Electric Cars: Effect on the Environment

Effect on the Environment

With the depletion of the earth's ozone layer and the shortage of our oil supply becoming an issue, we have had to look at alternative fueled vehicles that will not harm the environment, but will still provide us with a reliable source of transportation.

Compared to gasoline powered vehicles, electric vehicles are considered to be 97 percent cleaner, producing absolutely no tailpipe emissions that can place particulate matter into the air. Particulate matter can increase asthma conditions, as well as irritate respiratory systems. Because EVs produce no emissions, there are no requirements for EV owners to ever take in their vehicle to DEQ for an emissions inspection. Another factor that makes these vehicles so clean is that since they don't use half of the parts that a gasoline powered vehicle does (including gasoline and oil), they are not at risk of shedding any worn out radiator hoses, fuel filters, etc, to be dumped in our over crowded landfills, and leaking contaminated oil into our water supply, killing plant and animal life.

Exceptionally quiet, EVs produce no noise pollution. In fact they are so quiet that manufacturers are thinking that EVs may one day require some kind of noise device on them to alert pedestrians that they are within the area.

In a gasoline powered vehicle, the then engine must be kept running even when the vehicle is idle. When an EV is idle, the electric motor is not running and the vehicle is not using any energy. On hot days, a few hundred gas-powered cars sitting on the freeway produce an unimaginable amount of pollution. EVs can run during hot days, cold days, at night, and can accelerate or remain idle and not produce any pollution.

Many people claim that EVs merely relocate the source of pollution to the power plants. Even though EVs produce no tailpipe emissions, they still need electricity to be recharged, which means they need power plants to produce the electricity. These people fail to realize, however, that many modern power plants (especially in states like California) are "clean", meaning they produce no pollution. Examples of "clean" power plants include nuclear reactors, windmills, hydroelectric plants and solar panels. Also, it is much easier to deal with isolated pollution sources such as power plants than it is to deal with millions of automobiles, each a source of pollution.

As more and more power plants become "clean" and as more people realize what EVs can do for the environment, EV use will increase, and our environment will become much nicer.