Electric cars are the future or just another gadget ?

1
1590 views

Despite of a lot of good things involved, we still don't see a lot of electric cars on road. Why so ? Is this very early to say that ? Or is it automobile industry not so keen for electric cars because of their large inventories of gas-cars ?

electical
Tesla
Innovation
Automobile
Hitesh Mathpal
60 months ago

11 answers

3

Electric cars are the future and nobody can deny that. Of course, automobile manufacturers have their initial pushback for the idea but that is not going to sustain for the long term.
You see, almost every manufacturer is launching their electric car. This says a lot about the future.

Maya Kharkwal MA, BEd
60 months ago
I deny it. Batteries are toxic and their manufacture creates more pollution then gas engines. They also lose capacity with every charge. When the battery dies the car is worthless. Range is lmited and charging takes hours. Cars run on natural gas will replace the gas we use today and electric cars will only have a small place in the economy. - Robert 58 months ago
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Well, yes we see in long-term these cars are future, however most of the countries are not ready for them due to infrastructure issues. Also, have we thought about how will we generate electricity as we need to run everything on it. Nevertheless, the timeline for the transition to electric cars continues to be a point of contention among analysts. Felipe Munoz, a global analyst at JATO, predicts electric vehicles will outsell conventional ones by 2030. Bill Visnic, editorial director at the Society of Automotive Engineers, is less optimistic. He predicts gas- and diesel-powered “combustion engines really aren’t going anywhere for quite some time.”
Mary Nichols, who heads the California Air Resources Board, agrees that internal combustion engines aren’t going away anytime soon. “We can’t turn them all into planters or sculptures,” she says. “So I think we’re going to have to provide for them to continue to exist.”

Masarrat A Shah
60 months ago
".., have we thought about how will we generate electricity as we need to run everything on it. " That is a very important point. Specially for lower economies. - Hitesh 60 months ago
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It is true that electrical car is environmental friendly, however, the maintainace fee is too high and it need constant service. Furthermore, there are much uncertainty regarding electric car because in the future, where public transports are better for instance "pods" transfer, people might prefer to use public transport instead of owning a car.

Furthermore, speaking of being environmental friendly, there are other means of transportation a part from electric cars. For instance bicycles. In The Netherlands, there are actually more bicycle than people where the citizen there prefers to bike rather than drive! Not to mention, it helps in the health aspect too by combating sedentary lifestyle!

Lawrence Loy
60 months ago
To determining how environmentally friendly electrical cars are, we consider: (1) the making of the batteries including getting the raw material is a fuel intensive procedure that is also damaging to the sea life due to the excavation of deel sea for Lithium. (2) Charging electrical cars needs electricity which comes mainly from natural gas. Considering end-to-end, we save 50% of CO and not more. - Dr. Monther 58 months ago
1

Hi,
I would say we need to understand this very simple process of any industry that is manufacturing these cars, that for it to eliminate other alternatives it needs to circulate the word of proposal to the consumers on the basis of environmental sustainability and reduced money expenditure in a long run. We have already seen in many places around the world they are using public transport based on electric energy, and for it to eliminate the vehicles on road, it needs to provide the same sense of security and power to the users. Beside Tesla, not many manufacturers advertise their products as a game changes instead it's just and option, and Tesla struggles with providing the large number of production.
The demand for electric cars will surely increase in the future and it will be the new cool in the car industry if the companies just focus on the technology, ease of purchase and maintenance of its products.

Abdullah Rashid
58 months ago
0

First, saying their future with no logical basis in fact is foolish.

Second, there are indeed some big challenges for them to become mainstream for which there are still no good answers. That leaves cost high and convenience low with an opening for better technologies.

  1. Gasoline is cheap, plentiful and there is no end in sight. Some estimates put the long term supply of fossil fuels, factoring in the clear trend towards flat global population, ever improving efficiencies and economic growth and maturing demographics at 400 to 500 years.
  2. The battery ingredient supply challenge. It’s an easy calculation. There’s not enough lithium, prices are soaring accordingly. Unless sodium batteries or similar emerge as viable and then dominant, baseline costs will simply not drop and all the unfair subsidies will not change that.
  3. No charging standards or large scale network destroy convenience. Increase by a factor of ten the EV population and the charging stations, let one any standardization do not exist.
  4. Most if the world can repair their own vehicles and with several hundred million in the road and owned by the poor coupled with those expensive, inconvenient save in the wealthiest nations someday charging networks and cars and it’s just not practical.


