Why We Need Electric Cars

We already have the technology we need to cure our addiction to oil, stabilize the climate and maintain our standard of living, all at the same time. By transitioning to sustainable technologies, such as solar and wind power, we can achieve energy independence and stabilize human-induced climate change.

Increasing transportation efficiency is the best place to start efforts to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), which is a primary culprit in global warming. Of all CO₂ emissions in the United States, about 33 percent comes from transportation.

Our electric vs. internal combustion engine chart shows the overwhelming advantages of electric cars — plug-in hybrid vehicles and all-electric vehicles (EVs) — over gasoline vehicles. With gasoline-electric hybrid power and all-electric power, we can achieve significant cost and environmental savings. By adding more batteries and recharging capability to gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, we can have plug-in hybrids that offer the range of hybrids (500 miles or more), plus the benefit of all-electric power for short trips, which dramatically reduces the amount of gasoline used. EVs require no gasoline whatsoever and, when recharged from renewable energy sources, produce zero total emissions.

In fact, even if we switched from gasoline cars to EVs and plug-in hybrids recharged by our existing utility grids (which mostly use fossil fuels), we would see a 42 percent national average reduction in CO₂ emissions, according to research by Peter Lilienthal of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

As we approach the peak of world oil extraction and witness the consequences of climate change, it is important to reflect on how the world’s most technologically advanced nation came to base its economy on the use of polluting, finite resources. It is also important to recognize that corporations exist, for the most part, for one reason: to make money. This gives us, the consumer, the ultimate power to shape corporate behavior through how we spend our money.

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Why Go Electric

Why Go Electric

Transportation efficiency is usually measured without regard for how fuel ends up in the tank, we just assume it will be there. It’s time to develop a better method, one that considers the finite nature of fossil fuels and how their use affects the planet’s ability to support life. Ultimately, almost all energy on Earth comes from the sun, so fuel efficiencies should be measured from sun to wheel.
Fossil fuels are inherently very inefficient because of the hundreds of millions of years of solar energy and the rare geologic events it takes to produce them. About 350,000,000 terawatt (trillion watt) hours of solar energy strike the Earth every year. It took 3.5 billion years of photosynthesis to create world oil reserves that contain about 1,000,000 terawatt hours of energy. Do the math and you will find that using direct solar radiation is about a quadrillion times more efficient than burning fossil fuels. It is long past time to transition from ancient solar energy, aka fossil fuels, to using the solar energy we receive every day.

Biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, may help us transition to cleaner vehicles, but let’s not forget that overharvesting has contributed to the decline of many civilizations over the last 10,000 years. For the last 100 years, ever-increasing amounts of soil nutrients and fossil fuels have been consumed to grow and distribute food. As the needs of an increasing population collide with the realities of diminishing soil quality and fossil fuels, growing food will trump growing fuel.

Photosynthesis by plants is a maximum of 1 percent efficient at converting solar energy into carbohydrates. The efficiency of producing biofuels from carbohydrates and then getting refined fuel to vehicles varies from 10 percent to 35 percent, depending on the process and the distance to the use. Then there’s the 10 percent to 20 percent efficiency of the internal-combustion engine and the transmission. So, the sun to wheel efficiency of biofuels is 0.01 percent to 0.07 percent.

Producing electricity from solar energy using photovoltaics (PV) is about 5 percent to 20 percent efficient, and solar-thermal electric generation can be more than 35 percent efficient. Current battery charge/discharge efficiency varies from 80 percent to 95 percent. Electric motors are more than 90 percent efficient. As a result, the sun to wheel efficiency of solar-electric power falls between 3 percent and 30 percent. This gives solar-electric vehicles an advantage 50 to 3,000 times greater than burning biofuels.

Of course, for EVs to truly have zero emissions, the electricity used to charge their batteries must be generated from renewable sources such as the sun or wind. If EVs are charged with electricity generated by nuclear or coal-fired power plants, the true costs will be passed on to future generations. Fortunately, renewables are ready and able to charge EVs and plug-in hybrids.

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Welcome to the revolution.

Welcome to the revolution.
Oh, no, I didn't know what I was getting into, either. I didn't realize that getting behind the wheel of that little white electric car in the motor pool would take me through the looking glass into a world where LOVE would make me an enemy of the Oilies - the most powerful, ruthless, and well-armed coalition in the world.

But isn't that the way with revolutions?

I admit - like you, the first thing I saw was the nice body. I got a little closer, and ooh, nice interior, too. I slid behind the wheel and adjusted the seat, and, although I didn't know it yet, it was already too late for me. I was about to be hooked.

I pressed the key button and heard...nothing.

I put my foot to the pedal, cautiously, and that little white car leaped out of the parking space, so agile, so quick! And so completely, deliciously, quiet. I tuned the stereo to the classical station I love, and for the first time in an automobile I could hear every nuance of the music. Everything. Every flute, every cello, every subtle musical comment, every cough and shuffle from the audience, practically as clear as wearing headphones and sitting on the couch. As I stepped on it and pulled out into traffic, I remember feeling joy. Silly, yeah, I know. The same, silly, animal joy that comes over me when I launch myself off the side of the swimming pool and glide through the water like a seal.

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