What To Know About Electric Cars?
Emissions of large amounts of CO2 from factories, cars and the burning of fossil fuels have contributed to climate change. These emissions of CO2 are drastically causing extreme weather conditions and environmental disasters to happen across the globe. Countries around the world are trying to reduce their CO2 emissions and overall decrease the world’s CO2 emissions to improve the Earth’s environmental conditions. There are an estimated over 1 billion* cars travelling the streets and roads around the world today, making up roughly 21% of the global fossil CO2 emissions* only behind the contribution of 39% from the power industry*. One way that countries are trying to decrease their CO2 emissions is to turn to electric cars. Electric cars do not use fossil fuels to run, unlike petrol and diesel cars, but use electricity instead.
Environment
A lot of people question the use of electric cars to decrease CO2 emissions as they produce the majority of CO2 emissions from the manufacturing of the electric vehicle itself, manufacturing the battery, and the generation of electricity to power the electric vehicle. However, over an electric car’s lifetime, the vehicle produces 50% less CO2 emissions** than an average EU car.
Cost
As the electric car technology continues to develop and refine, prices will slowly decrease, however at the moment prices for electric cars are expensive for normal consumers and are considered to be a luxury item. Although they are expensive at the moment, electric cars are less costly than petrol/diesel cars over time.
In a regular car, there are a lot of moving parts to make the car run such as the engine, radiator, pistons, spark plugs, fuel pump, cooling system, exhaust system, and belts. With so many moving parts, there is a higher chance of something to go wrong which means more money to maintain and dispose of the degraded parts. Electric cars on the other hand have fewer parts which means lower maintenance and therefore means maintenance cost can be as little as 50% less*** than regular cars. Electric cars will still need a service to check tyres, brakes, and brake fluids but no emission tests.
Charging
Being powered by electricity, electric vehicles will need to be recharged often either at home or on the road. Countries around the world are installing public charging points in car parks or service stations, the number of charging stations is increasing in line with the number of electric cars in the respected country. As the uptake of electric cars starts to increase so does the number of electric vehicle charging points. The number of charging points available in public places must increase with the uptake of electric vehicles. Over time homes will need to have electric vehicle charging points to be installed. Cost of installation is around £500 per plug however as governments push forward on the uptake of electric vehicles, governments will need to have schemes or grants to make private charging plugs available to homes.
Another factor to consider is a country’s infrastructure to cope with the increase in demand of electricity but also the electricity network infrastructure to cope with the Kilowatts required to charge electric vehicles within sufficient time.
You can find electric vehicle charging points on Zap Map, GRIDSERVE and Carwow. If you need to look for charging solutions you can check out Pod Point, Evchargepod, E.ON Energy UK and many more.
Jobs
Increased uptake of electric vehicles means a reduced need for traditional petrol/diesel mechanics, this means a large workforce will need upskilling to cope with the increase of electric vehicles on the road. Oil demand will decrease as more cars that are electric start to emerge on the road, this shift is estimated to reduce import on oil by $49 billion.
Battery
An increased surge in demand for electric vehicles means battery production will need to increase to meet demands as well as the material to manufacture the batteries themselves. Batteries rely on materials such as cobalt, nickel, and lithium which are widely available but high demands will mean an increase in mining for these materials. Another way to source these materials is to boost recycling and repurposing batteries that are in use. Over time, the batteries in electric cars will need to be replaced once they no longer hold their charge. By recycling used batteries, manufacturers and countries can reduce the CO2 emissions created from mining.
Summary
As countries unite to decrease CO2 emissions that are slowly crippling the Earth’s atmosphere and creating extreme living conditions, electric cars will play a vital role to reduce CO2 emissions. The technology is continuing to develop to make the batteries that power them to be more efficient. A lot of improvement in countries’ energy infrastructure will be needed to cope with the demand from the increase in energy consumption and the amount of wattage needed to power the vehicles. To make electric vehicles environmentally sustainable countries will need to turn to renewable energy to provide renewable electricity to power vehicles. Electric vehicle manufacturers will need to use environmental techniques to make batteries sustainable either by producing brand new batteries or recycling existing batteries. Increasing public charging points will be vital to the uptake of electric vehicles in countries. Overall electric cars are a good alternative to traditional cars that can cope with lifestyle demands that traditional cars require. Cost and battery life will be a vital point for consumers to move over to electric vehicles. Over time these fears will be answered by the advancements of electric cars and the increasing availability in electric vehicles.
References
*https://www.worldometers.info/
** https://www.transportenvironment.org/what-we-do/electric-cars