# [TECH] Electric Vehicles (EVs)

**Electric Vehicles** are road vehicles powered by electric motors drawing from rechargeable batteries, combining semiconductor power electronics, battery chemistry, and software to replace the internal combustion engine.

## Overview

Early EVs pre-date ICE vehicles (Parry Thomas, 1884). Modern EVs were enabled by lithium-ion batteries (Goodenough, Whittingham, Yoshino; **Nobel Chemistry 2019**). The Nissan Leaf (2010) and Tesla Model S (2012) launched the modern EV era. By 2023, ~26 million EVs were on the road globally; annual sales exceeded 14 million. Battery costs fell from \$USD 1,200/kWh (2010) to \$USD 130/kWh (2023), a 90% reduction. The transition to EVs is driven by climate policy, falling costs, and urban air quality regulations.

## Key Actors

- **Companies**: Tesla (2003), BYD (2003), Volkswagen, GM, Nio, Rivian, CATL (batteries, 2011)
- **Inventors**: John B. Goodenough (1922–2023), M. Stanley Whittingham (1941–), Akira Yoshino (1948–)

## Key Patents

- Goodenough, J. US Patent 4,302,518 (1980) — lithium cobalt oxide cathode
- Tesla (>5,000 patents across powertrain, battery, software)

## Economic Value

Global EV market: **\$USD 850 billion/year** (2023, BloombergNEF). Tesla market cap peak \$USD 1.2T (2021). Projected EV market by 2030: \$USD 3.5T/year. Battery manufacturing market: \$USD 400B/year by 2030.

## Notes

BloombergNEF *EV Outlook* 2023. Battery cost trajectory: BNEF *Battery Price Survey* 2023. Carbon abatement value of EV transition estimated at \$USD 1T+/year by 2030 at \$USD 50/tonne CO₂.

## What This Enables

This is a current frontier node in this graph — no downstream connections yet recorded in this graph.

# Parents

* [SCI] Semiconductor Physics
* [SCI] Semiconductor Physics
* [TECH] Battery Technology
* [TECH] Electric Motors & Power Electronics