Electric Vehicles

Electric
An electric car is an automobile which is propelled by an electric motor, using electrical energy stored in batteries or other energy storage devices. Electric cars were popular in the late-19th century and early 20th century, until advances in internal combustion engine technology and the mass production of cheaper gasoline vehicles led to a decline in the use of electric drive vehicle.
Electric cars possess several advantages. They produce close to no emissions directly from their use, and are capable of reducing urban pollution by potentially reducing the tailpipe emissions from current gasoline powered vehicles. The infrastructure is mostly established, given the power grid of the United States and most developed or developing nations, and so the transportation and acquiescence of power presents relatively little burden. Electricity can be generated in many forms, from coal, gasoline, natural gas, solar, wind, nuclear and various other sources of power, allowing multiple types of energy to be used to power locomotion. Theoretically, it would be possible to convert a simple exercise bike or hand crank into a power generator, although the production of power would vary based on the input energy and efficiency of the device. Electricity could be logistically simple power source as well, as air conditioning, lights, and various appliances are powered by electricity, and the power grid allows for near instant transportation of electricity anywhere wires are present. Electricity also provides the potential for completely reduced emissions and pollution, as renewable power sources such as solar panels or wind power or sources that produce no emissions such as thorium or uranium could completely reduce emissions. As well, thorium shows promise in producing enormous amounts of electricity cheaply with very little to no waste that can be easily cleaned up, and could prove to power the world and it’s form of locomotion relatively easily, cheaply, and cleanly for the next few thousand years. As of now, the power grid would theoretically be capable of handling the power requirements of a sudden shift to electric cars given the current electrical output, without turning anymore power stations online. As of now, the Department of energy says that roughly 180 million cars could switch over electric without turning any more power stations on, or roughly 84% of the total 220 million cars present in the United States (and it’s conceivable that not all of said vehicles are used on a daily basis).

Internal combustion engines, by comparison, are relatively inefficient at converting on-board fuel energy, such as gasoline, to forward propulsion as most of the energy is wasted as heat. Electric motors are more efficient in converting stored energy into driving vehicle, and electric drive vehicles do not consume energy while at rest or coasting, and some of the energy lost when braking can be captured and reused through regenerative braking, which can capture as much as one fifth of the energy normally lost during braking. Typically, conventional gasoline engines use only 15% of the fuel energy content to move the vehicle or to power their accessories, and comparative diesel engines can reach on-board efficiencies of roughly 20%, while electric drive vehicles can have on-board efficiency of around 80%. Most of the other 20% is due to the inefficiencies present in batteries, which can theoretically be reduced.

The current problems with electric cars are batteries and the power source (although it’s conceivable that a mild infrastructure change to large multiple car battery powering stations, or parking lots, would be beneficial). In the United States, currently, around 44.9% of energy is produced by coal, 23.4% is produced by natural gas, 20.3% is produced by nuclear power, 6.9% is produced by hydroelectric dams, 3.6% is produced by various renewable sources, and around 1% is produced by petroleum products. This means that a large portion of the energy is still produced by carbon producing materials, meaning that electricity currently still produces a large amount of polluting by products. If nuclear power, chiefly uranium for electricity production, was increased by just 5 times its current amount, then nearly all pollution from electrical emissions could be eliminated (except for, potentially, the costly to clean up nuclear waste). Luckily, thorium lends insight on how to replace electricity cheaply without the potential dangers of other forms of nuclear power for potentially hundreds of thousands of years. As well, it would be stable, abundant, and relatively powerful for isolated energy production, making it an ideal source of power for Cargo boats or Aircraft carriers. Additionally, if solar panels were used, it would be possible to generate practically fuel-less, stable, clean energy for millions of year, and due to recent advancements and potential geographic location in regards to large scale production (such as Antarctica) it may become a feasible alternative in the near future.

Despite the high potential for clean energy and electrical production, current batteries still possess major problems, including range on a single charge, recharge time, and battery life.