Electric Vehicles: Less Emissions of Pollutants: Green Vehicles Articles: Eco20/20

Electric Vehicles: Less Emissions of Pollutants

As more and more people become aware of the potential catastrophes associated with climate change, many are looking for ways to reduce their ecological footprints and bring down their greenhouse gas emissions. One of the key areas where emissions are produced is in personal transportation. With hundreds of millions of internal combustion vehicles clogging our streets, it is easy to see how the emissions of greenhouse gases have skyrocketed. Electric vehicles offer a viable alternative for personal transportation (and even the potential to totally change shipping with high speed electric trains) and as more automobile manufacturers jump on board, our choices will continue to grow.

The internal combustion engine is an inefficient, pollutant-chugging machine. There are figures that state that the internal combustion engine is only about 15% efficient in its use of fuel. Much of the rest of that energy comes out the tailpipe in the form of greenhouse gas emissions. With the rocketing and unstable cost of fuel, can we really afford to use gasoline so inefficiently? This is not only a contributor to the rapidly increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, these emissions are also implicated in human health hazards. Emissions from internal combustion engines are leading to an increasing number of respiratory problems, and even complicate ailments such as heart disease. Smog and acid rain are also attributed to the ever-increasing presence of the internal combustion engine.

Enter the electric vehicle. Not only are electric vehicles more efficient in their use of energy, they produce no direct greenhouse gas emissions. While the efficiency of our current electric motors isn't as high as we'd like to see it, breakthroughs in electric motor technology will continue to increase the efficiency of energy usage even more. The use of these vehicles could reduce emissions from personal transport, as well as lead to a decreased presence of smog and acid rain. Electric vehicles dominating the worlds automobile fleet could lead to cleaner, healthier air, as well as a healthier climate. Termed zero emission vehicles, or ZEV, electric vehicles produce no emission from driving.

But one must not assume that electric vehicles are completely without emissions.

The production of an electric vehicle, particularly the batteries, do contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. All vehicle production does, but when compared to an internal combustion vehicle which will continue to chug its pollutants into the atmosphere throughout its entire life cycle, the electric vehicle is a clear winner. With ever improving disposal processes and an increase in available facilities for consumers to dispose of dead batteries, we can continue to reduce this area of impact even further.

Perhaps the biggest contributor to emissions with regard to electric vehicles is the source of energy used to produce the electricity that powers the batteries and thus the motor. One could call these indirect emissions. Currently, most sources of energy used to produce electricity come from non-renewable sources that produce greenhouse gas emissions, the top ones being coal, natural gas, and oil. As more and more people switch to electric vehicles, if the sources of electricity do not change, then the amount of emission reduction will not be as great as it could be.

However, alternative, renewable sources of energy are just beginning to be exploited. With an increasing dependence on these cleaner sources of electricity, our electric vehicles become even better stewards to the environment. An electric vehicle, whose batteries are charged with electricity generated from non-polluting, renewable resources, would truly be a zero emissions vehicle.