Electric Vehicles Optimism versus the Energy Market Reality

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The study presented significance of electric vehicle in achieving environmental goals. Few suggestions to improve the manuscript are given below:

Abstract lacks novelty. Kindly justify it.

Enhance the introduction section by including research objectives and gaps. 

Related literature should focus on critical gaps. Kindly enhance it with recent literatures.

Method section is vague. Kindly describe the section at the start of section.

Kindly move the limitations sub section to conclusion.

Provide policy and practical implications of the study.

why different section of findings and results are made? 

Include future research directions in conclusion section.

Author Response

Firstly, please allow me to thank you for your kind review. Below are provided explanations as well as actions taken in order to improve the article.

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The study presented significance of electric vehicle in achieving environmental goals. Few suggestions to improve the manuscript are given below:

Abstract lacks novelty. Kindly justify it. Thank you very much for your comment – that proves I was successful in provoke the reader to keep reading. The idea was to make politicians read the article for a better understanding of the subject. Being to academical and providing an over-the-top approach will make them believe is written only for researchers: by that I hope I will be able to address politicians in a more common language.

Enhance the introduction section by including research objectives and gaps. Added as a new sub-section in the Introduction chapter. Thank you for your suggestion… indeed it was missing, despite the fact that, in my head, things were pretty clear.

Related literature should focus on critical gaps. Kindly enhance it with recent literatures. Updated as requested. However, if the reviewer is unsatisfied with the result, I kindly ask for help on this issue… maybe by pointing out a series of journals or articles to focus on. Thank you very much the comment.

Method section is vague. Kindly describe the section at the start of section. Great suggestion!! Thank you very much. Updated as advised.

Kindly move the limitations sub section to conclusion. Thank you for your comment: I have re-arranged and updated the section to better fulfil the requirements of a Conclusion section.

Provide policy and practical implications of the study. Again, thank you for your great suggestion. I added the information at the end of the Discussion chapter.

why different section of findings and results are made? I have made few changes on the structure. Thank you for your comment – it was no need to have them both. I my mind, I suppose, I was addressing the message differently: once for the politicians and then for researchers and the results were for the politicians. Many thanks!

Include future research directions in conclusion section. Added as advised… please see the very bottom of the Conclusion section. Thank you very much for your valuable and inspiring comment and advice.

Once again, thank you very much for your kind review!

Reviewer 2 Report

In this manuscript, based on the statistic reports from the European Union as well as literature and mathematical calculus, the author attempts to examine if what politicians see will be a matter of reality in the near future. Even though electrical cars will replace the fossil fuel ones in private transportation, the actual energy market trends are not able to support the demand for the next several decades. For this purpose, the author zooms in on one European country-Romania, to provide it as a case study.

I consider the content of this manuscript suitable for the readership of Sustainability. I suggest a minor revision of the manuscript. The interpretation of some results should be more detailed and the introduction part can also be enriched and improved.

• The length of the abstract exceeds the requirements of the journal and needs to be reduced appropriately. ‘Abstract: The abstract should be a total of about 200 words maximum’ (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/instructions).

• The Keywords, ‘energy market’, ‘demand’ and ‘Romania’ should be added to cause the broader interest of readers.

• Line 47, ‘All these initiatives are meant to strengthen the incentives for using alternative energy sources and also gives to all actors involved in the process, the incentives for further research and developments.’In this part, the shortcomings of alternative energy, especially renewable energy, should be pointed out, which is also the reason why renewable energy is not widely used at present, that is, its energy generation is intermittent. ‘The alternative energy sources such as solar energy and wind energy are unstable and intermittent during generation, and thus these valuable electric energies are difficult to apply continuously and stably. Hence, additional energy storage systems are needed to improve the utilization rate and stability, but at the same time, it increases the complexity of the operation. [ChemSusChem 15.1 (2022): e202101798]’

• Line 89, ‘People should not blindly assume that EVs are a no-emission super-technology and this is mostly because the energy used by EVs needs also to be produced.’Here, the author should explain clearly whether this result is caused by the current power plants mainly using fossil fuels for power generation. If we use renewable energy or hydrogen energy to generate electricity completely without carbon, will EV technology become more perfect? Or is carbon dioxide emissions during power production inevitable, regardless of the use of any fuel?

