In terms of initial cost, solar-powered cars, which are electric cars as purely solar-powered cars with portable solar cells are not available to be operated worldwide yet, are more expensive compared petrol-powered cars. The gap in the prices is due to the nature of electric cars that utilize the electrical storage in the batteries which is essential in powering the cars, and such batteries are expensive in purchase, creating extra costs in maintenance; The cost for the battery of Nissan Leaf, one of the more popular electric cars due to its efficiency, is $5,499 while the one for the Tesla Model S, the most expensive model to date costs $10,000; with the additional costs from the designs, engines, and other components, the initial price for electric cars tend to be higher by several thousand compared to their …show more content…
Cars have been one of the primary contributors to pollutions due to their emissions that contain harmful gases, such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matters. Solar-powered cars gain the electricity to operate the engines through sunrays, resulting in zero emissions of pollutants that form smog. Due to the nature of electric cars which are powered by the electric motors that obtains the essential electricity through an array of rechargeable batteries, there are no combustion process that leaves gases to be emitted through exhausts, providing little to none pollution. However, even though they do not produce pollutants directly, constant usage of electric cars means more electrical sources, and that leads to heightened emission of pollutants in power plants that generate electricity, such as coal power plants. According to a study conducted by the University of Minnesota, coal power plants produce 86% more mortality from air pollutions compared to pollutants by petrol-powered cars. However, when solar energies are utilized as the energy source, the amount of pollution is half as much as the pollution caused by petrol-powered cars. Meaning, solar-powered cars are more environmental-friendly as there are no negative emissions from power plants as well as the cars. Pollution has always been a major issue for petrol-powered cars that are