To many people’s astonishment the electric car was first produced in the UK in 1884 by a Victorian inventor called Thomas Parker and is no mere modern development (Telegraph, 2009). The growth of the electric car has become increasingly popular due to awareness of global warming and it is expected that 20% of all UK auto sales by 2016 will be the electric car(Nichols,2011).
There are three significant differences between gasoline and electric cars; the gasoline engine is replaced with an electric motor, the electric motor gets it power from a controller and the controller gets it power from rechargeable batteries (Brain,2005). The electric car has proven to be beneficial to our environment for a number of reasons. The most foremost being that no carbon emissions are released from the cars and with other benefits being its compact size and silent motor shows these vehicles are almost suited to urban environments where pollution is at its peak (Funk and Rabl,1999). Driving a standard car pushes up your carbon footprint substantially, but luckily there are many easy and simple ways to track and hopefully reduce your carbon footprint.
The efficiency of the electric car is likely to be the most appealing to buyers with the ‘Tesla Roadster’ model only consuming 110 watt-hours of electricity from the battery to provide a km worth of driving (Eberhard and Tarpenning 2007). Furthermore the efficiency of electric cars can overall be estimated at 59-62% in comparison to gasoline vehicles which is very low at 17-21% (US department of energy, 2013) showing the environmental benefits these cars have.
However with all energy saving methods they come with disadvantages making the electric car seem less appealing. The cost of buying an electric car for starts off at £13,650 for the Renault zoe electric model rising up to a £87,945 for the Tesla Roadstar showing this form of new green technology may not be available to all with its financial constraints (Greencar,2013). Furthermore the driving range of most EV vehicles is limited to 100-200 miles and the recharge time necessary is approximately 4-8 hours showing the time consuming nature of these products (US department of energy, 2013). The cost of the battery has also shown to be a disadvantage as well and the density of the battery is thought to have put some buyers off. Producing the electricity means producing greenhouse gases and some scientists have described the use of electric cars as ‘pollution diverters’. Depending on the fuel type the emissions produced vary with renewables producing 0 g km−1 to a coal based plant producing 155 g km−1 worth of greenhouse emissions (Vliet,2011). Therefore the use of electric cars needs to be thoroughly considered before purchasing however it is clear that there is a lot of potential for the future.
Energy Saving Warehouse has lots of ideas and products that can go a long way in reducing your overall environmental impact.
Brain,M.2005. How electric cars work.(pdf). Available at: http://srinivasarao.webs.com/electric-cars.pdf accessed on: 28th July 2013.
Eberhard,M., Tarpenning, M.2007.The 21st century electric car.(pdf) available at: http://www.fcinfo.jp/whitepaper/687.pdf accessed on: 28th July 2013.
Funk,K., Rabl.A, 1999. Electric versus conventional vehicles: social costs and benefits in France. Transportation Research. Vol 4(6)
Greencar,2013.EV models . (online). Available at: http://www.nextgreencar.com/electric-cars/available-models.php accessed on 28th July 2013.
Nichols, W. 2011.History of the electric car: nineteenth century novelty to 21st –century style. (Guardian online). Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/electric-vision/history-of-the-electric-car. Accessed on: 28th July 2013.
Telegraph, 2009. Worlds first electric car built by Victorian inventor 1884. (telegraph online). Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5212278/Worlds-first-electric-car-built-by-Victorian-inventor-in-1884.html accessed on: 28th July 2013
Vliet,O,. Brouwer,A.,Kuramochi, T.,Broek,M.,Faaij,2011. Energy use, cost and CO2 emissions of electric cars. Journal of power sources. Vol 196 (4).
US department of energy, 2013.Electric vehicles. (online) Available at: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/evtech.shtml. Accessed on: 28th July 2013.
