Parade of emissions-free electric cars in 2011
A new genre of electric cars slicker and emissions-free have arrived
in thousands as the two largest manufacturers USA and China as well as
many others blaze the trail of greener technology. 'A highly charged'
motoring decade is on us, a fan enthused.
The idea of recharging an electric car at home at minimal cost and
never again having to visit a filling station is enticing. The swanky
sales pitch is compelling as manufacturers show off their new wares.
The battery-powered Nissan Leaf or Renault Fluence, vouch they can
give you 160km (100 miles) or so, before the battery is recharged
overnight.
The Chevrolet Volt's battery has less than half that range, but it
carries a tiny petrol generator to get the battery charged, which gives
the car another 480km.
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Emissions-free car. Picture courtesy: Google |
Meanwhile, China announced recently that the annual production of
electric vehicles will hit one million units by 2020 heralding the
emergence of world's largest auto market for new energy vehicles.
Outsmarting the petrol car
The pioneers, Toyota Prius hybrid and the Elon Musk's Tesla
all-electric sports cars of a decade ago suddenly seemed dated. There
are some newer dexterous micro cars with just two seats and ranges of
only around 50km for short runs on city streets.
Carmakers are working to outsmart the combination of cheapness and
efficiency that a petrol-powered car offered the average car buyer.
Methods to shorten the recharging time of the car battery with better
technology like super recharges are being planned.
There are also attempts to provide the accessories and outlets to
service the new cars in order to reach the optimum economies of scale
leading to mass production.
Is the showroom patter misleading? Some have posed the question. As
salesmen will be quick to point out, 98 percent of the time people in
the West do only short runs-the daily commute, trips to the shops and to
pick up the children-all well within the range of most electric cars.
But that final two percent of journeys presumably includes longer
trips when people pile into a car and head off either on vacation or a
family event. And even the relatively short ranges, a cold or rainy
days, wet night when lots of electrical systems are running and the
vehicle is laden with passengers and luggage, a car may lose around a
third of its promised range.
Critical assessment
EV generation is a huge leap forward for the car industry, but many
are calling for a critical assessment of the proponents' claims about
how green the technology is and whether the cost of subsidizing each new
car-about $ 7,500 in UK and higher in USA are worth the cost.
According to Richard Pike, chief executive of the Royal Society of
Chemistry, replacing all of Britain's cars with subsidised electric cars
would cost the taxpayer Sterling Pounds150 billion and with Britain's
current fuel mix, cut Co2 emissions from cars in UK by about two
percent. For the same money, Britain could replace its entire
power-generation stock with solar cells and cut its emissions by a
third, he argued.
A universal carbon tax as the most efficient way to cut
greenhouse-gas emissions is still a decade away. Copenhagen summit just
adopted broad policy lines. Guidelines were debated intensely at the
Cancun conference recently.
Electric cars plus the carbon tax seemed the way to go. Until such
time the world opts for such a move, electric cars would be subsidized.
The electric cars are a good way of reducing emissions; but a carbon tax
would enable them to flourish.
Meanwhile, Shenzhen city in China plans to have 35,000 electric cars
on its roads within three years. There is no stopping that trend once
the electric vehicles arrive in all their splendour. We are now
witnessing a paradigm shift in transportation.
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