CAREY ON EVS

A glossary of terms to help you decipher the future of mobility

Most of us still don’t speak this language. Here’s your primer

ELECTRIC vehicles are incredibly energy efficient. And, unlike liquid fuel burners, they aren’t inescapably reliant on a finite, polluting and mostly imported fossil resource. They’re quiet, quick and often entertaining to drive.

EVS make sense, but making sense of EVS is challenging. This is an unfamiliar technology that speaks a mostly unfamiliar language. And it’s one that needs to be learned.

In the near future, the Mercedes-benz EQC, Audi E-tron and BMW ix3 will be joining Jaguar in the battle to beat Tesla at its own high-priced game. Meanwhile, at the affordable end of the EV spectrum, Hyundai’s Ioniq Electric and Kona Electric, plus the much-improved second-generation Nissan Leaf, are providing competition for the BMW i3 and Renault Zoe.

So it’s time to master the ideas and idiom of EVS...