by Joyce M. Stuart
To the surprise of many people, the concept of vehicles powered by electricity is not a new one. Although there has been much widespread publicity in recent years about the new age of greener and more environmentally friendly vehicles powered by electricity rather than gas, the first successful electric vehicles were actually being developed nearly two hundred years ago, back in the 1830s. Robert Anderson in Scotland created a successful electric carriage capable of speeds up to 65 miles per hour, and by the 1900s electric cars were more popular than gas powered ones, and were certainly quieter, cleaner and easier to start.
Perceptions of electric vehicles today tend to lurch from rickety old golf carts to the slightly absurd milk flats, but the truth is that electric cars today can easily out perform their gas powered counterparts. Not only can they outperform them, but they can do so at a fraction of the cost to both the consumer, and more importantly, the environment. For example, the new Tesla Roadster can leave the Ferrari Spider standing at the lights whilst gliding effortlessly past the Mercedes SL550, whilst costing about a cent per mile in the process. With a top speed of about 130 miles per hour and with a three hour charge sustaining a full 250 mile trip, this is anything but a milk float.
It is easy to assume that the single most important advantage from using electric powered vehicles is the reduction of pollution to the environment through the burning of fossil fuels, but another advantage is the reduction of noise pollution, all too often forgotten. Our urban life reverberates to the hum and growl of hundreds of gas powered vehicles, and we have come to accept this. However, electric cars have the capability of eliminating almost all of the noise associated with cars, and this can only be an advantage. Some people have speculated that silent, or virtually silent vehicles may prove hazardous to those who may not be as aware of oncoming traffic when crossing roads, such as children or the elderly.
It isn’t only the fact that those who buy and use electric powered vehicles can sleep easy at night knowing that they are doing their bit for the environment. To really be appealing to the average consumer it has to make financial sense as well as environmental sense, and in this regard electric vehicles can score very highly. For example, for a mere fraction of the cost of the average car you can purchase a G-Wiz, which sits snugly in the lowest bracket for road insurance, and is also exempt from road tax. With two hundred recharging stations across the UK, keeping it running is easy, and if you live in London there’s a huge advantage because you are allowed to park for free, as well as being exempt from the congestion charges. This alone can represent a saving of over 5,000 per year, which is more than the cost of the car!
On a much larger scale, one country has taken the gigantic step forward and proposed a strategy to entirely eliminate their need for oil to support their road traffic within ten years. Israel has recently unveiled its Project Better Place which is a long term plan to replace oil based gas guzzling vehicles with electric ones, with an estimated completion date of within ten years. The country already has half a million stations which support the re-charging of electric vehicles, and with the average distance capable of being travelled between charges more than ample to enable a vehicle to travel between any two points within the country without the need to stop, it is both an ambitious project but one which looks as though it could very well set a high standard for the rest of the world. The plans include introducing electric vehicle distribution in a similar way to mobile phones, with companies giving the cars away free whilst users simply pay for the cost to use or charge the car, doing so either on contract with unlimited usage, or on a pay-as-you-drive basis.
As with any new development, the ultimate success relies heavily on consumer demand, and companies piloting electric vehicle schemes are trying hard to win that consumer demand and interest. With electric vehicles being showcased in Hollywood, such as the Lexus driven by Tom Cruise in Minority Report, people are starting to realise that the future isn’t a world full of milk floats, but of slick and powerful cars that anyone would be proud to drive. With the US home to nearly eight million electric vehicles, consumer demand is very much a voice loud enough to have caught the ears of politicians.
An issue that those sceptics raise concerning electric vehicles is that although eh car itself might not be giving off fumes and harming the environment by burning up fossil fuels, the energy for the batteries has to come from somewhere, and this is likely to be through the main electricity grid, itself powered through the burning of fossil fuels, so that ultimately the whole scheme simply shifts the focus away from the end consumer and back to the big industries. In fact this argument is not entirely valid, since more and more power companies are turning to renewable sources of energy, and this is likely to continue. The other argument is that of the fuel consumption ratio. Gas powered cars burn the fossil fuel in a very wasteful way, whereas electric cars use energy in a much more efficient manner. In this way, the actual amount of energy used, and therefore the amount of fossil fuel burned, is far less.
Imagine a future where we can all drive around in almost virtual silence, with no fumes, no smoke, and even if we get stuck in traffic jams or sit stationery at lights, we don’t have to worry about burning fuel unnecessarily. Some people have expressed concern that in this seemingly idyllic future the power companies would fail because at night, when we all plugged in our cars to recharge, we’d overload the grid. In fact, at night this is when the grid is used far less, and estimates have been made that if we all switched to electric cars, the power grid would be able to work at almost half the capacity it does now. Perhaps we can envisage a future where we come home, plug our car into the fuel cells charged through the day by the solar panels on our roof, and sleep with a clean, and green, conscience.
About the Author:
With modern technology on everyones lips, more people are turning onto the colour green. From
electric cars to
hybrid cars the world now has a conscience. The our lifestyle is on everyones minds, the forests, wildlife and nature..green is the colour.
Tags: Reference & Education by Joyce M. Stuart
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