Abstract
Electric vehicles (EVs) have the greatest potential to reduce air pollution, as they are considered to be zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), due to absence of internal combustion (IC) engine fueled by fossil fuel in powertrain structure. However, due to some engineering and structural design specifications (the existence of a battery that powered the electric motor), at present, the EV batteries and rechargeable accumulators are charged by external electric power source. Thus, even if EVs are considered ZEV vehicles, they can still pollute the environment indirectly, due to pollutant emissions stemming from electricity production process in power plants in.
The following factors are considered main barriers to increasing the car market share for EVs: the median EV purchase price, significant limitations regarding the autonomy and charging, battery capacity and charging technology. Given the barriers noted above, the EU countries and authorities are presently taking several political and economic measures aimed at increasing the penetration of EVs in the car market, with the target of 4,752,100 units at EU level for the end of 2015. All these measures are taken in order to increase electric vehicle car market penetration and thus achieve a more favorable share of these vehicles in the total number of registered cars.
The present working paper present state-of-the-art in electric vehicles development, identify the barriers for a massive car market penetration and show the future directions (research and development, policy, economical measures) to a sustainable transportation domain trough massive use of electric vehicles.
Keywords: electric vehicle, car market, policy and economical measures, sustainable transportation.