How does an electric car engine work?
Motor vehicles can be complex, complicated machines. Diving into the fundamentals of how they work and what results in them being able to move under their own power can sometimes be confusing. Throw electric vehicles into the mix and things get a little more confusing. Don't worry, we're here to assist.
All cars have batteries in them, so they use electricity, don't they? While this is true, an electric vehicle (EV) works somewhat differently from what you may be accustomed to. With so much talk about EVs and the future of electric mobility, learning about this new approach to transportation is probably best done now, while it's still fairly new and before the complex technicalities creep in.
Related: What is the difference between electric and hybrid cars?
The current EVs on offer don't look too dissimilar from everything else on the road and sometimes you really have to look closely to be able to say for certain that the vehicle you're looking at is indeed a fully electric offering.
EV versus Hybrid
It's important at this juncture to clarify the difference between an electric vehicle and an electrified vehicle, otherwise known as a hybrid. Hybrids come in many different configurations and you can find out more about the various types here. In short, a hybrid uses both a petrol or diesel engine as well as an electric motor to send power to the wheels. How and when each of these propulsion systems work varies from type to type and between manufacturers. The end goal of them all is to reduce the overall fuel consumption though.
Electric Vehicles (EVs) do not use any form of fossil fuel (diesel or petrol) in order to power the wheels. They rely solely on electricity generated by batteries to propel the vehicle forward (and backwards, naturally). This means that while an EV may look similar, it's actually rather different to vehicles as you know them where the battery is essentially only present to start the engine, and power the radio (it does a little more than that, but that's the basic idea).
How does an electric car engine work?
Firstly, there is a distinction between an engine and a motor. American media, movies, TV shows and the like, have made us far too accustomed to using the term 'motor' to describe the engine that powers a vehicle. In the name of accuracy, an engine typically uses fossil fuels and ignites a mixture of fuel and air inside combustion chambers to create power strokes. A reciprocating force (up and down, forwards and backward, or side to side) is translated into a rotational force which is transferred to the wheels to propel the vehicle. While we may sometimes refer to this as being a motor, the correct term is in fact, an engine.
An electric motor uses neither fossil fuel nor internal combustion to generate its rotational force. Through the basic principles of electrical current, an electric motor is forced into rotation by electromagnetic fields that continually 'push' opposing electrical fields away. Pushing the one field in a circular manner allows it to create a rotation that sees the same field return, only to be pushed again. This rotating action is then transferred to the drive wheels of the vehicle
An electric motor received the electricity needed to power the electromagnet from a battery system. This battery system consists of multiple cells that are strung together to provide the voltage required to excite the electromagnetic fields. These batteries, like any other battery, have a finite amount of energy or charge and this charge needs to be replenished when the energy reserves run low. This is done by plugging the vehicle into an appropriate power source and allowing the energy from this source to be transferred to the batteries. This can even be done at home. There is no need to "refuel' an electric vehicle in the same, traditional manner with petrol or diesel and the only reason you would need to visit a garage is to pump up the tyres!
