In olden days autos moved by harnessing the energy in gasoline. Nowadays, electric vehicles use the energy of magnetism. We explain this, and other secrets of your electric car in this post. The more things change, the more they remain the same. Magnetism makes our atmosphere cling to the earth and that keeps us warm. It also keeps our EVs sailing smoothly along.
Electric Car Secrets of Locomotion
Locomotion refers to an object’s ability to move itself from one place to another. An electric car uses the energy in its battery to propel it, unlike gasoline. Other than that, its appearance and user interfaces have hardly changed. However, it’s no electric car secret that the battery needs to be recharged regularly.
Currently, most of this energy source is created at power stations, using the awesome potential of electro magnetism. Electricity and magnetism are in a reciprocal relationship. This principle is also behind the electric motors driving the wheels, and other secrets of your electric car.
Michael Faraday discovered in 1821 that a magnetic field around a conductor carrying a direct current, will cause the wire to rotate clockwise. The inverter on your electric car battery also converts the AC to DC that drives the wheels, using electro magnetic induction.
How Regenerative Braking Supports This Process
Every electric motor has a fixed stator coil, and a rotor that turns inside. Electric dynamos and generators use similar components to produce electricity. When we decelerate an electric car it temporarily converts the motors to generators. They charge the battery and extend its driving range.
Electric car manufacturers hope to design their vehicles, so they create ‘magnetic’ first impressions that draw us in. This has absolutely nothing to do with the principles Michael Faraday discovered. However, it is a fact we don’t always use logic to choose our next set of wheels.
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