Answers to frequently asked questions about electric automobiles:
Why this FAQ?
It is very important to understand about electric automobiles and other electric road vehicles because their replacing of conventional gasoline and diesel road vehicles is currently being heavily promoted as one of the most important things that can be done to stop the accelerating destruction of the earth's natural environment.
What is an electric automobile?
An electric automobile, also called an electric car, is a road vehicle that is propelled by one or more electric motors that are powered by batteries or fuel cells instead of an internal combustion engine. Hybrid electric cars use both electric motors and internal combustion engines.
When was the electric automobile invented?
The first experimental electric car was built around 1830, long before the first gasoline-powered car. However, it wasn't until around 1870 that electric cars became somewhat practical.
If electric cars were invented way back in the nineteenth century, why have they been very uncommon until recently?
It is because their performance has been far inferior to that of gasoline and diesel powered vehicles. For example, the distance they could travel between battery rechargings was only a fraction of that which gasoline and diesel powered vehicles could travel between refuelings. Also, recharging required much more time than refilling a fuel tank.
Why have they recently become such a big focus of attention?
It is largely because of the increasing awareness of the great environmental damage caused by the burning of gasoline and other fossil fuels. It is also due to continuing improvements in electric vehicle technology together with the hope that such vehicles would be far less harmful to the environment than internal combustion engine vehicles.
What are the major improvements in electric car technology?
They are mainly with regard to the batteries, but also the electric motors and the electronic controls. Among the most important improvements for the batteries are increased capacity, which allows cars to travel longer distances between rechargings, and the ability to endure more recharging cycles before they need to be replaced.
What are the advantages of electric automobiles?
The main advantage is the elimination of toxic emissions from the combustion of gasoline or other fossil fuels in the vehicles, thereby helping to reduce air pollution. Another advantage is reduced vehicle maintenance costs, because there are fewer moving parts.
Are there any disadvantages?
Yes. Unfortunately, there are also some major disadvantages, both for their users and for the environment. These disadvantages, when taken as a whole, are so great that they largely offset the advantages. In fact, some might even argue that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.
What are the disadvantages for users?
Although battery performance has continued to improve, users still cannot travel as far without recharging the batteries as they can in internal combustion engine vehicles after refueling. Also, it can take much longer to recharge the batteries than to refuel a vehicle with gasoline, and the number of recharging locations is still very limited. Moreover, replacing the batteries can be extremely expensive.
Why are electric cars bad for the environment?
Electric automobiles and other electric road vehicles are harmful in a variety of ways. One is the pollution that results from generating the increased electricity needed to recharge the batteries. Most of this electricity is still generated by burning fossil fuels. Although progress is being made on producing electricity with environmentally friendly energy sources, such as wind and solar, it will be a long time until these alternative sources will be able to fully replace fossil fuels. Moreover, the huge growth in electricity demand that would result from the widespread use of electric automobiles would add to the difficulty of and time required for replacing fossil fuels with alternative energy.
Another way in which the large scale use of electric vehicles is becoming harmful is the immense environmental damage resulting from the mining the cobalt, lithium and other rare metals needed for the batteries and motors. Much of this mining is occurring in the developing countries, which makes it easier for promoters of electric vehicles to overlook or ignore such damage.
Yet another way in which electric vehicles can be harmful to the environment is the fact that the carbon dioxide emissions from manufacturing them are substantially greater than those from producing internal combustion engine vehicles.
Also to be considered is the massive financial cost and environmental harm from the monumental new infrastructure projects that will be required, including numerous large-scale electric power generation facilities, vast power transmission systems, and huge numbers of vehicle recharging facilities. There is also concern about the cost and extent to which the batteries could be recycled.
Another source of environmental damage could be the emergence of an attitude that electric vehicles are not harmful to the environment. Such attitude could lead to an increased output of cars and the construction of more roads and more sprawl, thereby resulting in still further fragmentation and other forms of habitat degradation.
What about particulate pollution?
The emission of toxic particulate matter is another major reason that electric cars might not be much better for the environment than internal combustion engine vehicles. A large part of the pollution produced by road vehicles is from the ultra-fine particles created by friction between the tires and the roadways and from the brake pads. These toxic microscopic particles enter the air, where they can linger for days and eventually enter people's lungs and other internal organs. They can also be washed off road surfaces by rain and then flow into streams and other water bodies, where they can harm aquatic life and eventually enter the food chain.
How does particulate pollution from electric cars compare with that from internal combustion engine cars?
It is possible that it could be even larger, because electric vehicles are substantially heavier and thus create more abrasion of road surfaces. They are heavier because of the great weight of the batteries.
Are there any other disadvantages to this greater weight?
Yes. One is that the total energy consumption per electric vehicle could be greater than for internal combustion engine vehicles. This means that by replacing all conventional road vehicles with electric vehicles the total energy consumed by road transport could actually increase rather than decrease. Obviously, we should be trying to reduce total energy usage rather than increasing it.
Another is increased damage to roadways. Many cities and regions are already far behind in the struggle to maintain and repair their roads and bridges, so that a proliferation of heavy electric cars could make the situation even worse.
What about safety?
Electric car fires burn much more ferociously than internal combustion engine cars and are extremely difficult to extinguish. This would be of particularly great concern in tunnels and indoor parking facilities.
Are there any other concerns about the greater weight?
It could make collisions, including those with pedestrians, more deadly.
Are there any additional concerns about harmful effects of electric automobiles?
Yes. A belief that electric cars are substantially better for the environment could encourage their use and lead to an increase in the worldwide total number of cars of all types.
Moreover, focusing on electric automobiles by individuals and governments could be a costly—and tragic—diversion from from taking the much more difficult, but absolutely necessary, steps to bring a halt to the destruction of our environment.
So, is there really any big advantage to a mass conversion of automobiles from internal combustion engines to electric power?
The conventional wisdom is that replacing internal combustion engine vehicles with electric vehicles is one of the most important things that we can do to slow down or halt the deterioration of the environment. However, this is not necessarily true. The only thing that we can be certain of is that localized air pollution from road transport would generally be reduced. But whether a switch from fossil fuel vehicles to electric vehicles would fully offset all of the other adverse effects of the former is still not known.
If electric automobiles might not have such a big effect on stopping destruction of the environment, why is so much effort being devoted to having them replace internal combustion engine vehicles?
There seem to be several reasons. One is the hope that the electricity needed to recharge the batteries could eventually be produced by less environmentally harmful methods than burning fossil fuels in power generation plants. A second is that there is not yet widespread awareness of the other disadvantages of electric vehicles, including the fact that they can create as much, or even more, fine particle pollution as conventional vehicles.
Still another reason is that electric automobiles offer a huge business opportunity. Their mass production, along with the necessary massive infrastructure investment, could eventually become extremely profitable, and thus there is a very strong incentive for some businesses and others to promote them, even if they are aware of all of their disadvantages.
So would it be better to not replace internal combustion engine cars with electric cars?
Yes, possibly. This is something that should be studied objectively before rushing headlong into an extremely costly and disruptive mass replacement.
If electric cars are really as bad, or nearly as bad, for the environment as internal combustion engine cars, what is the solution?
This is one of the most important questions that needs to be addressed regarding the environment. In very general terms, the answer, at least in part, involves (1) changing the modal mix to reduce the share of road transportation in total surface transportation, (2) reducing the share of total resources devoted to transportation as a whole, and (3) improving land use patterns. Fortunately, in addition to having immense benefits for the environment, doing this could also provide additional benefits, including helping to improve the quality of life for much of the world's population. (This topic will be discussed in detail in one or more future articles.)