Note: The following is an excerpt from the white paper "Are EVs equipped enough to overthrow the dominance of vehicles based on ICE?" by BIS Research, a global market intelligence, research, and advisory company that focuses on emerging technology trends that are likely to disrupt the market.
Will ice-based vehicles become victims of their own success?
The automotive industry is undergoing an essential transformation, a kind that builds upon a concept once experimented a century ago, but remained an underdog owing to various performance gaps. Yes, the electric vehicles are not new to the world. In fact, they aimed to become a part of the mainstream in the automotive industry (between 1820-1935), but, somehow lost their existence to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles by 1935.
Lack of electricity access, the expensive nature of electric vehicles, and arrival of the Cadillac Touring Edition with electric starter (replacing the hand crank) left the competition between ICE-vehicles and EVs irrelevant. Moreover, continued advancement of ICEs supported by cheap and abundant gasoline left little room for alternate fuels to challenge the status quo of the automotive industry, helping ICEs to sustain their technology dominance throughout the 20th century.
However, it was in late 1980s, when greenhouse effect came into spotlight, that’s when the world started observing the effect of overdependence on ICE based vehicles. Although, ICEs are appreciated for their remarkable role in establishing the automotive industry as one of the largest economic sectors, but, they are also held responsible for their role in the climate crisis.
The automotive industry alone contributes more than 15% of GHG emissions every year
For more than two decades now, the automotive industry has been kept under strict scrutiny only for its excessive carbon footprint, wherein the industry has faced stringent regulations as well as directives from federal governments to regulate its emission footprint. The light-weight-revolution is one program that kept transforming the entire automotive industry, but, being a partial solution, this initiative appeared to be trivial in front of the gigantic problem of excessive carbon footprint that has accumulated year-on-year, throughout the 20th century.
Furthermore, the overdependence on crude oil has brought the petroleum industry to an alarming stage, and as per the current records, the world is expected to run out of oil in next 60 years at most. This impending risk coupled with strict environmental obligations have left the stakeholders confused and concerned about the future of ICE technology in the automotive industry.
Electric vehicles yet again taken the centre stage
The dominance of ICE vehicles may persist in the coming years, but its uncertain future has certainly shaped a technology gap for the automakers. In light of this change, the automotive industry has nearly invested more than $150 billion since 2013 to bring in promising alternate solutions to the marketplace, wherein electric vehicles have become the technology of choice.
The dire need to decarbonize the automotive industry has once again brought the electric vehicles to the centre stage, and to accelerate this green-tech trend, OEMs as well as federal governments of various countries around the world have set ambitious targets for themselves.
Many experts believe that in the next ten years, the promising electric vehicles will not only dominate the adoption rate in certain countries but will also encourage the adoption of digital solutions, bringing entirely new possibilities to the transportation industry.
The way EVs are advancing year-on-year and stakeholders are making appreciable commitments to accelerate the adoption of EVs worldwide, the all-electric era for the automotive industry appears closer than expected.
Want to know when electric vehicles may become the norm? Download the white paper on the future of electric vehicles by BIS Research using the button below.