EVs will grow but it won’t be dominant for another two decades at least.

Adam Malofsky, PhD
60 months ago
here, here! Finally some logic! Perhaps hydrogen fuel cells offer a better option but there are issues around the life of the fuel cell. Who pays £60k for a fuel cell vehicle that only have 0 years of life? What are the lifetime environmental impacts of that? - David 60 months ago
Very good points Adam. Thanks. - Hitesh 60 months ago
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Electric cars have the advantage that they don't cause contamination at the place of operation, but an energy-plant away from the big cities. On the short-run, this is an advantage, but of course on the long-term to gain a positive effect, also the energy should come from renewable energies.

Patrick Henz
60 months ago
Pat, do we have that much of reserves of renewable energy. I am saying we have challenges on this and we are actually going to ruin envirnment. - Masarrat A 60 months ago
Agree - a solution for long drive has to be there. - Hitesh 60 months ago
As the demand of electric cars rise, so has the offer of electricity. Another long-term solution could be electrified highways, so that the cars not discharge while using. - Patrick 60 months ago
0

Electric cars the future and if it has to be. However, the product is not very mature in terms of market age. As the manufacturers are growing with new cars, the demand will grow. There is no point of looking back now.
However there is a great market of converting gas cars to electric.

Charu Gulati
60 months ago
Converting?That can't be a serious option. - David 60 months ago
Thanks. Converting is more expensive then buying a new one I guess. - Hitesh 60 months ago
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First of all, it is fully held on the local government policies to promote electric cars infrastructure, just like when once started gasoline cars there’s very few petrol station available it took decades to growth at current scale set. The government effort/initiative on taxation relief for green energy usage will also have direct impact for quicker replacement from gasoline to electric type vehicle. Of course, there’s many other political/economical factor need to be considered due to different country governance.

The electrical car manufacturer has yet provide any environmental friendly disposal method for dead batteries and it is definitely sounds stupid to have a greener mover system but on other hand to generate tonnes of battery toxic waste. Unless fuel cell technology is being adopted, the lifestyle of getting in to petrol station to pump “liquid” into vehicle can be maintained and continues the legacy of people’s mindset.

My personal point of view, theres many other options in electric cars concept e.g battery, solar, supercaps, etc but they are not sustainable as fuel cell concept.

Lee Chinpei, MIET
60 months ago
"The electrical car manufacturer has yet provide any environmental friendly disposal method for dead batteries.." Important ! Thank you, - Hitesh 60 months ago
Battery is not the best option but considered best alternative power source for electric vehicle. Yes, you are abs right disposal method is extremely important here for long term sustainable measure. Especially the life cycle is sucks thus may need a specific dump site with proper handling. - Lee 60 months ago
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Electric cars only become a good alternative for cleaning up our environment if it does just that.
We need to look at where the electricity is coming from. I have considered an EV but feel I must have a solar system on my house to power it to actually be what it is touted to be - clean.

I have seen other alternatives that intrigue me as with solar road or magnetically powered vehicles but lots of infrastructure would be needed to support those moves.

Jacquie Walburn
58 months ago
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Hi,
Electrical cars are seem to be the future of automobiles. Car manufacturers will try to delay this. It will not happen in one day. So internal combustion engines will not disappear. Some manufactures have Hybrid cars already. The change will happen gradually I believe. This is what is visible today. Electrical cars still need time to be available for the mass due to the unavailability of the infrastructure to support it. Few cities today provide places for car charging. Knowledge of maintenance and understanding of the way the electrical engine works is not massively available to workshops and mechanics. Although, there is still a long way to go, car manufactures need to join the trend or else they will miss this transformation and risk their own existence.

Dr. Monther Haddad - DBA
58 months ago
0

Electric Vehicles will have a good future. 
The Electric vehicle evolution is moving faster than anyone anticipated. This will change all aspects of transport and specifically, public transport. The electric car industry is growing fast, thanks to improved choice, lower prices, grants and battery technology.
It will definitely take time to reach top in automation field as it has less market as compare to Petrol/Diesel/CNG gas vehicles.

Fact DNA
58 months ago

Have some input?