BEV, PHEV, HEV and MHEV
Acronyms which denote a vehicle with an electric motor, be that wholly electric and charged by plugging it in to an outlet (BEV – battery electric vehicle), an electric motor charged with a plug that supports what would usually be a petrol engine (PHEV – Plug-in Hybrid electric vehicle ), an electric motor which is charged by breaking but also by the petrol or diesel engine it supports (HEV – Hybrid electric vehicle), or a much smaller 48v electric motor, charged by braking which supports the internal combustion engine during start-up and take-off (MHEV – Mild hybrid electric vehicle).
According to ‘SMMT’, in 2020 electric vehicles had a 27.2% market share with petrol making up the majority of the market with 56.4%. In 2021 however, electric vehicle sales increased by over 71% on average, increasing their market share by 17.5% with diesel taking the biggest hit with a reduction of almost 50%. Looking at the statistics, it is hard not to see a trend, and that is that electric motors of some kind will become the dominant new car within the next few years. If you include MHEV in this prediction, it will come much sooner and it has to. In the UK, the sale of new vehicles powered solely by traditional petrol or diesel will be outlawed by 2030 and by 2035 all new vehicles must be fully alternatively powered.
Take a ride in any electric car, and you’ll be forgiven for thinking you’re actually taking a trip into the metaverse. No matter where you look or what you press, in most cases you are online in some way or another; be that streaming music through your infotainment system, updating your vehicles capabilities over the air or receiving live traffic updates to your navigation system to get you to your location faster. Cars are becoming more autonomous as well. Some now have fully autonomous driving capabilities, with some you can summon your car to your location without a driver and in the event of an accident or breakdown, your car can relay your position to the authorities, automatically summoning help. Some manufacturers even have the technology to diagnose faults and order spare parts… Automatically!
So is this the future?
We think so. As a provider of connected services, we need to always be on the look out for new and emerging technologies and uses for these technologies. Did you know that you can remotely open your boot to allow deliveries when you’re away from home? Did you know you can use the new Ford F150-Lightning can be used to power your house? With these new technologies.
It isn’t therefore enough for a supplier like Teletrac Navman to simply provide e call and b call support and that’s why as a company that prides itself on innovation, owned by one of the largest automotive players in the world, Vontier, we offer a whole host of solutions to support this growing segment. Until recently it was commonly held that the use of personal vehicles would begin to dwindle. We think their uses are just beginning.
V2X is the term that describes what we do, and simply put, it means “vehicle to Anything”. If a car can send a signal, Teletrac Navman can pick it up and use the data. So this doesn’t mean the traditional connected services like e-call and b-call are going anywhere, it just means that they’re getting better.
In the case of e-call it means that we may be able to see some preliminary information on what caused the crash, was the driver asleep? Did they try to brake?
For B call we may be able to diagnose the problem with the car automatically and over the phone meaning that the breakdown mechanic can fix the car by the road side.
For stolen vehicle services, we can be able to tell the method of theft or remotely shut the car down when the police are nearby. With internal monitoring we might even be able to pass descriptions of the thieves to the authorities.
Want to find out what amazing new programs we are involved in?
