Beginners Guide To EVs

Electric cars have been around for more than one hundred years. However, EV technology hadn’t matured enough to make them practical modes of transportation. Now, due to better batteries and smarter power management systems, these vehicles are beginning to displace conventional petrol-powered cars on our roads.

However, if you’re new to the EV scene, there is some information to get you up to speed with EV terminology to help you understand the “fad” that some are calling the “electric revolution”.

Electric Motor
Unlike a petrol engine which uses hundreds of moving parts to create usable rotational movement (causing the wheels to turn), An electric motor is far simpler because it requires fewer parts to operate. In basic terms, it uses electricity to create a rotating magnetic field in its stator that then turns its rotor (a little more complicated than what’s explained here), which drives the wheels.

The power of an electric motor is calculated by multiplying the torque (rotational force produced) by the angular speed of its shaft. P (W) = 𝛕 (Nm) * ⍵ (rad/s). For example, the BYD Dolphin’s motor can produce 70kW or 70,000W of power. The higher the power of an electric motor, the faster the acceleration and the higher the speed of an electric car.

Battery Capacity
For EVs, the battery capacity is measured in kWh or kilowatt-hour. For smartphones manufacturers prefer to use mAh or milliampere-hour. In electricity terms, power (W) is equivalent to voltage (V) multiplied by current (A). For an EV, it’s the amount of electrical energy that can be delivered to the electric motor and this transfer of energy is measured in kWh.

It’s defined as the energy delivered by 1kW (kilowatt) of power for one hour. For example, an EV with a 60kWh battery will be able to supply 60kW of power for an hour. The higher the kWh rating, the larger the battery capacity and the higher the theoretical range of an electric car.

Charging Time
This depends on the capacity of the battery. The larger the battery capacity, the longer its charging time will be. But in simple terms it’s determined by the total battery capacity divided by the charging current. This is why DC chargers at power stations can top up an EV battery in less than an hour.

That’s because electricity supplied to the EV has already been converted from AC to DC and the required current can be used to charge the battery directly. They can supply a large usable amount of current to the batteries for the recharging process.

That said, the charging time also depends on how well the vehicle’s circuity takes the supplied power and sends it to the batteries that then converts it into storable energy.

Overtime, degradation takes place within these batteries that prevents them from recovering 100% of their original charge. This is the same for smartphones. After several years of use, your phone needs to be charged more than once to last an entire day’s worth of use.

Charging Connector
The simplest way to explain this is: most Android phones use a USB Type-C charging port. That means that only a USB Type-C charging cable can be connected to it for charging. Older Android phones used the smaller micro-USB port. Until recently, iPhones had the lightning port. As such all three ports require their respective charging cable to fit properly.

This is the same for EVs. Electric cars have specific charging ports, and you can only use the compatible charging connector to make the required connection to begin the charging process. These connectors are far more complicated than what are used with smartphones and laptops.

In Malaysia, charging stations support the Type 2, CCS Type 2 and CHAdeMO type charging ports. Look at this article to learn more about them: Types of EV Charging Connectors

Types of Charging Levels
Charging ability/speed of EV chargers are categorised into three different divisions: Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3. Level 1 is slow AC charging; Level 2 is much faster AC charging and Level 3 is rapid DC charging and the quickest of the three levels. Look at this article to learn more about this topic: EV Charging Levels, What Are They?

We hope this topic was able to help you get to terms with the current EV lingo. Let us know if you’d like to see more of such features in the coming weeks or months.