Pros and Cons of Electric Cars
Electric vehicles are considered today the future of the transportation sector because the vehicles with internal combustion engines are no longer a viable solution for mankind due to the fact that they rely on a finite resource of energy and they also pollute the environment.
Future Transportation Will Be Based On Green Vehicles
Like any new technology that has appeared on the market, the green vehicles running on batteries have many advantages, but also a few drawbacks, which makes them less attractive for the vast majority of the drivers.
It is more than obvious that we can’t rely much longer on vehicles burning gasoline or diesel fuel, even if we like them very much because oil is a limited resource , and the massive air pollution produced by these vehicles is a major contributor to global warming and climate change on our planet.
The transportation sector of the future will be certainly based on green vehicles with zero emissions.
Pros of Electric Cars
Being a green and clean technology of the future, electric vehicles have many advantages and only a few disadvantages mostly generated by the fact that they rely on an old battery technology (lithium-ion batteries).
1. Electric Cars are Friendlier with the Environment
Using an electric vehicle, you will no longer pollute the environment directly because an electric car has no exhaust pipes.
The massive air pollution caused by the large number of vehicles on the road burning fossil fuels can be reduced only by replacing them with electric cars or other green vehicles with zero emissions.
When talking about the energy source used to charge the batteries, we can’t be 100% sure that the resource is green, because the power comes from the grid, which can use only fossil fuels, a mixture of fossil fuels and renewable energy, or only renewable energy to generate electricity.
However, by creating an off-grid charging point (which can use solar panels or a small number of wind turbines), the power used to charge the batteries of an electric vehicle will be 100% green.
To make electric cars 100% clean, it is not enough to use them on the road and reduce the level of air pollution there, we also need to use charging points that are powered only by renewable energy.
2. They Accelerate Faster and Are Quieter
An electric vehicle can be extremely fast when accelerating from 0 to 60 mph because power is delivered to the wheels much quicker.
When accelerating, the battery pack of the vehicle will deliver maximum power and torque right away, which will give the driver an outstanding experience inside the vehicle.
Because they don’t use an internal combustion engine, electric cars are much quieter and they run smoother on the road.
When driving an electric car, you will quickly realize that this is the future in terms of transportation, and you will forget about the clunky and outdated vehicles burning fossil fuels.
3. Home Recharge
To charge the battery pack of your electric vehicle at home, you only need to take the plug, and push it into the charging inlet installed at home.
Of course that you need to first install an electric car charger at home, which will obviously used your power to charge the batteries.
However, once the charger is installed at home and you connect the plug into the charging inlet, you can forget about the car for a couple of hours (is wiser to charge the vehicle during the night).
After a couple of hours or in the next morning, you will have a fully charged vehicle that is ready to run another 70 to 100 miles or even longer if you have an electric vehicle with higher range.
4. They Are More Efficient
Giving the fact that an electric vehicle don’t rely on an internal combustion engine that burns fossil fuels, but uses a battery pack, which can be charged even at home, the owner will spend less money to run the green vehicle.
Even if the plug of the electric vehicle sits in the charging inlet for the entire night for a full charge, the price of the electricity used to charge the car is less expensive compared to the price of gasoline or diesel fuel required to cover the same range with a vehicle that uses an internal combustion engine.
5. Require Low Maintenance
A car that uses only a small number of electric motors instead of a large combustion engine and a big and heavy gearbox, is much easier to maintain and will not require the annual oil change with all consumables.
Less components means less issues, and because the entire system used by the electric car is simpler built, the green vehicle will require less maintenance, which means less expenses for the owner.
6. Can Be Bought Cheaper Using A Federal Tax Credit
In the U.S. and in many other countries in the world, electric vehicles can be bought cheaper due to the fact that the governments offer a credit tax (federal credit tax in the United States) to encourage the people to buy green vehicles.
In the United States, you can get a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 (Form 8936) to buy an electric vehicle that will be used in the country.
