2011 September 29

The Future of Transportation on a Planet with 7 Billion People

Opposition to Vermont Wind Farm Comes From Former Wildlife Department Commissioner

Solar Decathlon 2011: Team California

Hundreds of Thousands of People Come Together for a Successful Moving Planet

Palau Asks International Court to Weigh Whether Polluting Nations Have Obligation to Curb Emissions

Planet Getting Too Hot for Chocolate? Study Finds Climate Change Could Threaten Cocoa Farmers

Should We Eat Yak Instead of Beef?

Solar Decathlon 2011: Ohio State

Zem Joaquin, Founder of Ecofabulous.com (Podcast)

World’s First Local e-Currency Launches in Brixton, London

Electric Vs Petroleum Power: Which is More Practical?

The green movement has gathered a lot of pace in the past few years, there’s no denying that, but is the electric car and its technology the way forward? Should you seriously be considering an electric as a replacement for your petrol Ford Focus? Let’s take a look at both arguments.

Electrics, for as long as they’ve been commercially viable, have always been pretty shocking. The main problem with an electric car is the batteries; they’re just not advanced enough. Until 2009, almost every electric car had a range of around 100-miles, which is, let’s admit it, pretty ridiculous. Sure, if you live in the city, it sounds attractive; you probably only do a few miles a day, so the poor range of an electric wouldn’t be a problem. But for most people, it’d be an absolute nightmare. 12hours to charge up a car for 100-miles… come-on! Where’s the attraction there?

But that was before 2009. Since then, we’ve seen a whole host of electric cars that have been designed to try and allure us out of our fossil fueled Earth-killers by boasting improved range figures and amended looks. Tesla, a small American company, gave us the Roadster, which not only looked like a typical sports-car, but drove like one, too! It may cost £90,000, but the Roadster proved electric cars can be quick, exciting, fun and, above all, easy to live with.

Tesla, despite Top Gear claiming otherwise, says that the Roadster is capable of a range way over 200-miles, which is very impressive as it can also do 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds. Tesla’s electric technology seems to have proven that electric is the way to go. But wait a minute, as that is not the full story. No typical family are going to be able to afford a £90,000 car, so the Tesla, by its very price tag, has to become something for the rich to enjoy, while us peasants are forced to stick with fossil fuels or shocking electrics.

There’s no denying the fact that electric cars are here to stay, and that their batteries will become so innovative that we’ll see epic ranges, but at the moment, if you want a properly decent electric, you have to buy a Nissan LEAF, which is anything but cheap. The LEAF is brilliant, there’s no denying that, but it still costs considerably more than its petrol-powered rivals, and there lies the main issue; electrics are just too expensive!

There’s more bad news, too. Electric power may seem like a perfect green solution for your automotive needs, but it isn’t. Sure, when you’re driving about, the cars are producing no CO2 whatsoever, which is what we’re all after, but remember where that power originally came from, a power-station!

Power-stations are, as we all know, the green party’s worst nightmare, and they’re about as Earth-saving as releasing a trillion tons of methane into the atmosphere. So while electrics may seem green, in reality, they’re not.
So should we discount them all together? No, of course not! While the aforementioned power-stations do produce their power, electric cars are still considerably more economical than your typical fossil-fueled motor.

It’s swings and roundabouts, really. Electrics are here to stay, but as we’ve discussed, they’re not the world-saving technology that a lot of people believe they are. With a bit of tweaking and a lot of investment, we could well feel a vast improvement in their green-credentials, but for now, we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.

This guest post was brought to you with the help of Carfinance247.co.uk.

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