The second day of this excellent event had a huge number of short presentations in brief slots, a format that worked well. They were grouped under titles such as Regional and Global Introduction Scenarios, Light Electric Vehicles LEV , Battery modelling, Batteries Modelling, EUROBAT, Hybrid Vehicles, Infrastructure & V2G, Mobile Sustainability, Battery Policy. Interestingly they defined LEV much more broadly than the US LEV Association does. Here it includes micro EVs/ Quadricycles and even small trucks.
It is impossible to report on all this but the fact that two wheelers are not getting safer, indeed adding Li-ion batteries makes them even more hazardous, is holding back sales of e-bikes. Safety also remains an issue with larger vehicles as does inappropriate legislation. Battery testing and understanding is improving.
Supercapacitors are safer than batteries including being able to be fully discharged and they last longer than the vehicle in which they are fitted.
The intermediate products, lithium-ion capacitors, are improving to the point where many experts see them taking a large chunk of both battery and supercapacitor business. So far their sales have been much less than those of supercapacitors. Meanwhile, supercapacitors are replacing lithium-ion batteries in an increasing minority of cases from applications in boats to military and leisure vehicles. Nevertheless, lithium-ion batteries have the biggest sales by far both in EVs and elsewhere. There was a round table on India-US cooperation.
