An investigation of sustainable technologies in the field of electric mobility

Abstract

Electric vehicles are well-known for their excellent energy-efficiency and locally zero CO2 emissions. Although, this is a significant step towards carbon-neutrality, other possible, indirect sources of emissions like electricity-generation and production must also be investigated for their CO2 emissions in order to determine the environmental-friendliness of electric vehicles. Waste generation and recyclability related to the main electric vehicle components (i.e., high-voltage battery system, electric motor drive system) is another important topic that must be carefully examined as well. The definition of the “0 km” footstep plays an important role in determining the future path towards carbon-neutrality and it is also an essential term for decarbonization related lawmaking. This paper deals with the investigation of the environmental footprint of electric vehicles along with the study of more sustainable technologies that can further improve the recyclability of the main electric vehicle components and thus the eco-friendliness of electric vehicles. A detailed analysis is carried for these topics in order to propose solutions for accelerating the way towards carbon-neutrality. Besides the technical aspects, other factors such as economy, ecological concerns, geographical distribution of certain materials, and thus geopolitical problems are also taken into account. Synthetic fuels are interesting candidates in the case of marine applications and aviation to make these fields carbon-neutral, so they are also investigated in this paper, including their overall fit into the future of mobility. Based on the wide-range analysis a prediction is made for the expected future trends of electric vehicle technologies and beside that other carbon-neutral solutions.