American Electric Vehicles
 |
Introduction
Nobody would ever try to claim that you needed to have the word electric in your title in order to be a good manufacturer of electric vehicles but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have it in your name for the purposes of showing the world what your focus is. American Electric Vehicles (AEV) is a company that is fully focused on the manufacture of electric vehicles and for that reason they are a worthy addition to any line of companies doing work in this area.
Company History
The AEV company in one form or another has existed ever since the mid 1990s when electrification was not a particularly high priority on anyone’s list. That being said, the people behind the company continued to persevere and eventually they were able to put together a number of different media positives that have allowed them to be looked at as a legitimate manufacturer of electric vehicles. Today, AEV is on the cutting edge of history with their battery technology.
Technology
You cannot talk about American Electric Vehicles without first discussing the technology behind their electric vehicles. In particular, AEV has been on the forefront of the lithium ion charge and thanks in no small part to their work this technology is now arguably the dominant technology around the world for electrification.
Lithium ion is exactly what it sounds like. The battery technology used in the AEV batteries uses positive lithium ions in order to facilitate the flow of electricity between the nodes on the battery cells. This electricity is able to be stored in a battery with these lithium ions in solution and of course it can then be used in order to power the various vehicles that are sold and manufactured under the AEV brand name. In fact, AEV and its various partners around the world have become so proficient in the use of lithium ion technology that they have developed multiple patents with different chemistries behind each one. That will give them a very good chance to develop multiple excellent chemical interfaces as time goes on.
Packaging is a big part of the electric battery technology from AEV and is actually one of the main reasons that they are able to keep costs so low. The costs are lowered by AEV using recycled packaging wherever possible and augmenting it rather than starting from scratch. Chemical compounds such as Manganese Dioxide and Iron Phosphate are typically used in the packaging and AEV has pouch, prism and cylinder packages available to go for many different potential uses. Vehicular transportation is of course the main use for this battery technology, but it can actually be used across a wide variety of applications and that means that some of the millions of batteries manufactured per month at AEV and its partners actually get diverted to other uses as well.
Not only is AEV involved in the development, creation and construction of the batteries that will store the electricity but they are also involved in the development, creation and construction of electric drive train systems as well. In fact, it is the drive train that got AEV started all those years ago and between the different people involved with this company it is by no means a stretch to suggest that AEV has been involved with electric drive train technology for more than 20 years.
Over the course of their history, AEV has been responsible for the creation of drive trains that are completely in charge of running automobiles or else are partial in nature. They have also been responsible for drive train strengths going anywhere from 100 W all the way up to 200 kW which means that they can power anything from a small neighbourhood electric vehicle all the way up to higher end transportation and towing.
Electric Vehicles
One thing that is worth noting about AEV is that they don’t really sell that many vehicles under their own brand name. The main reason for this is that their past experience with actual car development and sale has not been very good. The Kurrent, a car with completely electric power and a range of 40 miles with a 25 mph top speed selling for $10,000, was a car that quickly went defunct in the marketplace and AEV has apparently learned a very painful lesson from that particular experience.
What this means is that nowadays they remain heavily involved in the development of electric vehicles, but at the same time they are more the provider of parts and technical specifications than the actual manufacturer. You’ll see signs of AEV’s handiwork in the structure, chassis and overall charging system of the automobile but more often than not you will find out that AEV has partnered with some other company and it is actually that company that has ended up selling the automobile.
In fact, you might end up seeing more AEV automobiles in the road than you’d expect because of how many different partnerships they have. For example, if you see a three-wheel neighbourhood electric vehicle anywhere in North America, chances are pretty good that AEV has had a hand in its construction. This is especially true if you see that vehicle within the continental United States of America. The same is true for electric vehicles used by the military for reconnaissance missions and of course you will also see electric race cars being manufactured by this company.
Their crowning achievement to date in terms of electrification however would have to be their construction of busses for public and private transportation companies. These busses can be as small as 23 feet or as large as 43 feet. If you’ve seen public transit busses before, you’ve seen these types of busses. If you see them proudly advertising that they run on electricity completely, you can be very sure that you are looking at the handiwork of AEV throughout most of the vehicle.
In the end, this type of behind the scenes work is likely to be the legacy for AEV as they seem far more comfortable with providing consultation, support and parts manufacturing rather than full vehicle assembly
0 comments:
Post a Comment