Electric Vehicle Glossary

Confused by abbreviations such as EV, ICE, PHEV and KWH? This page should hopefully help explain the electric car jargon. Thank you Google and Wikipedia for helping me with many of these explanations.
  • AC motor - The two main types of AC motors are classified as induction and synchronous. The induction motor (or asynchronous motor) always relies on a small difference in speed between the stator rotating magnetic field and the rotor shaft speed called slip to induce rotor current in the rotor AC winding.
  • AH - Amp Hour. A battery with a capacity of 1 amp-hour should be able to continuously supply a current of 1 amp to a load for exactly 1 hour, or 2 amps for 1/2 hour, or 1/3 amp for 3 hours, etc., before becoming completely discharged.
  • Battery - A container consisting of one or more cells, in which chemical energy is converted into electricity and used as a source of power. 
  • BEV - Battery Electric Vehicle, the same as EV below.
  • DC - DC (direct current) is the unidirectional flow or movement of electric charge carriers (which are usually electrons). ... Nevertheless, physicists define DC as traveling from plus to minus. Direct current is produced by electrochemical and photovoltaic cells and batteries.
  • EREV - Extended range electric vehicle. See range extender below.
  • EV - Electric Vehicle. Usually refers to a fully electric vehicle as opposed to a hybrid vehicle.
  • EV1 - The General Motors EV1 was an electric car produced and leased by General Motors from 1996 to 1999. It was the first mass-produced and purpose-designed electric vehicle of the modern era from a major automaker, the first GM car designed to be an electric vehicle from the outset along with being the first and only passenger car to be sold under the corporate General Motors (GM) name instead of being branded under one of its divisions.
  • Fuel cell - A fuel cell vehicle (FCV) or fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) is a type of electric vehicle which uses a fuel cell, instead of a battery, or in combination with a battery or supercapacitor, to power its on-board electric motor.
  • Gigafactory - The Tesla Gigafactory 1 is a lithium-ion battery factory under construction, primarily for Tesla Inc., at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) in Storey County (near the Community of Clark, Nevada, US).
  • Hybrid - A petroleum-electric hybrid most commonly uses internal combustion engines (using a variety of fuels, generally gasoline or Diesel engines) and electric motors to power the vehicle. The energy is stored in the fuel of the internal combustion engine and an electric battery set.
  • Hydrogen car - A hydrogen vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen as its onboard fuel for motive power. See fuel cell.
  • ICE - Internal Combustion Engine. Often used in electric car circles to refer to petrol and diesel vehicles. 
  • ICE'd - Being prevented using an on-street charge point by an ICE vehicle
  • kWh - The kilowatt-hour (symbol kWh, kW⋅h or kW h) is a derived unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules. If the energy is being transmitted or used at a constant rate (power) over a period of time, the total energy in kilowatt-hours is the power in kilowatts multiplied by the time in hours.
  • Lithium-ion battery - The most common form of battery used in electric vehicles and hybrids. 
  • Plug in hybrid - A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid electric vehicle that uses rechargeable batteries, or another energy storage device, that can be recharged by plugging it in to an external source of electric power. 
  • Range Anxiety - Worry on the part of a person driving an electric car that the battery will run out of power before the destination or a suitable charging point is reached.
  • Range extender - A range extender vehicle is a battery electric vehicle that includes an auxiliary power unit (APU) known as a 'range extender'. The range extender drives an electric generator which charges a battery which supplies the vehicle's electric motor with electricity. This arrangement is known as a series hybrid drivetrain. The most commonly used range extenders are internal combustion engines, but fuel-cells or other engine types can be used
  • Regenerative Braking - The energy in slowing an electric vehicle down is then used to recharge the battery.
  • REX - Another abbreviation for range extender 
  • Supercharger - A Tesla station or Tesla Supercharger station is a network of 480-volt fast-charging stations built by Tesla Inc. to allow longer journeys for their all-electric manufactured vehicles (Model S and Model X), through quick charging of the vehicle's battery packs. 
  • Tailpipe emissions - The harmful gas that comes out of an exhaust pipe on a petrol, diesel or hybrid vehicle.
  • Zero Emission - Zero emission refers to an engine, motor, process, or other energy source, that emits no waste products that pollutes the environment or disrupts the climate.
     

No comments:

Post a Comment