Electric vehicles

Leading players in autonomous vehicle technology gather at Electric Vehicles: Everything is Changing 2018. The Electric Vehicles: Everything is Changing 2018 conference, part of IDTechEx Show! USA 2018 will take place on the 14th and 15th of November in Santa Clara, California. This conference will explore the synergies between Electric Vehicles and broader automotive trends such as the rise of Autonomous Vehicles.

IDTechEx Chairman, Dr Peter Harrop, interviews Zero Motorcycles, a fully electric motorbike manufacturer. They discuss the companies history success and future targets.

Ever since the economic crisis, the motorcycle market in the U.S. has stagnated as the industry has struggled to attract younger, more safety-conscious riders. Electrification is the jump-start needed, and is why the likes of Harley Davidson, U.S. motorcycling icon and survivor of the great depression, is looking to re-invent itself by going electric.

We have previously argued that everything in the world of robotics is changing. Indeed, we have shown that robots are increasingly becoming collaborative, mobile and intelligent, leaving their confines in factories to enter more aspects of industry and daily life. This trend will have profound long-term economical and societal consequences. Indeed, our report New Robotics and Drones 2018-2038: Technologies, Forecasts, Players forecasts that the market for robots and drones will grow from $66 billion in 2018 to more than 210 billion in 2028.

3D printing of composites is perceived as a crucial future iteration for many forms of 3D printing. With this in mind, the annual IDTechEx Show, taking place on 14-15 Nov in Santa Clara, CA, will host a dedicated session for this class of materials.

The global electric vehicle population reached 3 million units at the end of 2017, which represents approximately 0.23% of the global vehicle population. Electric vehicle producers have responded to consumer's range anxiety by increasing the available range per charge in their vehicles to more than 200 miles. However ultimately the deployment of electric vehicles will depend on the deployment of ubiquitous chargers.

2018 is regarded as the beginning year for battery recycling as the first batch of batteries are gradually coming out of electric vehicles. Umicore has recently announced their investment plan in ramping up battery recycling capacity in preparation for the boom of spent EV batteries. By 2018, we will already have around 33,000 retired electric vehicle battery packs (including electric passenger cars and buses) which amounts to around 1GWh storage capacity.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China has recently announced the pilot program of recycling and second use of retired electric vehicle batteries in 17 major regions and cities. China Tower, the world's biggest operator of telecommunication towers, is included as the only company in the pilot program to develop key technologies, explore business models and help establish standards related to second-life batteries.

Hyundai Motor Group has recently announced a commercial partnership with energy company Wärtsilä to utilize second-life electric vehicle batteries for stationary energy storage at both commercial and utility scales. This is not the first piece of news that automotive companies are trying to give a second life to their retired EV batteries as major EV manufactures including Nissan, Renault, BMW, Daimler, BYD etc. have announced various battery second use projects around the world.

The end-of-life issue of electric vehicle batteries is a key topic in the sustainability of EVs. By 2029, there will be 3 million used battery packs coming out of EVs per year which amounts to around 108GWh available storage capacity (see the IDTechEx's latest report on Second-life Electric Vehicle Batteries). What will happen to this huge amount of retired car batteries?