Deep Dive: Electric Vehicles From the Sky to the Sea

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Today’s Deep Dive: 🛥️Electric Vehicles From the Sky to the Sea✈️

Electric Vehicles From the Sky to the Sea

The very first electric car in the world, pre-dating gasoline-powered cars, was discovered around the 1830s. Electric cars then became popular, one type being Henry Ford’s mass-produced Model T in the 1900s, accounting for around a third of all vehicles on the road. Due to minimal advancement in tech and the rise of cheap and readily available gasoline, however, electric cars disappeared by 1935.

After decades filled with environmental concerns accompanied by a push for innovation as well as research and development, electric vehicles have made a comeback, but they are not limited to the automotive market, as most of us may know it. Imagine a world where every traveling vehicle, from the sky to the sea, goes electric, creating a more sustainable and enjoyable travel experience for all. Is that possible?

Growth in EVs

Being a sector that accounts for more or less one-sixth of global emissions, electric vehicles can be the key to decarbonizing road transport. It is apparent that an increasing amount of companies in the automotive industry are aware of this and have tried to create sustainable modes of mobility. Big companies such as Tesla, Porsche, and BMW are charging their way into the EV industry, striving to be the best in the game. The demand for EVs has grown as well.

In 2022 alone, the electric car market witnessed exponential growth in sales, exceeding 10 million, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects EV sales to extend through 2023, with a prediction of 14 million in sales by 2023. With not only companies but also many individuals having sustainability and green action as their goal, it wouldn’t be a surprise if EVs will someday replace regular cars in the future and dominate the market as they did in the 1900s.

At present, aside from electric cars, forms of electrification can be seen in planes, boats, school buses, and even cargo ships, seen from companies like Eviation Planes, Arc Boats, and Highland Electric Fleets, proving that the EV industry is constantly growing.

Land to Sky to Sea

While it has become a lot more common to see personal vehicles turning electric, CEO of Highland Electric Fleets Duncan McIntyre believes in upgrading all land vehicles with electrification. By creating electric school buses, McIntyre trusts that he can attack poor air quality in urban areas and offer vehicles that are cheaper to operate, fuel, and maintain.

Highland Electric Fleets also plans to focus on any form of municipal and government-operated vehicles that tends to operate in a fleet format. This way, all essential services provided by both the cities and for the cities can be done affordably.

A big aspect that McIntyre finds important as well is noise pollution. With fleet vehicles having to commute often, McIntyre believes that municipal electric vehicles can greatly decrease said pollution.

Noise pollution seems to have also traveled at sea, as it is one of the reasons Arc Boats CEO Mitch Lee decided to develop electric boats. Being part of a family that grew up on boats, Lee is aware of the sizeable boat market, as seen from Fortune Business Insights’ projection of boat market size growing from $30.93 billion in 2022 to $47.80 billion in 2029.

Though Lee admits how fun enjoying the water with friends would be, as he is sure plenty of people find said activity enjoyable as well, he acknowledges that gas boats have become a nightmare to own as it is quite awful for the environment, increasing not only air pollution but water and noise pollution as well.

Lee believes that electric boats are simply better boats, as he had managed to develop them and found that they are far more quiet and reliable. While gas boats are loud, noxious, and run out of gas on riders, whisper-quiet electric boats allow riders to enjoy their conversations on board.

Lastly, the idea of electrification has also expanded to not only land and sea but also the sky. CEO of Eviation Planes, Gregory Davis, started working on ways to develop new engine technology from 2017 to 2018. Davis, aware that aviation contributes to about 3% of all world CO2 emissions and is projected to increase to 50% by 2050, made reducing the carbon impact of aircraft his main mission.

Davis views flying as a mode of transportation that connects communities and is determined that such strong connections should be earned without having the environment harmed in the process. By creating an electric aircraft he calls Alice, Davis believes he has made air flight cost-efficient, reduced noise pollution, and eliminated carbon pollution.

Development with Issues

The three aforementioned CEOs have developed their electric crafts with the hopes that they can make traveling a much more pleasant experience for everyone while harming the environment a little less. They believe that electric is the way to go due to its reliability, and these moments are the perfect time to pursue their goals as tech has greatly advanced.

However, one issue they have all stumbled upon is how power-hungry EVs can get. Though reliable once well-executed, said execution is the main challenge as it requires interoperable systems. To create an overall reliable experience, the vehicles must be reliable not only when they’re running, but also when they’re charging. The issue of charging has also been met by electric cars, where not all charging stations work with all vehicle types, and so this has been a cause of worry for the three EV innovators.

Despite the hardship, the three CEOs believe that at the end of the day, electrification delivers better vehicles, whether it be cars, buses, boats, or aircraft, and providing better products for their customers will always be their main goal. The CEOs are confident that although they have and are currently still facing great challenges to further their products, advancements in technology have given them opportunities they, nor any entrepreneurs interested in pursuing the EV sector, shouldn’t give up.

Click here to read part two of this Deep Dive series!

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