electric cars
Potential Environmental and Social impact of ELECTRIC CARS A wise person once said that: "The only thing that we know about the future is its uncertainty". This uncertainty opens the world of opportunity to us, allowing progress to pave the road to tomorrow. Over the past fifty years, the automobile has become our primary way of transportation and not only for leisure, but a necessity for most people. With the convenience and the increasing number of cars each year, however, come serious consequences with long lasting effects. For the last hundred years, ever since the first automobile was developed, most vehicles have been gasoline powered. An internal combustion engine, which utilizes chemical bond energy in petroleum, has been practically the only means of powering the vehicle. This type of engine has evolved a long way since its invention by a Dutch physicist Christian Huygens, in about 1680. Efficiency, noise and pollution levels have been drastically improved in its life cycle especially in the last 30 years, however the fundamental problem of reliance on petroleum products and simple chemical reaction of oxidation is still and always will be apparent. These shortcomings didn't cripple the development of automotive
Public transit has been utilizing electric power for tens of years and has switched to electricity in favor of gasoline or steam powered engines. Many critics perceive them to be dangerous, impractical and costly. However, major problems confront these vehicles. For the most part, in California, the internal combustion engine vehicles are the ones that account for about 90 percent of the carbon monoxide a highly poisonous gas that can reduce blood's ability to carry oxygen, 77 percent of nitrous oxides, poisonous gases that damage lung tissue, and 55 percent of reactive organic gases, some of which are carcinogenic and others irritating to mucous membranes. The public has been slow to respond to the overwhelming evidence for the need of alternative fuel sources and vehicles. Continual exposure to these pollutants can cause a variety of symptoms and aggravate already existing medical conditions. At the turn of the new century, alternative fuel vehicles represent less then one percent of all vehicles on the road. Some advanced batteries such as NiMH and NiCD, do have higher energy density than the lead acid battery, however, they are extremely expensive. Currently the significant problems with electrical vehicles compared to ICE vehicles are their relatively short drive range per charge and their high cost. Lead acid batteries are cheaper than alternative technologies but have low energy density. The use of small, electric vehicles, as an alternative to the gasoline powered automobile, promises a way out of the existing crisis of polluted and congested cities. industry in the past, but today, when people are becoming more and more aware of problems associated with mass use of gasoline powered vehicles, there is clearly a need for an alternative source of power - the electric power. They are justified in their concerns, but have based their conclusions on only a few pre-production vehicles and a physical environment, which is hostile to the needs of these vehicles and their drivers . These are determined by very large, expensive, heavy and short-lived battery packs. This situation makes it very difficult for electric cars to be widely accepted and used.
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