Electric Cars
Electric Cars, Are they really better for the Environment?
By Justin Williams
August 22, 2022
Are electric cars the future in providing a greener environment? Advertisers might lead you to believe this, but the truth is, we aren’t completely there yet. In this article, I will discuss the pro’s (positives) and con’s (negatives) of owning an electric vehicle (EV) verse a standard gas-powered vehicle.
When deciding on a new car, there are many factors to consider such as distance traveled, size and space of vehicle, and not to mention how stylish your car is, after all, it is an extension of yourself. Of course, we need to discuss whether electric vehicles are actually better for the environment?
First, let’s look at the positives of driving a traditional gas-powered vehicle. It’s no mystery, that gas cars cost less than electric cars, they are cheaper to manufacture since car makers have been making them for over 100 years. Electric vehicles cost more because of the relatively new technology and the batteries needed to power the vehicle. A current issue is building the parts of the electric car. The batteries are very labor intensive in mining for material and if you are using nuclear or coal plants to do so, then the emissions and carbon pollution is sometimes much worse than your standard gas car production.
Next, how about the performance of cars? Gas cars have a greater top speed than EVs. It’s also very useful to be able to drive much farther in range, while EVs have a limited average of 200 miles of driving. It’s often difficult to find a fast-charging station for your EV and you may need to wait an hour to get that full charge. That can be very timely if you need to drive 500 miles on your trip. Gas cars on the other hand, are much faster in this sense, you gas up and go. For your EV, you also need special charging hookups at home to accommodate that higher charge needed to power the EV, so you don’t fry your electrical circuit board at home. While these are great positives for the gas-powered car, there are still strong points in why you should have an EV.
For those positives for electric cars, although more expensive right now, they are much cheaper to maintain. You aren’t doing a regular oil change, not to mention, you usually get tax credits from the state to help save on the costs when you buy one. EVs have more torque which means they are faster from a stop due to the way they work with the drivetrain. You get up and go quicker from a dead stop. When you are driving the electric car enjoying amenities like carpool lanes and special parking privileges, you are not burning fossil fuels and have zero tailpipe emissions. In addition, the car is quieter and produces basically zero noise pollution.
While it seems that there are currently more positives than negatives in driving a gas car, it’s true for the time being, but as in any industry, it takes a little time to maximize production efficiency. One interesting study showed that it may take up to 136,000 miles of driving your EV before it equals the gas vehicle in terms of emissions and pollution output, then after that point, you are driving greener in your EV. The problem still lies that your EV battery currently won’t last that long, not to mention the issue of recycling the battery. About 99% of traditional batteries for gas cars are recycled, whereas only 5% of lithium batteries for EVs are recycled. The big question then, is an EV really better overall for the environment? In the long run, yes, but since people generally just keep their vehicles for only a few years, you aren’t seeing that return of investment as you are paying for the high costs up front. As the infrastructure improves for electric power stations, the power plants producing the EV batteries become more efficient and greener, recycling lithium batteries get better, then EVs will be greener in every aspect.
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