ABSTRACT
Electrically powered road vehicles are currently more and more debated and many new prototypes of vehicles and batteries have been presented, e.g. at the 18th International Battery, Hybrid and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exhibition in October 2001 in Berlin, Germany, the world’s largest event on this topic under the motto “Clean and efficient mobility for the millennium”. While for materials handling battery-powered trucks, elevating trucks, forklifts, and other vehicles for internal factory transportation have been used for decades, today the market for electric road vehicles seems to be open only in some niches, because of the relative higher initial costs. As environmental laws tighten and oil and gasoline become more expensive, battery-powered machinery gains importance in more than one regard. Table 2.1 gives a view of the variety of battery electric powered vehicles. For more on electric road vehicles see Chapter 4.
