Green-tech: Debunking The Electric Vehicle
Picking up where we left off on our post about the General Motors EV1 and its removal from the market, today we will look at debunking common misconceptions about electric vehicles, and how they really can prevent a lot of damage to our planet.
There are a lot of predispositions that people are carrying around with them about electric vehicles, which seem rather unfair and untrue. The most common misconceptions are that these vehicles don’t hold enough charge to be worthwhile, they won’t prevent enough carbon emissions to make a difference, and that batteries are damaging to the environment and prone to start fires.
“They don’t hold enough charge”:
A study conducted by Pd.D. Students at Columbia University has been released, completely debunking the misconception that only a small number of people would benefit from an electric vehicle. The study concluded in fact that 93% of daily driving is within range for electric vehicles. To give more perspective on this study, the standard for an average amount of daily driving was set at 100 miles, or 160kms, for one day one a single charge…We’re not sure about you guys, but that seems like a lot of mileage on one charge.
“Batteries are damaging for the environment and can easily start on fire”:
Another advantage that electric vehicles have over gas powered vehicles is that other than factory production and reliance on battery power, there are no emissions being produced by these vehicles or repeated negative impact on the environment. On the other hand, on top of emissions caused by factory production, conventional vehicles are causing copious amounts of oil to be extracted, refined, combusted, and then emitted from the vehicle’s tailpipe. It appears to us that, while batteries admittedly aren’t very eco-friendly, there are far more benefits to driving a battery powered vehicle than a fuel consuming vehicle when it comes to the environment.
The myth that battery powered vehicles are easily combustible has also been proven wrong by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In fact, they have established that “Based on the available data, NHTSA does not believe that Chevy Volts or other electric vehicles pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles.”
“Battery powered vehicles won’t prevent enough carbon emissions to make a difference”
This statement seems to be a bit overzealous to us, and here’s why. As we stated in our previous post on this topic, vehicle emissions account for 20% of the 8000 million tonnes of yearly global carbon emissions. They also account for 33% of the entire United States emissions. If conventional vehicles were replaced by electric vehicles, we could potentially eliminate 1600 million tonnes of carbon emissions. Does this not sound like something beneficial to our planet? We won’t touch very much on this issue, but the global and military disruption caused by the oil industry is also a responsibility that electric vehicle owners do not have to bear.
Are you convinced yet? Have you been convinced that battery powered vehicles are important to the future well-being of our planet, and that there have barely any negative connotations? Follow us on Twitter to join the conversation, share your thoughts, and provide feedback.
photo courtesy of http://www.rechargenews.com/regions/north_america/article172284.ece
