Are Electric Cars an Answer to Pollution?

Question

Please explain

Answer 1

Electricity has to come from some other expended energy so its not proven that it will stop pollution~~

Answer 2

Electric cars do help pollution in the cities, but just transfers most of the pollution to the electric power plant location. I guess the answer is yes for the city, but no for global warming and overall pollution.

Answer 3

Your question, "Are Electric Cars an Answer to Pollution?" is a good one. The answers are more simple than most people think.

Pollution is concentrated within cities. By making the cars themselves clean, the pollution is moved outside the cities to the power plants where it can be better controlled and regulated. The end result is that the air you are likely to breath is cleaner almost everywhere and including the cities where the most people are concentrated.

The source of the electrical energy for an electric car comes from a diverse mix of energy sources which are monitored and controlled for pollution better than are individual gasoline/diesel cars. As this country and the world grapples with environmental issues and sustainable energy those sources will become cleaner and more efficient over time.

Timothy D.

Answer 4

they are a start to reducing CO2 emissions

Answer 5

Not if we have to burn coal to produce the electricity.

Answer 6

Since the oil companies are the major stockholders for the auto manufacturers, and the auto manufacturers are the major stockholders in the oil companies, see if you can figure out why there are no electric cars.

Answer 7

Electric cars would be a big step in the right direction (I'll show you a study below proving that).  Since electric cars get their energy from the power grid, the grid also has to be reasonably clean to be the answer to pollution.  Electric cars are always an improvement over gas cars (even if the entire power grid is made of coal burning power plants), but the cleaner the grid (using more renewables like wind, solar, water, etc.), the less pollution is created in recharging the electric cars.  So you need both electric cars and the greenest power production possible.

HEV = hybrid gas-electric car (uses gasoline to recharge batteries)

PHEV = plug-in hybrid (can be plugged in or use gasoline to recharge batteries)

ICE = internal combustion engine (regular gas car)

EV = electric vehicle (plugs in to recharge batteries)

EVs reduce CO2 by 11%-100% compared with ICEs and by 24%-54% compared with HEVs, and significantly reduce all other greenhouse gas emissions, using the U.S. grid

mix. If all U.S. cars were EVs, we’d reduce global warming emissions. Using electricity strictly from coal, EVs still would reduce CO2 by 0%-59% compared with ICEs (one analysis found 0% change; six others found reductions of 17%-59%) and might produce 30%-49% more CO2 than HEVs (based on only two analyses). On the other hand, if electricity comes from solar or wind power, EVs eliminate all emissions.  Using natural gas to make electricity, emissions fall in between those from coal and renewable power.

Basically because an electric engine is more efficient than burning gas, it reduces pollution no matter what.  The greener the power grid, the less pollution created to recharge the electric car battery.

Answer 8

Partly.  While they DO transfer the burden of fuel production to the larger grid plants, the plants are MUCH more effecient at actually making the power than each gas engine.  This is an extreme example, but on paper, if nobody had to manufacture engine parts, pollution is saved there, too.  Yes, coal makes pollution, but it can't possibly make more than having all the engines running - I know, for example, that a gas generator can power a house, but running it off the electricity grid costs 5% of what filling a gas tank every 4 hours would.  

The problem is the GRID, not cars in particular.  If everyone were theoretically to do solar or wind, the only pollution would be in manufacturing the equipment, replacement equipment, and battery pollution - which is still a big problem.  The real choice we have here is: do we want to depend on Oil, Coal, Natural Gas, Wind, Sun... or what?  I'd choose something I have faith will continue - Sun and Wind, if I was empowered to make the choice.  

For now, suffice it to say that large car companies are dragging their heels and losing power, and a couple small start ups are trying to become mainstream, like Tesla or Phoenix.  

Cut the grid, and electric cars make loads of sense.  Keep the grid, and they are still an improvement.  Improve batteries and the worst of electric cars gets better.

Also, companies need to stop trying to saturate California - other people want in too...

Answer 9

Electric cars have the smallest carbon footprint of all types, if your electric power is produced from renewable (example: dams, wind turbines) sources. In BC, Canada, most of our electricity is "clean", so the answer to your question is Yes. (Check out Lifecycle studies on different types of cars.)

