Electric vehicles in the next millennium

It is well known that the history of battery electric vehicles (EVs) is a long one that covers a period in excess of one hundred years. It is also well known that, in their early days, these vehicles were capable of out-performing their contemporary internal combustion-engined (ICEV) equivalents in terms of speed and acceleration. Since those days, and indeed until quite recently, there has been a quite remarkable difference between the vast strides made in developing ICEVs in general and cars in particular, and the relatively small improvements made in the capabilities of EVs. It is now being argued that this must change and the purpose of this paper is to consider the extent to which it is practical to expect such a change, on a large scale, in the early part of the next millennium.