Advantages of Electric Powered Cars
If you are in the market for an electric powered car, you are probably wondering “What are all of the advantages of electric powered cars?” There are 2 types of electric powered cars, gas-electric hybrids and electric only powered cars. This article will discuss the electric only powered car advantages.
- Renewable energy possibility and Carbon Neutral Possibility
While an electric car is not automatically going to be powered by renewable energy and will not automatically be carbon neutral, it definitely has the possibility to be. All you need to do is make sure that when you charge your electric car that it is plugged into a power source of electricity that was generated by solar, wind or other carbon neutral and/or renewable energy source. At my house, I pay a bit extra per month to get all of my power from the wind. It is what I like to call “guilt free energy”. Many home electric providers give their customers the option to pay extra for wind powered electricity. You may already have renewable power if your power company buys from a damn. If you don’t have the option to get renewable energy from your area’s electric provider (you can ask them to give you that option and they might just comply), then you could set up a wind or solar powered system at your home yourself. This is in no way easy or inexpensive, but it is fairly doable in this day and age. You may not be able to get enough energy to power your car entirely this way so you may need “on grid” backup. Calculations for this are beyond the scope of this article.
- Quietness
Electric cars are very quiet. It recently has shown that noise pollution increases stress hormones in city dwellers is believed to lead to a rise in heart disease and death. When everyone switches to electric cars the city will be MUCH quieter. The only downside is that pedestrians are used to listening for cars rather than looking for them, so initially there may be a rise in pedestrian accidents.
- Smoothness
When accelerating with electricity you get a unique smoothness that you do not get with gas powered engines.
- Clean
Electric cars do not have all the dirty, sooty engine parts that gas powered cars have. If you like to work on engines, this will mean cleaner hands for you.
- Get noticed
At least for now, electric cars are a novelty and eyes will follow you wherever you go.
- Easy parking
Currently most electric cars are small and that means easy parking in tight city spots.
- Lower cost
The calculation for cost per mile with electricity is fairly complex but I have read many sources that say electricity is currently much cheaper than gas. This would be especially true if you already have a home electric renewable generating system set up.