Electric cars may someday be responsible for our independence from oil. They may help combat global warming and the depletion of a non-renewable resource. While we’re not there yet, I’m optimistic about the future. In the interim, it’s important to know about the pros and cons of current electric vehicles.
The first important fact is that there is a difference between electric and hybrid cars. Most of the green vehicles currently on the market are hybrids. This means that they use a combination of electricity and gas for propulsion. These cars have an array of batteries that power an electric motor, but they also have an internal combustion engine that burns gasoline to charge the batteries. The exact way this hybrid-drive works differs from vehicle to vehicle. In some cases the gas engine kicks in during acceleration and then lets the electric motor take over once the car is up to speed. When idling at a stop, the gas engine shuts off completely. There may be a vehicle or two on the market now that are truly electric, and more are definitely coming. An electric car runs only on batteries. The batteries are charged with a charger just like those of an RC car. They may still have internal combustion engines that kick in once the batteries die, but until then the car is powered only by electricity.
Pros
It’s pretty obvious that the main advantage of these vehicles is better gas mileage. Hybrid vehicles are known to get around 25% better gas mileage than similar vehicles with internal combustion engines. The result of better gas mileage is, of course, less fuel consumption and therefore fewer emissions. Electric vehicles will burn absolutely no gas over the range that their batteries are powering the vehicle, resulting in zero emissions.
Cons
The main disadvantage of these hybrid and electric vehicles is the price tag. Hybrid vehicles are more expensive than their gasoline-burning counterparts and are sometimes hard to find. If you decide a hybrid vehicle is for you, you may only be able to choose from a few makes and models.
For electric vehicles, the range that a single charge offers may not get you very far. The Chevrolet Volt, which will be available in 2010, only has an electric range of 40 miles before the batteries need charging and the gasoline engine kicks in to supply that charge. If you drive 40 or fewer miles per day, however, you can do so producing zero emissions.
Perhaps the biggest downfalls of these vehicles right now are the batteries. Current batteries for hybrid vehicles are lithium-ions, which are made from cobalt and nickel. Both of these elements can be poisonous to humans and animals. The mining, production, and disposal of these batteries are extremely harmful to the environment. Not only are these batteries dangerous, they are also very expensive. It may be the case that replacing the batteries in these vehicles will eat up all the savings from the better gas mileage that they offer.
Conclusion
In this article, there are many more disadvantages listed than advantages. Don’t take this to mean that hybrid/electric vehicles do more harm than good. They just need more development and technological advances, which are happening as you red this. It may not be long until they completely replace the internal combustion engine.
