A Closer Look at Electric Cars

In our previous post, we discussed the evolution of electric cars. Now we will take a closer look at electric cars. The phenomenon of electric cars is taking the world by storm and has created a wave of people shifting towards electric cars in order to save the planet. But electric cars might not be the wonderful saving grace that we all have come to know them as. In fact, they are still far from becoming a saving grace. But, they are quickly moving to become so.

Companies like Tesla and Toyota have shown men across the globe just what fully electric cars are capable of. In fact, the fastest car on the planet right now is the Tesla Roadster 2 with a 0-60 of 1.9 seconds.

Cars have been the number one culprit in increasing the overall temperature of the planet. Emissions from cars have led to some serious adverse effects on the planet, effects that we might even know about. Catalytic converters were seen as the future when they were first introduced but now it is electric cars taking up that mantle.

The Pros of Electric Cars

The Pros of electric cars far outweigh the cons in the long run especially.

The phenomenon of electric cars has first and foremost cut or has started to cut our dependency on fossil fuels as a whole. Fossil Fuels are, as it is, a finite resource. This resource has to be first dug up, then processed, and then finally turned into use for our vehicles. The burning of fossil fuels gives off Carbon Monoxide and various other gasses that pollute the environment.

Electric Cars are much more powerful than fuel-based cars. They are also very quiet and drive smoother than butter. A simple ride in a fully electric car is enough to completely understand the power they are capable of. When you press down on the accelerator in a fuel car, the input lag is pretty noticeable. However, you would think twice about pushing down on the accelerator in an electric car since the sheer power of the car will propel you forward quite immediately.

You will save on gas- forever. Never again would you have to worry about the rising prices of gas since they will never affect you again. You can easily install a charging station at home and charge your car overnight. This one charge takes you anywhere from 200-400 miles. This number, of course, varies across the model of cars and how the batteries are used. But whatever the case may be, you would not have to spend a dime on your car for gar ever again.

The Cons of Electric Cars

These cons are not exactly huge flaws in the phenomenon of electric cars, rather these are points that can be hoped to be improved in the future. With that being said, these are the cons of electric cars.

Electric Cars are still very much a rich person’s luxury. Even the cheapest Electric cars start around $30,000 and that too on sale. These cars are way out of reach of the common man and that is a huge problem. For the phenomenon of electric cars to have any effect on the environment they have to be easily accessible to the masses of the public. One way to make this a reality is to reduce or completely boycott the purchase of fuel-based cars. Voices against the use of fuel cars have to be raised and made clear to manufacturers.

Electric Cars do not go very far. With the cheapest electric cars going about 100-120 miles on a single charge one always fears that they might run out of juice mid-ride. Even the highest-end most expensive model of electric car can go only about 300 miles. In comparison, even the cheapest models of fuel cars go more than 300 miles.

Recharging is not instant and takes a lot of time. If you ever completely run out of juice in the battery of your electric car well then you would just have to wait 4-5 hours before a complete recharge. Compare this with the about 5 minutes or less it takes you to fill a gas tank. Since there are not many electric filling stations, drives of electric cars usually have to plan a lot of things out before a drive. But realistically, you would drive about 15 miles and max 50 miles out of the say 120 miles in a day for your everyday work and life. Going home and putting it on the charge would replenish that and you would seemingly never run out of power.

Batteries need replacement but they are very expensive. Electric cars need their batteries replaced often if you plan on keeping them for your entire life. These batteries are very very expensive and are one of the biggest reasons why people do not buy electric cars. These batteries are of course not salvageable at all and could leave us with an entirely new waste issue in the future. Lithium-Ion batteries are generally very dangerous to handle anyway.

Final Thoughts

The UK and France have both pledged to completely ban fuel cars by 2040. Volvo along with a few other manufacturers have said that they will only sell hybrid or electric cars from 2019 onwards. Efforts are being made to recycle old car batteries for use in homes in the UK. Similar projects like this are being done across Europe as well. But progress is quite slow as it is very expensive to extract raw materials from batteries. Tesla and Toyota have both partnered with Umicore to smelt materials from car batteries but this too has one vital drawback. Lithium cannot be extracted using this process.

As the world moves towards an electric future, we can hope to create many ways to save our planet by improving our current technology. Do you agree? Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments in the section below.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/aug/10/electric-cars-big-battery-waste-problem-lithium-recycling

https://www.energysage.com/electric-vehicles/101/pros-and-cons-electric-cars/

https://mashable.com/2017/10/03/electric-car-development-plans-ford-gm/#083mS.nImiq5

https://evconnectors.com/news/major-manufacturers-pledge-to-go-electric/

http://www.plugincars.com/electric-cars-pros-and-cons-128637.html

https://ez-ev.com/tips/15-cheapest-electric-cars-in-2018-with-exclusive-deals