As automakers transition to battery power, how long is the road ahead for the internal combustion engine?
New supplier alliances are ensuring a stream of vital batteries, software and electronics for anticipated demand for electric vehicles. Battery ranges of 300, 400 and even 750 miles are being claimed. What was a slow crawl toward an electrified horizon a year ago has become a jog as automakers announce EV models, provide higher EV-portfolio percentages and predict 100,000-vehicle sales.
Anna Stefanopoulou is a professor of mechanical and electrical engineering and William Clay Ford Professor of Technology at the University of Michigan. Her research interests are the modeling and control of internal combustion engines and electrochemical technologies such as fuel cells and batteries.