Building Cars In The Coming Age Of EVs

It is projected that electric vehicle (EV) sales would continue rising. As of the end of 2021, EV vehicles already account for one out of every ten vehicles in the world with China and Europe being the biggest adopters.

You might think that a ten percent market share is low, but considering that Tesla first started selling EV cars just in 2008, we might say that the rise of EV cars is nothing short of astronomical.

EV cars were the laughing stock of many car manufacturers during the early days and were at first dismissed as only something an environmentalist would drive. Now, every car manufacturers are concentrating on their own line of EV cars with plans to phase out their petrol burning cars.

EV cars have become the craze these days that petrol burning cars have become demonized in the minds of many people. Today, if you drive a car that burns a lot of petrol, many people would assuredly look down on you.

This seems to be the case with even the governments of many countries planning to phase out petrol burning cars in the near future. But, this might be a hard fought battle for governments especially those from developing countries.

The issue boils down to one thing only, the price of an EV. Even today, the price of new cars is still prohibitively expensive for many people, not to mention the price of EV cars which are way more expensive than their petrol car versions.

I have been living in a developing country, the Philippines, for more than eight years now and I haven’t seen any electric cars, not even the cheapest ones. But in contrast, I have seen a couple of electric scooters already.

The reason for me not seeing any electric cars in this country is pretty obvious, it is the price of electric vehicles. While electric cars are beyond the reach of almost many people in the Philippines, electric scooters are much more affordable to them.

Unlike many people from developed countries who can regularly buy new cars, many people from developing countries can only buy second hand cars which they would probably keep for the rest of their lives.

Another issue that’s fast rising to the top with EV cars is this: “Where’s the electricity coming from?” EV owners might like to pat themselves in the back from being environmentally conscious by not using petrol burning, carbon dioxide emitting cars.

But the big fact remains that all the added electricity that’s being used to power EV cars are coming from traditional electricity suppliers who still use fossil fuels to generate electricity. Indirectly, EV cars are still emitting carbon dioxide in the air.

EV owners might say that they have done their part and it is now the responsibility of electricity suppliers to provide clean electricity, but the fact remains that electricity is still mostly derived from burning fossil fuels.

Of course, renewable energy generation is also coming to the fore, but renewable energy is still an insignificant part of electricity production and is still unreliable. It would still take a lot of time before these two key issues are addressed.

All these issues give people who support petrol powered cars a reason to prolong the use of petrol powered cars. Another issue would be how to recycle the spent car batteries and the glaring advantage of petrol cars over electric cars when it comes to performance like towing.

Not withstanding the previously mentioned issues, it is clear to almost anyone that EV cars are the way to go. The remaining question is whether people would make the switch. People are just so familiar with petrol powered cars that the entire road network is patterned after them.

Just take a look at petrol stations. It is relatively safe to say that a driver won’t pass at least one on their way to their destination. There’s also the petrol car repair shop. It’s much easier to find a petrol car mechanic than an electric car mechanic.

The system is so efficient that you could charge an empty petrol car tank in less than five minutes while it would take several hours to fully charge an electric car. These previously mentioned problems are a few things an enterprising person should be thinking of.

Could you create a system or an app where EV owners can link with home-based EV charging station owners should an EV need recharging? There are already apps that tell EV owners where to find charging stations, I don’t know if they include home-based ones.

As to EV mechanics, the online forums I visited online pointed to the problem of finding EV mechanics. Nor did I find an app or website that lists where to find EV mechanics. I hope I’m wrong, but listing of EV mechanics is getting to be a need these coming years.

Speaking of EV mechanics, there is assuredly a need for such types of mechanics. Although since most of the EV today are at most, only ten years old, maintaining them would still be not a big issue.

But there are already EV mechanics who job is to change petrol cars to EV cars. Of course, these mechanics need to be knowledgeable in both petrol cars and EV cars in order for them to be able to do their job.

This shouldn’t be a big issue for anyone trying to do small scale petrol to EV conversions. EV car batteries can be bought online and it’s only a matter of switching the petrol engine with an EV battery.

In fact, there are many YouTube video tutorials instructing people how to convert their petrol cars to EV. Simply typing the search keywords: “EV car conversion” for example, would already show you many such videos.

If you are a petrol only mechanic, it might be advisable for you to consider the service market for EV cars. I think that currently, due to the relatively small numbers of EV cars, there are not many mechanics giving special attention to the EV car service market.

There are already a lot of YouTube videos about bicycles being turned into electric bicycles. Simply typing the search keywords: ”DIY EV bike” for example, would show a lot of videos about people adding a motor and electric batteries in their bicycles to make them electric.

Seeing these quick and relatively easy conversions, I find it as no surprise why China was able to build the largest EV industry. Please note that when I mean EV, I do not only mean cars, but bicycles, motorcycles, trikes and everything else in between.

While the rest of the world is busy trying to build EV cars only, Chinese manufacturers concentrated on the lower end of the line. This is the reason why Chinese made electric bicycles, motorcycles, trikes are now dominating the world.

Even Britain’s iconic black taxis are now under the control of a Chinese company who now owns the manufacturing rights to manufacture electric versions of these iconic black taxis. This is the reach of China’s business and manufacturing prowess.

Even the components and raw materials used for making EV batteries are dominated by China. It is scary how the world have largely conceded a vital technology to China since EV is poising to be a critical technology in the future.

But let’s forget about global politics and any other issues for the moment and concentrate on your possible EV business. More and more people are switching to electric bicycles as a means of transport.

And why is this so? For many of us, the electric bicycle is just about the right vehicle we need as compared to a motorcycle which is more expensive and arguably more dangerous. Not many people drive like race car drivers on their way to work or some other destination.

More and more people are in fact electing to just use the humble manual bicycle to travel. An electric version of their manual bicycle would already be a significant upgrade to them. This is also the age of the ”DIYers” and the ”Makers”.

Simply put, a lot of people are now taking pride in being able to build with their own hands the things that they use like furniture, things around the house, and even their vehicles. This is the reason why electric conversion kits are becoming popular.

It doesn’t matter if you’re converting a bicycle or a car, the important thing to these people is that they were able to do it. It’s hard to find a monetary value for the pride a person feels when they have built something with their own hands.

As has been said, there are now many conversion kits available for converting bicycles up to petrol cars into EV. The way I see it, you could have a complete business catering to the needs of these people who want to convert their existing vehicles to EV or build an entirely new one.

Of course, the most obvious way to first earn money is by offering your knowledge on how to convert vehicles to electric. It’s not hard to do especially if you are starting out by converting manual bicycles to electric.

Once you have watched a few electric bicycle conversion videos, you would have already a basic and general concept of how vehicles become electric. In the most basic sense, it’s just a matter of attaching an EV battery to motor and connecting this motor to the wheel of the vehicle.

I have seen many YouTube videos of how people were able to build their own electric cars, albeit lightly powered, using just this basic concept. No wonder many people find it easy to setup their own EV companies.

Building one’s own EV car these days is not rocket science nor complex. Even a teenager can do it. The only problem stopping the popularity of EV cars is the relative lack of charging stations. If charging stations abound, even the weakest home-made EV would be a thing.

There’s no denying it, EV vehicles are slowly making their way into our lives. They may not be electric cars in your country yet, but chances are that there are already electric bicycles, motorcycles trikes and everything else in between in your streets.

While it takes a lot of capital to build and sell your own EV batteries and motors, the EV service market is relatively easier to get into. You can offer a service where you convert a vehicle to electric or built an entirely new one from scratch.

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