Some people say that batteries are also polluting. However, a new battery breakthrough allows "dead" batteries to be used in electric cars .. an even better way, as now, the "pollutant" itself (batteries) can be used as the energy source:

http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/1091



Finally, most people are unaware that the biggest objection to electric cars, its "short driving range", can be easily solved by using a genset for those  rare long trips. Most commutes are less than 20 miles each way, and a long extension cord allows charging everywhere.

Only those who have never made an effort to own an electric bike, scooter, or car are not aware that there are work-arounds for the perceived problems with an EV's range. An EV can be plugged in everywhere, because people love you, when you keep the air clean for everyone! At the Fifth Avenue Cinema, the manager himself plugged in our two electric bikes in the lobby while we watched a flick.

Answer 10

GABY, I see you are still living in disbelief.  Do your own research and what you find will make you eat your own words.

I agree with Dana1981 and Ken L.

I will add there is research being done to see if it is feasible to use Switch grass to burn in the production of electricity.  If it is feasible, then the production of electricity will be CARBON NEUTRAL.  Meaning, the amount of carbon released when Switch Grass is burned is the exact amount of carbon pulled from the air during the time that the grass is growing, thus a standoff.  The positive and negative are equal.  Switch Grass is a native grass, grows fast, and two, possibly three crops can be grown in a single year.  

Electric cars are not THE answer at present time, but definitely along the path of the right direction.  

Since oil refineries use electricity to power machinery that turns oil into gas and diesel, fossil fuel vehicles pollute the air multiple times.  Let's count them.  

1. Pollutants are cast off during the refining process

2. Refineries use electricity, so a percentage of power plant  

     pollutants can be contributed to fossil fuels

3. The trucks that deliver the gas/diesel to the neighborhood  

     stations pollute the air.

4. The car/truck that uses that fuel from the station pumps pullutes.

Electric cars only have the power plant polluting in their process.  The power plant produces electricity, it travels by wire to the recharge station, and then into the electric car.  

Sooner or later, the hold that the oil companies has on society will break.  Look at the history of the combustion engine and diesel engine.  Henry Ford designed the first engines to run on ETHANOL....NOT gas.  Robert Diesel, for whom the diesel engine was named after, was designed to run on PEANUT OIL!!  The oil companies muscled and bought their way in, and the rest is history.  Well, it's LONG overdue to go BACK to the future.  

If the oil companies had any sense, they would get into alternative fuels, including electricity.  They would still have the monopoly, contribute to saving the environment, introduce a new industry, create new jobs, and STILL be in control.  After all, it will be awhile before aircraft have an alternative fuel.  The same goes for trains and ships.  They all use large amounts of fossil fuel.  Trains and ships will probably be able to shift fuels before aircraft.  Oil is also needed for plastics, tires, lubricants, and even medications.  When will all the narrow minded knuckle heads holding back progress die off?!

Answer 11

Not according to your global warming champions. They say we should walk instead of drive, we need hybrid cars i.e. electric cars, but they also tell us not to use electricity in our homes. See folks, people like Al Gore who invented global warming (not the internet) are hypocrites. He rolls around in his private jet everyday from place to place lectruring us on our duty as the human race claiming he is cabon nuetral; all the while these carbon offsets he purchase are from a company he has a butt load of stock in; and yet people want to complain about Halliburton. This right here is folly.

Answer 12

They need energy, as all cars, in order to work. This energy comes from similar sources as the regular cars. The difference is efficiency. The big power plants have much more efficient tools for producing energy from the fossil fuels, and cleaning the emissions. A lot of a regulars cars emissions come when it's cold. A big 24/7 power plant doesn't have this problem. Also, they don't need to think about making the emission filters light weight, or compact, as you wold for a car. An electric car also uses less energy, which, since the energy currently come from the same sources, is the key. So they educe the emissions, but does not remove them completely. It's a step in the right direction. Here is an extract from teslamotors. (producers of an electric car).

"Energy Efficiency

How can you know, with certainty, how efficient one car is versus another? We conducted a “well-to-wheel” accounting for all fuel efficiency and emissions of several types of high-efficiency cars, including an estimate for the Tesla Roadster, based upon performance prototypes.

Here‘s what we found: the Tesla Roadster offers double the efficiency of popular hybrid cars, while generating one-third of the carbon dioxide. Compare the Tesla Roadster against other sports cars and the results get better still: it is six times as efficient and produces one-tenth the pollution, all while achieving the same performance and acceleration."