Electric cars, vans and trucks - Where we are now
For a while now, the motoring industry has been under ever greater pressure to find a solution to the internal combustion engine. The environmental ramifications of our continuing reliance upon oil-based fuel is well documented and very much in the public eye, no doubt fuelled by the huge change in the way we receive and digest news – from the traditional channels to the instantaneous and blanket coverage of social media.
Much of this press might be over hyped and one-sided sensationalism, but every motoring manufacturer is developing greener powertrains. The current industry trend is electrification, either a combination of petrol and electric powered hybrids or fully electric vehicles. Battery range and endurance are improving, and it won’t be long before fully electric vehicles are the norm.
But what other industries should consider a similar change? Cars, vans, trucks – we see and hear them every day and they are an obvious target. Yet far above, countless commercial and business jets fly across the world, all of them burning fuel.
Is there a future for electric aircraft?
In a similar vein to the engine you’ll find in a car, in an aircraft, fuel is ignited to provide motive force. With a propeller, the motive force (thrust) is provided by the propeller spinning and driving air backwards, which in turn drives the aircraft forwards. With a turbine, the thrust is the effective exhaust gas, exiting from the rear at speed and again driving the aircraft forwards. Could electricity be utilised instead?
Our Associate Director, Neville Contractor said, “I recently attended the Air Charter Association Autumn Lunch & Awards ceremony at the Guildhall, City of London. The use of jet fuel was a significant talking point and the aviation industry is taking its responsibilities seriously with electrification. Not only for the environment, but to also minimize the huge cost of aviation fuel.”
Pioneering firms are trying to make this a reality sooner than you might expect though. Eviation are one and ALICE is the affectionate name of their craft. Eviation claim ALICE will fly nine passengers and two crew members across a range of 650 miles on a single charge. Thrust is provided by three rear facing propellers, driven by a battery pack co-developed with Siemens. It will be emission free in flight and much quieter than a traditional turbine powered craft, but the technical difficulties centre around the weight of the battery, which accounts for up to 65% of the weight of the craft. And the biggest challenge? As fuel burns, the turbine/propeller powered craft gets lighter – a battery powered craft will always have the same weight of battery across its flight, hampering range and capacity.
And herein lies one of the greatest challenges of the converting commercial aviation to electricity. Battery technology still needs to advance exponentially. ALICE and others could make a huge difference to the environment on short haul and domestic flights, but we’re not even close to electric commercial craft carrying hundreds of passengers a time across Europe, let alone commercial international flights.
It appears that a fully electric craft in the same vein as, say, an Airbus A320, is quite a way off, then. But a hybrid system might work, and this is what the big names are focussing on. Airbus, Rolls Royce and Siemans are working on an electric motor solution for a larger craft. Pratt and Whitney is developing a hybrid system which should fly in 2022 and be ready for commercial use a few years later. EasyJet has paired up with US firm Wright Electric with a view to start using electric planes from 2027. Boeing are also in the fray and the car manufacturers are keen to be involved as well with both Porsche and BMW Industrial Design looking to deploy and develop technology into aviation.
Finding greener solutions
Every industry has an obligation to find greener solutions, and it is great to see the aviation industry trying to adapt as well. The motivation to not only improve the environment but also reduce fuel cost is a huge driver too, and like the motoring industry, the aviation industry could be due a seismic and exciting change.