Batteries Included - A Future Of Green Silence

A free article on Technology

By: Joyce M. Stuart

The idea of electric cars has not been developed recently, and in fact successful electric vehicles were being developed and manufactured back in the 1830s, with projects in the Netherlands, and in Scotland, achieving great success, with vehicles reaching speeds of up to 65 miles per hour. Mostly popular with ladies, the typical town vehicle was clean, quiet, needed no cranking to get started, and cruised at a comfortable 20 miles an hour. The gas powered cars were being outsold quite dramatically.

Perceptions of electric vehicles today tend to lurch from rickety old golf carts to the slightly absurd milk flats, but the truth is that electric cars today can easily out perform their gas powered counterparts. Not only can they outperform them, but they can do so at a fraction of the cost to both the consumer, and more importantly, the environment. For example, the new Tesla Roadster can leave the Ferrari Spider standing at the lights whilst gliding effortlessly past the Mercedes SL550, whilst costing about a cent per mile in the process. With a top speed of about 130 miles per hour and with a three hour charge sustaining a full 250 mile trip, this is anything but a milk float.

Often it is forgotten or ignored that there is another side to the use of electric vehicles to be kinder to the environment. It's not all about the smoke and fumes that will be saved, but also the noise factor. Electric cars are almost silent, the only sound from within the sporty models being a vague impression of having a hairdryer in the boot. Noise pollution is a forgotten attribute of gas powered cars, but imagine a world of near silence. Some people have expressed concerns that with nippy little cars silently dashing about that children and the elderly may find it difficult to anticipate or seen these coming, and that road calming measures or extra noise making speaker need to be fitted.

As far as the consumer is concerned, there has to be an advantage - having a clean conscience and knowing that you are doing your bit to help create a greener environment is certainly one of them, but there also need to be advantages in the pocket too. There are many of these, and in the UK for example, by splashing out under five thousand pounds you can obtain a nippy little G-Wiz, which can be parked anywhere in London for free, (itself a saving of over 5,00 - paying for the car in just one year), and there is also no road tax to pay. Not only that, but the car is rated as being in the lowest category for insurance, without losing out on performance. The advantages really are very clear, and financially it makes far more sense than an equivalent gas powered vehicle.

On a larger scale, Israel has launched a new initiative called Project Better Place, and this is a focus on electric vehicles in such a grand way that it is the ultimate intention to rid Israel of its need and reliance on oil by completely abandoning the gas powered vehicles within just ten years. With half a million charging points, the country is well equipped to support electric vehicles, and with most electric cars able to achieve a 200 kilometre journey on a single charge, Israel is an ideal place to launch the scheme since this distance allows you to travel from any part of the country to any other location in Israel. The model being suggested is similar to the one used by mobile phone companies, with cars being given away free, and consumers paying for the re-charging costs through a number of alternative schemes - either by buying into a scheme that allows unlimited mileage over a certain period of time, or by using a pay-as-you-charge alternative.

As with any new development, the ultimate success relies heavily on consumer demand, and companies piloting electric vehicle schemes are trying hard to win that consumer demand and interest. With electric vehicles being showcased in Hollywood, such as the Lexus driven by Tom Cruise in Minority Report, people are starting to realise that the future isn't a world full of milk floats, but of slick and powerful cars that anyone would be proud to drive. With the US home to nearly eight million electric vehicles, consumer demand is very much a voice loud enough to have caught the ears of politicians.

An issue that those sceptics raise concerning electric vehicles is that although eh car itself might not be giving off fumes and harming the environment by burning up fossil fuels, the energy for the batteries has to come from somewhere, and this is likely to be through the main electricity grid, itself powered through the burning of fossil fuels, so that ultimately the whole scheme simply shifts the focus away from the end consumer and back to the big industries. In fact this argument is not entirely valid, since more and more power companies are turning to renewable sources of energy, and this is likely to continue. The other argument is that of the fuel consumption ratio. Gas powered cars burn the fossil fuel in a very wasteful way, whereas electric cars use energy in a much more efficient manner. In this way, the actual amount of energy used, and therefore the amount of fossil fuel burned, is far less.

Perhaps it is becoming increasingly easy to picture a world in which we can glide around quietly and serenely, with no smog or fumes choking our streets, no noise roaring through our urban spaces, and no need for concern when stuck in traffic that fuel is being wasted. Although fears have been raised that when we all return home for work and plug our cars in for the night we'll overload the mains grid, these too have been quashed, with energy companies pointing out that only a fraction of capacity is reached at night, and with all of us switching to electric cars the overall need for energy will be massively reduced. Perhaps we can even envisage a day when our cars are recharged from the energy our own solar panel roofs collect through the day whilst we are at work - a recipe for a virtually clear conscience.

Information about the Author:

With modern technology on everyones lips, more people are turning onto the colour green. From electric cars to hybrid cars the world now has a conscience. The environment is on everyones minds, the rainforests, wildlife and nature..green is the colour.

Technology Articles: http://www.article-buzz.com

Print This Article
Add To Favorites
Email to Friends
Get Re-print Code