When we talk about preserving the environment, one of the most common lines of conversation focuses on electric vehicles. If the entire world transitioned to all-electric transportation, at least on land, we could dramatically reduce the amount of pollution pumped into our atmosphere.
People would breathe better, and animals would live better. Heavily polluted cities like Hong Kong and Los Angeles would revert to having breathable air for the first time in decades.
It sounds like an impossible dream. But is it no more than wishful thinking to assert that electric vehicles can play such a central role in reducing air pollution?
And if they can, why hasn’t the entire developed world leaped to embrace electric car and truck technology?
Why electric vehicles aren’t mainstream for consumers
The short answer to the question of why electric vehicles haven’t been plugged into every home in the developed world involves a combination of practical details, up-front cost, and misperceptions.
It’s taken more than 100 years for electric vehicles to become a practical option for personal transportation, and the up-front cost remains a factor that puts them out of reach for many. Although a 3D printed electric car costs around $7,500, not everyone wants to drive a DIY-style car.
Manufacturers have announced the potential for such vehicles, but they won’t enter production until 2019. Plus, electric cars are also burdened by myths that have to be busted.
For example, many people believe electric cars are still “the technology of the future,” but there are already more than 3 million electric cars on the road around the world. By assuming this technology is an option that still lies the future, people put it out of reach for themselves.
Perhaps the biggest misconception is that gas-powered cars are faster than pure electric cars. The opposite is true, though.
Most pure electric cars accelerate faster than gas or diesel-powered cars. For instance, a lower-priced Nissan Leaf can accelerate from 0 to 60mph in 7.4 seconds, and a Tesla Model S can do it in just 2.28 seconds.
Electric is popular with public transportation
Most people acknowledge the utility of electric and hybrid tech in public transportation, but they remain uninterested in the option of owning an electric car for personal use. This again is probably due to faulty perceptions of electric vehicles, and the up-front price of a high-quality electric or hybrid car such as the Tesla Model S, Tesla Roadster, Nissan Leaf, or the Toyota Prius.
Public transportation agencies that have access to funding can afford to launch an entire fleet of electric buses as well as construct the necessary charging stations and other infrastructure on the roads.
Today, some electric buses are equipped with on-board generators that avoid the need to consume power from the grid. An alternative is for public agencies to install further infrastructure on city streets.
These buses are equipped with a propulsion system that uses regenerative braking (much like a Prius), which generates power on board to charge the batteries steadily. This is a huge leap beyond the common electric-vehicle technology that requires grid power to keep powered up.
Electric vehicles have been slow to evolve
Electric vehicles have existed since the 19th century, but they didn’t start to become practical until the rechargeable battery was invented in 1859. Storing electricity on board made electric vehicles commercially viable, but the earliest versions were bicycles and locomotives.
They still weren’t reliable for everyday use, however. Fast forward to 1996. General Motors launched an electric car in response to California’s pollution crisis.
The EV1 electric vehicle designed by GM was fully electric and didn’t require an oil change or a muffler. But that electric car posed a massive threat to the auto industry in general at that point, so it was forced out of production by the vehicle-manufacturing giants.
GM initially claimed the disappearance of its invention was due to low consumer demand, but the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car tells a different story. All these setbacks caused electric vehicle technology to evolve slowly. Due to the absence of available models for nearly a further decade, many Americans assumed the electric car was nothing more than a myth.
It didn’t look like it had any chance to make a comeback, but in 2008 Tesla Motors launched the Tesla Roadster: the first highway legal, all-electric car to run on lithium battery cells and boast a range of more than 200 miles on a single charge. This innovation sparked the newest explosion of electric vehicles.
Electric vehicles are already a solution to clean transportation
Clean transportation already exists, but the lingering myths about electric vehicles and the admittedly pricey initial cost discourages many consumers from adopting the zero-emissions lifestyle in this form.
Perhaps in the future, the myths about electric cars will be destroyed, and the average citizen will see these vehicles are faster and more practical than cars powered by ultimately limited amounts of ancient plants and bacteria transformed by pressure and heat.