What will power the car of the future?
Short of the likes of Abbott and Trump convincing global leaders that coal is good and climate change is a myth, the era of the electric vehicle (EV) will be ushered in with shocking force over the next decade.
Even if climate change deniers (whose opinions are apparently more valuable than science) were to halt tightening emissions regulations aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions, stopping this tr end would be like swerving a Titanic away from that (rapidly melting) iceberg given the degree in which car companies have already invested billions in making battery technology a reality over the next decade.
This doesn’t mean the end of the internal combustion engine (ICE) even into the 2030s, with the BMW Group and Volkswagen Group forecasting that up to 25 per cent of their global volume will feature electrification by 2025. And for perspective, the Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Alliance sold the most vehicles of any conglomerate last year with 10.6 million units globally … only 91,000 of which were EVs. But given that 1.2 million electrified vehicles sold worldwide in 2017, that’s almost one in 10, and it tips its own volume of electrified models will multiply 10-fold to 1m units by 2022.
The question, then, is not if car companies will move to alternative powertrains, but when? Who has laid chips in plug-in hybrid and electric-only technology, who is toying with hydrogen, and is anyone keeping the old ICE churning and burning?