The value of the tax credit increases with the battery capacity and the overall size of the vehicle.
Cons of Electric Cars
As I mentioned earlier, the major cons of the electric vehicles are related to the old technology used by the battery pack, which powers these vehicles.
1. Electric Cars Have Limited Range
Compared to a vehicle using an internal combustion engine, electric cars have a smaller range.
Even some of the most expensive electric cars available today (electric supercars like the Tesla Model S) reach a range of only 335 miles, which is way lower than the range achieved by a cheap vehicle with internal combustion engine that can reach a range of at least 435 miles (or a diesel vehicle reaching a range of 700 miles).
2. Rely On Old Battery Technology
The lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery technology used today by the large majority of the electric vehicles is an old technology, which has many drawbacks that are affecting the today’s performance of the electric cars.
The first commercial lithium-ion battery was released by Sony in 1991.
However, because Li-ion batteries are large and heavy and have a limited capacity (for the today’s requirements) to store and deliver energy, electric cars can accelerate very fast, but the battery pack will be also drained of energy very fast.
The battery limitations are the main reason why electric cars have such a limited range today.
A lithium-ion battery pack will work perfectly in an EV (electric vehicle) for about 500 cycles (the cycle life of the battery is the number of complete charge/recharge cycles performed before the battery starts reducing its performance).
At the end of the cycle life of each Li-ion battery, the entire battery pack of the EV needs to be replaced, and this expense could represent 40% of the price paid for a new electric vehicle.
3. Long Recharging Time
The old technology used by the battery pack of the electric vehicles is also the main reason why recharging takes such a long time.
Compared to the time spent by a driver at the gas station to refuel its vehicle with combustion engine, the time spent by an electric car owner to recharge the battery pack of its green vehicle is much longer.
Only to charge the battery pack at 80%, which is enough to use the car inside the city, you will need to wait at least 4 hours, which is way more than the time spent at the gas station (about 10 minutes) to get a full tank of gasoline or diesel fuel.
4. High Initial Cost
Electric cars represent a new and green technology, which does not come cheap.
The price paid for an electric vehicle with a small range could be higher than the price paid for a vehicle with a combustion engine providing a better range, but affecting the environment and our health.
An electric vehicle has less components compared to a regular car with an internal combustion engine, which means that its price should be lower.
However, due to the presence of the Li-ion battery pack that powers the EV, the price of the green vehicle will be higher.
The big battery pack using the Li-ion battery technology is not only increasing the price of the EV, but is also adding to the overall weight of the vehicle, and making the green car a much heavier vehicle (which reduces its performance in terms of top speed and maximum range).
5. Range Anxiety
It is very true that the owner of an electric vehicle can charge its car at home during the night, but when talking about traveling on long distances (which exceed the maximum range of the green vehicle), range anxiety is the main concern for the drivers.
Let’s say that the area where the driver plans to travel is filled with charging points for electric vehicles.
However, because charging the battery pack of an electric vehicle could take hours, finding a charging point that could be already full of electric vehicles plugged in, could create problems for the driver.
Charging points for electric vehicles can be found in the entire country today (in the United States), and in many other countries of the planet, but the places in these charging points are limited to only a few vehicles.
Electric cars sit there for hours for recharging, which means that you can always find yourself in the position when you have almost no energy in your battery, but when arriving at the charging point all the charging places are already occupied by other vehicles.
In such unpleasant moments, the driver will ask himself, why he or she has chosen to use an EV instead of a car with internal combustion engine?
Final Conclusion
Electric cars represent today a piece of the clean technology, which is part of the green future that will follow, but in order to make the drivers to massively buy electric cars instead of vehicles with internal combustion engines the battery technology used by these vehicles needs to evolve to the next level in terms of energy storage technology.
A new battery technology will also help other sectors such as the renewable energy sector to increase its presence in the energy mix of the planet because the new energy storage technology will finally allow us to store larger quantities of energy in a more efficient way and for longer periods of time.
