Governments around the world are more and more open to electric cars as a viable way to reduce their countries’ CO2 production; but the benefits are still controversial. (Image credit: from vectorstock.com)
Nobody knows the exact time humanity started to worry about the environment. Some people even don’t think there is much to worry about. However, we can all see that technology has embraced the challenge of finding or creating “cleaner” sources of energy. While renewal or sustainable sources of energy are not universally adopted yet, the automobile industry has adopted the idea of the electric car. According to the Edison Electric Institute, there were 1,000,000 electric vehicles on US roads at the end of 2018. The EEI even projects that there will be 18.7 million electric vehicles on the road by the end of 2030. With the growing enthusiasm for electric cars, it is not a surprise that governments of developed countries want to capitalize on that. After all, EVs can benefit both individuals and governments alike.
First, electric “fuel” is cheaper than gas. According to the website energy.gov, the eGallon (a gallon of “electric fuel”) is usually about half the cost of a regular gallon of gas. The website even offers a tool to check the cost state by state, and we checked the price in the state of Virginia; as of April 18, 2020, the gallon of gas is $2.07 while the eGallon is $1.07. We also must add that since electric cars are still young on the market (they constitute about 1% of the cars on the road), the cost of fueling is not subject to any fluctuation yet, contrary to gas cars which can be costly given that the cost of gas changes daily. Another great benefit of “going electric” is that over time, electric cars are less costly to maintain than gas cars because EVs don’t have the many parts that need to be replaced or constantly maintained such as oil change, muffler maintenance, etc.
To add to that, all-electric vehicles perform at a higher level than gas cars, with a quieter motor and a faster response during driving. Better performance means less accidents on the roads, making AEVs safer to drive.
Snapshot of the comparison tool on energy.gov, numbers showing the cost of charging an electric car in Virginia compared to the cost of gas.
Despite all these benefits, some people still think of EVs as glorified expensive cars for a few reasons. For starter, EVs are more expensive to purchase than gas cars. But, the US government’s response to that argument is to offer tax credits and other incentives to support the initiative of using electric cars to reduce pollution. Another issue with EVs is the variety of driving distances. Initially, many of them were short-range, offering about 100-mile drive on a full charge compared to 250-300 miles yielded by the average gas car. Given that the average car owner drives about 30 miles a day, a short range EV may need more than one charge a week. Besides the inconvenience of remembering to charge a short-range EV every other day, there is also the issue of fewer charging stations compared to gas stations: 76,000 charging stations vs. 168,000 gas stations. And although about 80 percent of EV owners charge their vehicle at home, in case they forget and need some charge during the day, many cities still don’t have enough stations. That forces EV owners to drive far before charging their cars, which definitely offset the CO2 reduction benefit of the electric car. However, today there is more variety in terms of range in the catalog of electric cars: from the 2019 Tesla model S long-range, which offers the 370-mile range to the 2019 Fiat 500e, which offers only an 84-mile range.
The government could also use EVs to solve energy security issues. Two-third of the petroleum consumed in the US (9 billion barrels) goes to the transportation industry. Well, not right now.. but historically. Since the US depends on a few other countries for its petrol, it puts the country at risk if the external supply was cut for any reason. On the other hand, almost all of the electricity consumed in the US is produced in the country. Besides, it was proven that AEVs batteries transform about 59-62 percent energy into vehicle movement compared to 17-21 percent conversion by gas-powered vehicles. For the government, it means that the application of those batteries can be extended to many uses, such as heat pumps. Furthermore, it costs, on average, $485 to operate an EV compared to $1,117 for a gas car. We can see that, for the government, applying the electric battery’s technology to public transportation will cut costs drastically while yielding more energy than gas.
Another reason the government should support the use of EVs is for public health. It is not a secret that pollution, especially the emission of CO2, is affecting the health of many people, and we know today that 22-25% of the CO2 in our atmosphere can be attributed to gas-fueled cars. But, EVs help reduces that by offering more mileage per charge than a gas car would. For example, a gas car that travels 22 miles per gallon will only travel 10 miles on 1 gallon (for $2.5/gallon), while an EV that can travel 3 miles per kWh and consumes an average of 25-40 kWh for every 100 miles, will travel about 43 miles for the cost of $1.00.
In sum, the perspective of using EVs in replacement of gas cars is a win-win for individuals and governments: financially and economically, health-wise, and also for the sake of national security.
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