The demand for Electric Vehicles (EVs) is rising as the concerns about air pollution and the awareness of the cons of driving gasoline-powered vehicles, such as toxic fumes from the discharge of the exhaust, or the cost of maintenance rising because of gas prices, are all reasons people are thinking of purchasing an EV.
Pros of Electric Cars
Cars powered by these electricity sources are a lot safer for the environment. They remove the toxic, waste-like fumes from the exhaust, and replace them with the fresh smell of absolutely nothing. That’s right! There is no exhaust on the back. Because they are powered by electricity, there is a lot less chance of engine failure because of the fact that the car is powered immediately by the battery. Also, you’d think that because it is electric, it has bad mileage. Although this may be true for some electric vehicles, this is not necessarily true with all kinds of electric vehicles. One includes the Tesla Roadster, which is a fully-electric convertible coupe, with a range of 620 miles at highway-speeds (60 miles per hour) in an ideal situation. Although this might seem good, it actually runs about 500 miles due to imperfect conditions and battery wear-and-tear.
Concerns of Pricing
A lot of people immediately think of pricing when they think of buying cars. Many people think the newest technology would be more expensive than the older cars such as muscle cars. This is mostly true, but EVs have a very flexible pricing range and structure. This is because the EV markets are specifically made to support all kinds of incomes and pricings. EVs range from being as much as $4 Million for an upcoming 2026 Bugatti™ Tourbillion EV Hypercar to as little as $30,000 for a 2023-2024 Chevrolet™ Bolt.
Helping the Environment
Electric Vehicles have been all the rage in market not only because of the previously mentioned topics, but also because they are a great help to the environment. Even hybrid cars are also helping the environment, using sometimes Gas & Electric engines to increase mileage and reduce air pollution. The air pollution from cars promotes a large portion to the overall pollution in the oceans and in our planet in general. Air pollution and C02 promote to 30% of the absorbed pollution in the ocean, killing beautiful coral and other animals the in the ocean. But with electric cars, they use electricity, reducing a lot of air pollution, and enabling the car to have 0% tailpipe exhaust pollution.
Acceleration
With Electric Vehicles and their newer motors and better technology, they can speed 0-60 in less than 3 seconds. Brands like Tesla and Polestar have evolved to narrow that down to less than 2 seconds. These are faster overall cars, and without any pollution, too! If you wanted to outrun this, you would have to purchase a car that’s over 3 times the price and produces 70% more pollution. These vehicles are are some of the quickest vehicles that you can purchase, at a lower cost than the more high-end, expensive ones. These fast cars can have acceleration from 0-60 in 2 seconds for less than $70,000 MSRP (Market Price).
Quiet Motors
These electric cars are very quiet, too. This is because they don’t have an engine, compressing air into fire and pushing pistons at more than 20 strokes per second. Instead, these cars have batteries, which make no noise. Because of how whisper quiet these cars are, aside from the noise of the wheels on the street, the manufacturers were forced to make a small, almost whistling-like sound when you accelerate. This is a small, high-pitched acceleration sound based on when the small computer inside of the car detects acceleration. This is existent in many cars such as the Toyota RAV4 or Rolls-Royce Phantom. Because of these quiet motors, people are able to go out on their late-night drives without waking up the neighborhood, and go undetected when they leave the house at 3AM to get a Starbucks Drink (PLEASE DON’T DO THIS).
Less Maintenance
These cars are also well-manufactured to the point that they don’t have constant repairs, and you don’t need to drop all of your remaining funds into fixing the transmission or air conditioner. These are newer, more high-tech cars that have less maintenance issues and they are cheaper to repair. Therefore, this is one of the main pros of an electric vehicle. So you can keep the remaining money in your pockets, and feel free to drive around.
Cheaper Power Prices
The charging for the car is completely up to the manufacturer and your electricity bill, therefore causing the prices of the power for your car, which would originally be expensive gas, to lower down to an average of ~$10 per charge in vehicles like a Toyota RAV4 or a Tesla Model 3. You don’t even have to drive to get gas, because most car owners have an electric car charger in their house.
