The development process for the electric cars available in diverse models, technologies and designs continue at full speed. But, what does the abbreviations such as EV, PHEV, BEV, MHEV, etc. stand for?
EV: EV (Electric Vehicle) refers to all vehicles running on electricity.
ICE: refers to the vehicles with conventional engines running on gasoline, diesel, biofuel, and even gas.
HEV: is the term used for the hybrid engines playing major role in transition from internal combustion engines to electric engines. These models also offer significant contribution to fuel economy.
PHEV: the term used for Plug-in Hybrid electric vehicles, i.e. chargeable hybrid vehicles. These vehicles can be driven by both an electric engine and an internal combustion engine.
BEV: refers to the electric car models without internal combustion engine or fuel tank, powered only by rechargeable batteries.
MHEV: also used as Mild Hybrid vehicles. In these models, the electric engine is used for supporting the internal combustion engine.
AC and DC: AC means the alternate current and DC means the direct current. The charging stations produced for electric vehicles are either AC or DC. Electric vehicles store electricity as DC, while the current from the grid is always AC. The electric vehicles convert the energy from AC to DC via the converter available therein, and supplies to the batteries. The DC chargers have built-in converters available therein. In other words, the DC chargers supply energy directly to the batteries without any conversion at the vehicle, thus offering faster recharge rates.
