Electric vehicles in 2020 and beyond
Autonomous rolling pods or flying sports cars á la Blade Runner. The future of mobility is an appealing subject. But even though we cannot see into the future, one thing is certain: electric vehicles are here to stay. We asked Nicklas Karlsson, Section Manager for Electrical Systems at AFRY, what we can expect from the electric vehicle market in coming years.
Over the past 10 years, the electric vehicle deployment has grown rapidly. At the beginning of 2019 the number of electric vehicles rose to 5.6 million globally, including passenger cars, commercial vehicles and plug-in hybrids. The demand is continuously growing for new concepts and variants.
AFRY has been part of the journey towards an electrified fleet since the beginning and has completed assignments in everything from building prototypes to demonstrate electric powertrains to testing of battery and high voltage systems for electric vehicles and hybrids.
Nicklas Karlsson, Section Manager Electrical Systems at AFRY, what work is AFRY involved in to support this trend?
– We work in a variety of areas. For example, we have converted conventional vehicles into electrical ones, we test battery systems and components and we perform concept studies of battery systems and electric powertrains. We are also involved in some future mobility and infrastructure projects regarding electric roads and charging. What makes AFRY unique is that our engineers have expertise in all system areas as well as vehicle attributes and integration.
The automotive engineers at AFRY who work with this, what are they specialised in?
– To mention a few areas, they work with batteries and battery monitoring, functional safety, high voltage systems, simulation, electric motors and more.
So, what can we expect from the electric vehicle market in the coming years?
– In the future, we will probably see a lot of different variants of battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and conventional hybrid vehicles, all co-existing on the market. Also, in the next couple of years, I think that a large number of electric cars with more extended battery range will be available, and not only in the premium segment.
And lastly, what kind of car do you drive?
– It usually gets around 15,000 Electric km/year in my Volvo V60 PHEV that I have been driving since 2015, but my next car will probably be fully electric.
Would you like to know more about Automotive R&D at AFRY? See Martin Öman, former Head of Automotive R&D, describe it in 45s:
