Back in the first two decades of automobile development, electric propulsion was a serious competitor for the internal combustion engine.
Electrically-propelled vehicles, however, soon proved unable to satisfy users' increasing performance demands in terms of range, acceleration, top speed and hill-climbing, together with such factors as operating life, initial purchase price, running costs and reliability.
Engineers investigating electric propulsion today face precisely the same unwelcome legacy as their predecessors, despite many and varied attempts in the meantime to improve the components of the electric vehicle's drive system (energy storage device, motors, controller).
Progress in battery development, particularly in the case of the NaS system, has nevertheless enabled us at least partly to overcome the previous problems associated with electric drive systems, though it cannot be claimed that all obstacles to its commercial application have been eliminated as yet.
This is a report on the experience gained at BMW to date, the current state of work and development trends.