Here are the important points from the section Energy Sources.

• An electric vehicle is a vehicle that uses an electric motor as a source of propulsion but the source of energy might be anything like a battery or fuel cell.

• A Fuel-cell can eliminate the issue of the charging time but it has an issue of limited storage capacity due to a lower energy density of the hydrogen gas.

• The fuel cell can not accept regenerative energy.

• An ultracapacitor is preferred to supply high power for a short duration i.e starting torque.

• A flywheel is preferred when frequent braking operation requires like a city bus.

• The flywheel used in EV application is quite different than the conventional mechanical flywheel as it is more like an electric machine that can work as a motor as well as a generator.

• The vehicle that uses battery only as an energy source is called “Battery Electric Vehicle” BEV, and the vehicle that uses more than one energy source is called a “Hybrid Electric Vehicle” HEV.

You should be able to answer following descriptive questions.

1. What is the major difference between flywheel-based gyro-drive used in EV and classical electric machines?

2. What are the benefits of using a hybrid energy source for the electric vehicle?

3. Discuss the suitability of the flywheel for the electric racing car.

4. Write at least three sentences for each type of energy source you studied.

5. Write at least three sentences for each type of energy source you studied.