Electric vehicles

In April 2011, it was announced that Sweden will test the world's first fast rechargeable hybrid bus in Umeå City with a pantograph-based fast charging station, Bůsbaar, developed by Opbrid Transporte Sostenible S.L. It will be a Volvo 7700 diesel converted to hybrid.

IDTechEx forecasts of sales of hybrid cars presume that, as the decade progresses, more and more of them will be offered at no price premium.

Over twenty million electric vehicles produced in 2010 will employ on-board energy harvesting to help charge the traction batteries. That includes both hybrid and pure electric vehicles.

The annual IDTechEx conference on the Future of Electric Vehicles - land, water and air held in San Jose, California saw 200 attendees with 12 exhibitors. The event, hosted the gala awards to recognise outstanding achievement in the industry. The chairman of IDTechEx Dr Peter Harrop opened the awards.

The electric vehicle business is over $33 billion today at ex factory prices but cars are less than half of that. As the market nearly quintuples over the next ten years, cars will rise to nearly 55% of the business but the devil is in the detail...

In 1880, they said that the future of the car was electric. In April 2010, Bill Ford of Ford Motor Company said "It appears that the biggest game-changer will be electric vehicles."

The burgeoning electric vehicle EV industry cannot be understood by simply looking at cars. The complete market value is, and will remain, about double the market for cars. The leaders such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan make electric vehicles for many applicational sectors.

Plug in hybrid electric cars are now prioritised by most major car manufacturers. Pure electric on- road cars are prioritised by Nissan and a host of vibrant start up companies, they have one thing in common. The cleverest, most expensive part of their planned vehicles is increasingly the traction battery.