Source: IDTechEx
Global sales of hybrid and all-electric cars will triple to $178.9bn in 2024, according to market analyst IDTechEx.
“Launches of production models of fuel cell cars are promised around 2015 by companies such as Hyundai, Toyota, Daimler and Tata Motors, bringing these centre stage to the contempt of competitors that consider them to be a dead end,” said IDTechEx.
“New car technologies such as supercapacitors, SiC and GaN power components, switched reluctance motors, merged and structural electric components, contactless charging and harvesting heat, light and vertical movement are presented,” said IDTechEx.
Different options for the elements of an electric vehicle (EV) are now emerging. “It may be possible to have flexible batteries over the skin of the car in due course. Sometimes such laminar batteries permit faster charging and greater safety,” said IDTechEX.
As well as developments in supercapacitors and batteries, the analyst sees scope for energy harvesting from shock absorbers, thermoelectric harvesting which will be viable around 2017 and there will be some local harvesting for devices around the vehicle (eg Fiat vision).