• Line 278-280 and Line 286-288 are nearly the same, and they should be merged together.

• Line 302, ‘Limited Battery Life’ is one important concern. Since batteries are mentioned here, the safety and the risk of flammability and even explosion after an impact accident should also be mentioned [Journal of power sources 210 (2012): 243-253]. At present, the electrolyte of lithium batteries used in electric vehicles is flammable, which has the hidden danger of ignition and electrolyte leakage. Although the solid-state battery with high energy density can overcome these defects and achieve a longer endurance distance, it has not yet achieved mass production and high cost.

• Line 349, ‘In a report made by Bloomberg in November 2021 [100] they also put a bet on hydrogen, but this is a subject to be researched.’ Since this review is about electric vehicles and their market, I think the batteries of electric vehicles may not only focus on lithium batteries. Therefore, fuel cell-based EVs [IEEE Transactions on power electronics 21.3 (2006): 567-577; International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 44.23 (2019): 11574-11583] and even flow battery EVs [https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/113921-improved-redox-flow-batteries-for-electric-cars/fr; Journal of Power Sources 493 (2021): 229445] should be briefly introduced and compared with current lithium batteries, which may be cost-effective and have longer battery life. Maybe a table can be used to show the differences between various batteries and even battery/supercapacitor hybrid storage systems.

• The latest trend about the new selections for EVs and the reduction of battery cost should be mentioned. For example, ‘The increase in the selection of electric vehicles is another important driving force. According to the report of the International Energy Agency, there are about 370 electric vehicles in the world in 2020, an increase of 40% over 2019. Consumers have more model choices when buying electric vehicles.’

‘The decline in battery costs has also improved the price competitiveness of electric vehicles. According to the annual battery price survey of Bloomberg new energy finance, the international average price of automobile batteries in 2020 was 13% lower than that in 2019. By 2023, the fuel cost of electric vehicles is expected to be close to that of fuel vehicles of the same grade.’

• The topic of consumers' weak purchase intention for EVs seems to be changing now. ‘With the encouragement of the government, people's attitude towards electric vehicles has changed from wait-and-see to positive. Electric vehicles are now entering a virtuous circle, attracting more and more consumers.’The introduction should also be updated with times.

Author Response

Firstly, please allow me to thank you for your kind review. Below are provided explanations as well as actions taken in order to improve the article.

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

In this manuscript, based on the statistic reports from the European Union as well as literature and mathematical calculus, the author attempts to examine if what politicians see will be a matter of reality in the near future. Even though electrical cars will replace the fossil fuel ones in private transportation, the actual energy market trends are not able to support the demand for the next several decades. For this purpose, the author zooms in on one European country-Romania, to provide it as a case study.

I consider the content of this manuscript suitable for the readership of Sustainability. I suggest a minor revision of the manuscript. The interpretation of some results should be more detailed and the introduction part can also be enriched and improved.

• The length of the abstract exceeds the requirements of the journal and needs to be reduced appropriately. ‘Abstract: The abstract should be a total of about 200 words maximum’ (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/instructions).
• Corrected as requested. I removed the comments in brackets and added it as a footnote. For some reasons I considered more important to be straight in the Abstract, but indeed is not very relevant to actually be there. Also rephrased some ideas. Thank you!
• The Keywords, ‘energy market’, ‘demand’ and ‘Romania’ should be added to cause the broader interest of readers.
• Great idea. Thank you very much.

• Line 47, ‘All these initiatives are meant to strengthen the incentives for using alternative energy sources and also gives to all actors involved in the process, the incentives for further research and developments.’ In this part, the shortcomings of alternative energy, especially renewable energy, should be pointed out, which is also the reason why renewable energy is not widely used at present, that is, its energy generation is intermittent. ‘The alternative energy sources such as solar energy and wind energy are unstable and intermittent during generation, and thus these valuable electric energies are difficult to apply continuously and stably. Hence, additional energy storage systems are needed to improve the utilization rate and stability, but at the same time, it increases the complexity of the operation. [ChemSusChem 15.1 (2022): e202101798]’.
• Thank you for your suggestion. I added it on the article.

