Going to give an informative speech (in my advanced public speaking class) about the future of vehicles. What are some good points to touch on?

It's not just regular cars that are making the transition. Motorcycles are already on par performance wise and while they are lagging in terms of range, they are good enough for a lot of use case. Zero Motorcycles and Lightning are two notable companies.

Planes are coming online as well. For now just small ones due to battery energy density by weight still being low, but as energy density improves, larger and larger aircrafts will be possible. Here you can talk about Solar impulse (uses batteries btw), Airbus E-Fan which crossed the English channel, Pipistrel Electro. Also you could mention how the electrification of aircrafts could enable new possibilities by mentioning projects like the drone carrying one person concept from China etc.

Electrification of boats especially cargo ships is also an interesting topic you can cover. So far it seems like a distant possibility for the biggest ships but there are already smaller boats that have been electrified. For large ones, until energy density of batteries becomes good enough, they could have a transition period with hydrogen fuel cells or hybrid systems with ICE powering electrically driven propeller(s).

In terms of cars it's not just Tesla Models S, X and 3 there is also the Chevy Bolt, Faraday Future, Rimac Concept One and Concept S. You can also talk about all the older manufacturers procrastinating with compliance EVs that have now decided to bring more serious products on the market. You could mention VW and dieselgate and how they made a pivot (in just PR for now) towards electric cars (all their offerings thus far have been compliance only though). asanger At the end you can also talk about other ways of transport. While the world is now comfortable with having cars, it's definitely a mistake of the last century. Public transportation could offer much more sustainable solutions in the form of electric trans, trams, streetcars etc. Here you can also talk about innovations in terms of maglev trains (working examples in China) and prototypes (Germany and Japan). Last but not least, concepts like evacuated tube transportation and more recently hyperloop.

Last but not least, brief history of batteries, Li ion as current generation (specs about energy density by weight and by volume, cost per kWh and how it has changed) and prototype batteries with new chemistries that either come close to gasoline energy density or even surpass it and how that will change the future of every mode of transportation.

Bonus, energy generation. Electrification of transportation, regardless how it's done (car, hyperloop etc.) will depend on the greening of energy generation, otherwise it won't mean much. It will clean city centers but the planet will not see a drop in green house gas emissions. Here you can mention the problem of renewables (intermittence) and how batteries will solve this issue.

/r/electricvehicles Thread