Charging Benefits
Electric cars, and some “Plug-In” Hybrid cars allow the user to simply plug their car into an outlet, charging the car in an average of 4-5 hours, or sometimes overnight. The entire charge can usually charge in most EVs in about 9 hours. The charge can last around 350 miles on average, so you should not have to worry about constantly charging your car. Sometimes, charging your car every night can become a habit, too, and you never have to worry about not being able to drive your car when it is charging. The cost is just a lot cheaper, like mentioned in the last paragraph, which is another reason these charging stations are a lot better than gas/petrol stations.
Advanced Technology
These vehicles also come with some very advanced technological features in the dashboard, and sometimes in the passenger/back seats. If you’ve ever experienced looking at the interior of a Tesla or any form of electric car, you’ve probably seen a gigantic screen in the middle, with features like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Some electric cars are purely for performance and don’t have these screens, but most electric cars have high-quality screens in the middle of the dashboard. Don’t worry, there’s still room for your starbucks cup. These screens have awesome features, including Netflix while it’s charging, and different games you can play with the wheel. Most of the features are meant to be used while charging, but you can obviously still play music and look at your navigation maps when you’re driving. Another benefit is you can use the built-in, updated map, which actually updates when the map updates. You don’t even have to buy an external holder for your phone, which saves some money too.
Travel Chargers
These cars, like Teslas, also can be used with chargers that are in parking lots. If you haven’t seen, at places like Targets and some parking lots, there are charging stations with all the same charging benefits, although they cost about $15 for a full charge. But this is easily compared to the almost $4 per liter refueling charge for non-electric vehicles (Non-EVs). Although some of these are hard to find, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, is actively working with is team to build new chargers on the U.S. Government’s power grid, spreading them all over the US and also in the UK and other continents and countries. These Tesla chargers also allow other vehicles to use their chargers, if they are compatible with the charger. Most plug-in charging cars allow these, so make sure when you purchase one that it says “Plug-In” or “Plug-In Hybrid” and it is compatible with the dimensions of these chargers, for easier charging access. These chargers allow low prices, but also come with the downside of a slower charging speed, meaning you would have to have something such as an errand to run while it’s charging, or a meal to eat, to pass time. Alternatively, you could watch Netflix or play a game on the built-in screen of the vehicle.
Cons of EVs
You might already be amazed by the pros of these vehicles, which is obviously a wide range of benefits, but they also come with their cons. These vehicles don’t run well in the winter, when there are cold conditions, because the batteries don’t like cold climates. You also lose a substantial amount of range when towing, because of the added weight, unlike some specially-tuned gas vehicles. The production of batteries also contributes to some pollution, which might take away from the overall pollution decrease of EVs. These EV batteries are currently very hard to recycle, so if a battery goes bad, they are currently being stored, and there isn’t a very healthy way to get rid of these batteries. It’s also very expensive to own these cars when you rent or own a home such as an apartment. This is because there might not be a place to charge your vehicle in the parking lot, and in some cities, the prices for these chargers are more expensive and there is more demand for them. Lastly, these take a long time to charge, and there is a lack of currently available chargers, too. Because of this, you would have to have a lot of things to do while it is charging, if you run out of battery whilst on your trip or while driving. There are a lot more cons like high registration fees and the cost to purchase, but all of these are easily overrun by the amount of pros.
Conclusion
In conclusion, these vehicles, EVs, are very good for the planet, and because of the demand, I would personally recommend purchasing one. Due to the amount of pros vs cons, the pros easily outweigh the cons, and it therefore makes it worth it to sell the vehicle you already have (if you have one), and buy a new one. These might not be affordable for some income groups, but in Maryland, the income pricing is a bit above mid-tier, and therefore able to afford some of the middle-class vehicles such as a Tesla Model 3. All of these pros just make it ideal to purchase one, and make it an overall good purchase and a cheap alternative to gas-powered cars.
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Written by Henry W., 2024.
Credits to USNews and Getty Images.
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