Energies, Vol. 14, Pages 6742: A Review on Drive Train Technologies for Passenger Electric Vehicles (Energies)

Transportation is the second-largest sector contributing to greenhouse gas emissions due to CO2 gas generation from the combustion of fossil fuels. Electric vehicles (EVs) are believed to be a great solution to overcome this issue. EVs can reduce CO2 emissions because the vehicles use an electric motor as a propeller instead of an internal combustion engine. Combined with sustainable energy resources, EVs may become zero-emission transportation. This paper presents an overview of the EV drive train types, including their architecture with the benefits and drawbacks of each type. The aim is to summarize the recent progress of EV technology that always continues to be updated. Furthermore, a comparative investigation on energy density and efficiency, specific energy and power, cost, and application is carried out for batteries as the main energy storage. This discussion provides an understanding of the current development of battery technology, especially the batteries used in EVs. Moreover, the electric motor efficiency, power density, fault tolerance, reliability, and cost are also presented, including the most effective electric motor to use in EVs. The challenges and opportunities of EV deployment in the future are then discussed comprehensively. The government regulation for EVs is still a major non-technical challenge, whereas the charging time and battery performance are the challenges for the technical aspect.