrid Batteries.

The Controller:

The complete functioning of the motor and the internal operations is dependent on the controller which acts as a gatekeeper between the motor and the batteries. It regulates the speed and acceleration of the vehicle. The controller transforms the DC into AC in case of AC motors and controls the energy flow of the battery. Refined controllers also facilitates regenerative braking that increases the range of an electric vehicle by 5 - 10%, it also decreases brake wear and reduces maintenance cost.

a.      Inverter:

The inverter is a major ingredient of the control unit that converts the battery’s DC into AC. The AC is then used to control the motor speed. It optimizes the drivability of an EV as it handles the execution of acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle.

b.       Low voltage DC-DC Converter

EV system always uses electricity in low voltage. Hence it is crucial to convert the high-voltage power in the battery to low-voltage and supply to the vehicle's electric system to operate smoothly. Low voltage converter is responsible for doing that.

c.       Vehicle Control Unit

It forms the brain of the Control unit and is arguably the most important component. It keeps an eye on and monitors the mechanism and performance of the motor control, regenerative braking control, A/C load management and power supply. 

The on-board Charger –

Most EVs are equipped with an On-Board charger that is responsible for manage the flow of electricity from the grid to the battery. Simply put, it converts the AC input from the grid to a DC input which charges the battery. It is not really needed in fast charging though. The charger is basically there to limit the power to the battery to prevent overheating of the battery especially when charged via home charger.

How Indian is a ‘made in india’ EV?

Now you know that electric vehicles are so much more than its exterior body. It is the anatomy under the hood of the EV that literally drives the EV ecosystem in India. But for the ecosystem to truly thrive in India, it is essential to understand where do these components come from and how self-reliant are we as a country while building these EVs locally. Currently, it is common knowledge that most of these crucial components that form the heart and soul of an EV is imported from China. In 2018, India has received components from China worth around $4.3 billion. In fact, India imports ten times more from China than it exports which testifies the country’s heavy reliance on a foreign country to stabilize the EV ecosystem in here. One of the major reasons for this being unavailability of the hardware manufacturing base in India. You will be surprised to know that “most of the low-speed electric scooters and three-wheelers sold in India have localization levels of less than 20%” as reported by the Mint.

However, things are changing.

The continual tension between India and China is forcing India to reduce their dependency on China for everything including EV components. The government has also indicated to incentivize local manufacturing companies who will offer EV components locally. “In 2019, the government earmarked ?10,000 crore to encourage development, manufacturing and usage of EVs and components in the domestic market though the second phase of the scheme.” This is also provoking investors to put their money on startups that are less reliant on China, which is putting pressure on many startups and manufacturing companies to realign their business offerings and invest in R&D to strengthen their internal model. As far as the future is concerned, Electric Vehicle Component Market in India is to grow with more than 22.1% CAGR in near future as reported by P&S Intelligence.

Till then we need to take a step back, innovate and invest in producing local alternatives and work in a phased manner to slowly and steadily uproot our dependency on China and make the Indian EV ecosystem authentically made in India – by heart, body, mind, and soul.