An Innovative Approach to Vehicle Electrification for Smart Cities

Vehicles, both personal and commercial, have become ubiquitous forms of transportation in the developed world. The auto industry is amidst a technological transformation in identifying alternative sources of energy to power vehicles due to two driving forces: environmental pollution prevention and depletion of fuel resources. This driver for developing “smarter” solutions to create a “smarter planet” is crucial to advancing the science behind electric vehicles (EVs). EVs have been in existence since the mid-19th century, and electric locomotion has been the commonplace in many other vehicle types such as trains. The focus of this chapter is to discuss the feasibility of EVs in smart cities. In particular, the chapter explores the types of EVs, advantages and challenges faced by EVs to penetrate the market, and to outline state-of-the-art research and technologies that are driving the creation of newer and better EVs for adoption in the smart cities of tomorrow.