Electric vehicles are at the centre of smart cities

100% electric vehicles are a pillar of the smart cities’ mobility concept. What are the reasons for this?

When the ‘smart city’ concept first emerged around the 1990s, it was almost immediately associated with a high-tech world at the service of humans, with the imagination building futuristic scenarios in the style of those recreated in science fiction films.

Over time, the idea of efficiency on which smart cities are based has led people to start looking at the cities where we all live as already being smart. With the help of technology and electric vehicles, but without the need for flying vehicles, as the 1982 movie ‘Blade Runner’ forecasted for 2019!

‍
Connectivity

When we talk about ‘smart cities’ we refer to environments that use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and digital connectivity to optimise a large array of procedures. Always with the goal of fulfilling citizens needs and make their lives more comfortable, as well as making organisations (private or public) more people-oriented and building inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable communities.

For this optimised management, objects (such as cars) interact with each other and come to ‘life’: welcome to the concept of IoT- Internet of Things, collecting and transmitting millions of gigabytes of data in real-time, thanks to the wide spreading of sensors that ‘take the pulse’ of key factors such as road traffic, air quality, as well as public transport and parking status.

Technology is implemented, in this context, to humanise society; at the same time intelligence (from the ‘smart city’ concept) provide better and more sustainable resource management.

Electric vehicles in their natural environment

Because they are greener, more economical and quieter than any car with a combustion engine, electric vehicles are a pillar in the concept of smart city mobility. In fact, there are no smart cities without cars with electric batteries.

And it's easy to see why integrating 100% electric vehicles into the urban ecosystem is a perfect match for the sustainability of smart cities. For start, the benefits in reducing pollution, since electric cars are local zero-emission vehicles, contributing to the decrease of the greenhouse effect at a global level and improving the quality of the in urban areas – an essential outcome as air pollution caused 8.1 million deaths worldwide in 2021, according to the UN.

Another benefit of electric cars is that they operate silently, eliminating noise pollution, whose effects in public health are widely documented.

Compared to internal combustion vehicles, electric cars are still unbeatable in terms of energy efficiency. In a thermal engine, the use of energy from the explosion is limited to a modest  20% to 40%, meaning  that most energy is wasted in the form of heat. Quite different from an electric motor, where efficiency easily exceeds 90%, reaching up to 95%. The maintenance costs of an electric vehicle are also much lower compared to combustion vehicles.

100% electric models have another key feature: regenerative braking systems that recover energy during deceleration or descents. It is therefore common for an electric car to improve range in certain traffic situations. It doesn't get any more efficient than that. In a petrol or Diesel car, the fuel doesn't regenerate.

Electric cars are themselves intelligent, communicating with charging points to optimise charging, adjusting demand and improving the stability of the electricity grid. If the energy supplied to the car comes from renewable sources, it also contributes to decarbonisation and reduces dependence on fossil fuels.

Electric cars play a central role in the transition to more sustainable and intelligent cities. Not only they help reducing the environmental impact of transport, but also integrate with other advanced technologies to create a more efficient and connected mobility system that is slowly revolutionising the way we live and work in these areas.