I always think of me when I'm stuck in traffic while I smell the smell of car fuel: why has the world not switched to electric cars despite the passage of several decades since their invention.
Aren't electric cars environmentally friendly? Will not using them rid us of the problems of global warming that are killing the world or at least reduce the percentage of their impact?
Let's talk in this article about electric cars from the beginning of their invention and the updates that took place on them, in addition to their impact on the environment.
The invention of electric cars
The idea of electric cars goes back over 100 years when the first successful electric car was introduced in 1890 thanks to chemist William Morrison.
His six-passenger car had a top speed of 14 miles per hour, slightly more than its electrified counterparts, but it contributed to sparking interest in electric cars.
After this achievement and over the next few years, the electric car industry started from different auto companies and appeared all over New York City, USA, until it formed a fleet of electric taxis with more than 60 cars.
By 1900, electric cars were in their prime, accounting for about a third of all vehicles on the road. And manufacturers continued to show strong sales over the next ten years.
Interest in developing the electric vehicle has ceased
While the development of an internal combustion vehicle powered by gasoline or diesel has been in full swing over the past century, the development of the electric vehicle has lagged behind.
This changed the invention of the transistor during the forties of the twentieth century, as one company began in 1947 to produce a car powered by electric energy, and by using the transistor it was able to produce a car called Henney Kilowatt.
Despite the success of the electric car, it became clear that its price is high compared to the price of traditional cars, which led to the end of its production in 1961 due to lack of demand.
In the 1970s, interest in its development returned again
After an absence from the market and the occurrence of the 1973 global oil crisis, interest in the electric car began, not only in order to reduce dependence on oil imported from Middle Eastern countries, but also due to the need to preserve the environment.
California passed laws to compel auto companies to produce environmentally friendly cars, accounting for 10% of all cars in that state until 2003.
However, the electric cars produced were expensive, so their price ranged from two to three times the price of regular cars.
The electric car did not succeed in attracting buyers, which led to the manufacturers' turn away from producing these cars and turning to the development of gasoline engines to reduce the exhaust?
Are the damages of electric cars less than normal?
The idea of protecting the environment is driving a lot of people to buy electric cars, but is this true?
Electric cars are environmentally friendly, do not emit harmful gases, are easy to operate and do not make annoying noises.
The governments of many countries encourage their citizens to switch to electric cars that kill two birds with one stone. On the one hand, they help achieve the countries ’goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and they also reduce pollution rates in cities.
But despite all these advantages, the electric car is not the ideal solution, when the operation of the car depends on electricity derived from burning fossil fuels, this does not add much to the efforts to protect the climate.
At the same time, the production of electric cars requires more energy than traditional cars, which is due to the complex car battery, and the disposal of these batteries after that represents a burden on the environment.
Although no harmful gases are emitted from the electric car while it is on the road, these gases are emitted from the reactors that generate the electricity needed to operate the car.
The production of an electric car needs minerals such as copper, cobalt and rare neodymium. Many of these minerals are sourced from China and Congo, and they are mined through processes that are not without human rights violations and environmental damage.
With regard to the issue of harmful emissions from cars, studies have shown that a car that works with a battery and draws electricity from fossil fuels is more harmful gases during its use than diesel cars, but at the same time it emits less exhaust than cars that run on gasoline.
As for an electric vehicle that runs on electricity derived from renewable energy sources, its carbon dioxide emissions throughout its life span are 6 times less than that of a gasoline-powered car. These results confirm the necessity for countries to focus on ways to produce electricity, so that the electric car becomes more effective.
Meanwhile, the electric vehicle battery, which is complicated to assemble, contains toxic chemicals.
Therefore, we find that using electric cars has its benefits, but at the same time it has damages that are no less dangerous than regular cars
How does an electric car work?
This so-called environmentally friendly car works using electric energy, and there are many applications for its design, and one of these applications is to replace the original engine of the car, and put an electric motor in its place.
It is the easiest way to convert from petroleum to electricity while preserving the other components of the car. The engine is supplied with the necessary energy through electric current storage batteries.
The electric car is considered more suitable than the internal combustion engine cars in terms of preserving the environment, as it does not produce harmful waste.
The current development of electric cars is almost confined to small, short-lived cars, as they need heavy and expensive batteries, as their battery needs about 6000 accumulators of the lithium-ion battery that is used in mobile phones.
Diesel and battery comparison
When a regular car needs 30 kilograms of diesel to cover a distance of 400 kilometers, an electric car needs a battery weighing 450 kilograms to travel the same distance.
And because the battery industry materials are expensive, this topic explains this example why the price of an electric car is higher than the price of its gasoline or diesel counterparts.
Car battery charging
As for charging the electric car battery, the charging time depends on the car’s capacity and the type of current.
An electric car with a capacity of 40 kWh needs about 11 hours to be charged with household current of one phase (16 amps, 7 and 3 kW), while it is charged for 4 hours when connected to a three-phase current (16 amps, 11 kW).
The electric car with a capacity of 12 kWh takes about 3 hours to charge it at home (with single phase current), while it is charged with a three-phase current within one hour.
The impact of cars on climate change
Cars, along with home heaters, have become the main cause of urban smog, which has become a chronic issue in major Asian capitals.
According to the French Agency for Environmental Health Safety (AFSSE), emissions from cars are responsible for nearly a third of air pollution, and will be responsible for 6,500 to 9,500 deaths each year in France.
According to a pollution study, 4.9% to 11% of deaths in the age group between 60 and 69 years are due to suspended particles, and road transport is the second source of these particles.
In addition to direct effects such as trampling animals by car, automatic means of transport have indirect effects on the environment by road, fragmentation of landscapes, pollution, including light pollution, pollutants resulting from vehicle combustion or some road accidents.
Electric cars are definitely more environmentally friendly than regular gasoline or diesel cars.