Over the past few years, the automotive industry’s engineers have made numerous technological breakthroughs, one being the modern and futuristic idea of electric vehicles. Now that the technology of these electric vehicles has been nearly perfected, its previous idealistic image is being re-evaluated. Are the electric cars overall good for our society, or does it only add more complications and poison to our environment?

Though one might believe that being “electric”, these new automobiles generally have a smaller carbon footprint, but according to the article linked, this is not the case. Electric vehicle sales has risen to 0.01% of total automotive sales in the last year, and manufacturing is becoming more and more popular. However, the true success of the electric car depends entirely on “how much we can clean up our electricity grid”. In the UK alone, 40% of electricity generated is by coal-powered plants., reducing the “green” advantage of the EVs (electric vehicles) by a considerable amount. It seems almost hypocritical, using extremely pollutive methods to produce a non-pollutive method of transportation. A good way to approach this problem would be to consider alternative energy providing sources, making the EV projects a “complete package”. This might include using solar, wind, or hydro powered plants, and eventually eliminating the use of coal-powered plants completely.

Another issue that should be considered is on the economical side of the situation. As of now, the world consumes over 85 million barrels of crude oil per day, a large portion of which goes into commercial and domestic transportation. If the world were to switch over to electric vehicles, the demand for oil would plummet, reducing profit for governments and oil companies who play a big role in the economy. With the excess supply of oil, mining and oil companies would have no choice but to sell at non-profit prices, eventually resulting in the loss of labour jobs and even bankruptcy.

Call me a sceptic, but with all of these negative impacts, it seems like the glorified electric vehicle is not an answer to our world’s questions, but merely a trade-off for whatever problems we have today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22001356

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