• Line 89, ‘People should not blindly assume that EVs are a no-emission super-technology and this is mostly because the energy used by EVs needs also to be produced.’ Here, the author should explain clearly whether this result is caused by the current power plants mainly using fossil fuels for power generation. If we use renewable energy or hydrogen energy to generate electricity completely without carbon, will EV technology become more perfect? Or is carbon dioxide emissions during power production inevitable, regardless of the use of any fuel?
• Thank you for your comment. I added a reference to the limitation sub-section (now under the Conclusion) where I stated that Even if considering better options of replacing fossil plants altogether with nuclear, wind, or any other green energy producing plants it is merely impossible to estimate the impact on environment of those plants: hydro-electrical power plants do need a dam to be constructed and they do sacrifice the surrounding environment (e.g., the Egyptian Aswan Nile Dam [78], the Chinese Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River [79]), the nuclear power plants produce radioactive waste very difficult to deal with [80, 81].

• Line 278-280 and Line 286-288 are nearly the same, and they should be merged together.
• Now, because the Limitation went to Conclusions, I consider being important for the statement to still be there. I added a few words to connect. Thank you very much. I was a… brain loop ?!

• Line 302, ‘Limited Battery Life’ is one important concern. Since batteries are mentioned here, the safety and the risk of flammability and even explosion after an impact accident should also be mentioned [Journal of power sources 210 (2012): 243-253]. At present, the electrolyte of lithium batteries used in electric vehicles is flammable, which has the hidden danger of ignition and electrolyte leakage. Although the solid-state battery with high energy density can overcome these defects and achieve a longer endurance distance, it has not yet achieved mass production and high cost.
• Also added in the article. Thank you for your great suggestion!

• Line 349, ‘In a report made by Bloomberg in November 2021 [100] they also put a bet on hydrogen, but this is a subject to be researched.’ Since this review is about electric vehicles and their market, I think the batteries of electric vehicles may not only focus on lithium batteries. Therefore, fuel cell-based EVs [IEEE Transactions on power electronics 21.3 (2006): 567-577; International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 44.23 (2019): 11574-11583] and even flow battery EVs [https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/113921-improved-redox-flow-batteries-for-electric-cars/fr; Journal of Power Sources 493 (2021): 229445] should be briefly introduced and compared with current lithium batteries, which may be cost-effective and have longer battery life. Maybe a table can be used to show the differences between various batteries and even battery/supercapacitor hybrid storage systems.
• Thank you very much for your very valuable comment. My intention is to further develop this study with customer perception on EVs and to develop in it reasons for buying such a car… of course, battery type will be a very important topic – I added a dedicated paragraph of future research at the very end of the Conclusion section in this regard. Again thank you very much for your comment… very useful and inspiring.

• The latest trend about the new selections for EVs and the reduction of battery cost should be mentioned. For example, ‘The increase in the selection of electric vehicles is another important driving force. According to the report of the International Energy Agency, there are about 370 electric vehicles in the world in 2020, an increase of 40% over 2019. Consumers have more model choices when buying electric vehicles.’
• Added in the article. Thank you for your great suggestion!
• ‘The decline in battery costs has also improved the price competitiveness of electric vehicles. According to the annual battery price survey of Bloomberg new energy finance, the international average price of automobile batteries in 2020 was 13% lower than that in 2019. By 2023, the fuel cost of electric vehicles is expected to be close to that of fuel vehicles of the same grade.’
• Also added in the article. Thank you for your great suggestion!

• The topic of consumers' weak purchase intention for EVs seems to be changing now. ‘With the encouragement of the government, people's attitude towards electric vehicles has changed from wait-and-see to positive. Electric vehicles are now entering a virtuous circle, attracting more and more consumers.’ The introduction should also be updated with times.
• Added in the article per se. Thank you very much for your great and valuable comment.

Once again, thank you very much for your kind review!