1. Overview of Plug-in Electric Vehicle Technologies

The Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) are the Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs). PEVs will dominate the transportation in the personal mobility mode and in the automobile market by 2030. Widespread adoption of PEVs brings potential, social and economic benefits. The focus on promoting use of electric vehicles in road transportation is very essential to meet the climate change targets and manage the ever hiking prices of fast depleting fossil fuels. However, there are lots of uncertainties in the market about the acceptability of PEVs by customers due to the capital and operation costs and inadequate infrastructure for charging systems. The penetration level in the market is not encouraging, in spite of incentives offered by Governments. Manufacturers are also not sure of the market, even though predictions are strong and attractive. Major manufacturers, however, are already ready with their plans to introduce electric vehicles to mass market. The use of PEVs has both technological and market issues and impacts. Series of research works have been reported to address the issues related to technologies and its impacts on political, economic, environmental, infrastructural and market potential aspects. Works dealing with suitable infrastructure such as charging stations and use of smart grids are reported. These steps are aimed to bring down the capital and operational costs that are comparable to the costing of conventional transport vehicles. The penetration level of PEVs in transportation will accordingly increase and keep the climate targets met and conserve fossil fuels for use in other economic segments. An overview on these issues is presented in this chapter.