What Sustainability Issues Will Arise from the Large Scale Adoption of Electric Cars?
What sustainability issues will arise from the large scale adoption of electric cars?
With the recent introduction of the electric car into Ireland, I am going to outline some of the sustainability issues that will arise from their large scale adoption. The car has already received backing by the government who have recently announced their plans for the induction and eventual change over to electrically powered vehicles.
What is an Electric Car?
An electric car, is a vehicle which like the typical cars seen throughout the world, has four wheels, doors, windows and a roof. The difference between the typical common car and the electric car, comes when you look at the power source, in the common car an Internal Combustion Engine is used to convert fuel (generally unsustainable fossil fuels like diesel or petrol) to mechanical energy, the Electric Car uses electric motors powered by batteries or an onboard fuel cell.
The common car with its Internal Combustion Engine has advantages and disadvantages; the cost to purchase a car with an internal combustion engine compared to an electric car is lower, as there is the ability to mass produce a product which is still in huge demand. In today’s world oil derived fuel is accessible and relatively cheap to the consumer, as the infrastructure is already set up to enable the simple and quick refuelling of the car. The negative side to the common car is the fuel which it used, all of the fuels for Internal Combustion engines are derived from oil. The worldwide production of oil has peaked and oil production is now dwindling, this is not easily seen by the consumer purchasing the fuel who might be oblivious to the fact. With an increasing demand for oil and an ever decreasing supply it is becoming more and more difficult and expensive to produce oil which is useable, oil is now so valuable that there are wars over supplies.
Another negative side to the Internal Combustion engine is its inability to convert the energy
With the recent introduction of the electric car into Ireland, I am going to outline some of the sustainability issues that will arise from their large scale adoption. The car has already received backing by the government who have recently announced their plans for the induction and eventual change over to electrically powered vehicles.
What is an Electric Car?
An electric car, is a vehicle which like the typical cars seen throughout the world, has four wheels, doors, windows and a roof. The difference between the typical common car and the electric car, comes when you look at the power source, in the common car an Internal Combustion Engine is used to convert fuel (generally unsustainable fossil fuels like diesel or petrol) to mechanical energy, the Electric Car uses electric motors powered by batteries or an onboard fuel cell.
The common car with its Internal Combustion Engine has advantages and disadvantages; the cost to purchase a car with an internal combustion engine compared to an electric car is lower, as there is the ability to mass produce a product which is still in huge demand. In today’s world oil derived fuel is accessible and relatively cheap to the consumer, as the infrastructure is already set up to enable the simple and quick refuelling of the car. The negative side to the common car is the fuel which it used, all of the fuels for Internal Combustion engines are derived from oil. The worldwide production of oil has peaked and oil production is now dwindling, this is not easily seen by the consumer purchasing the fuel who might be oblivious to the fact. With an increasing demand for oil and an ever decreasing supply it is becoming more and more difficult and expensive to produce oil which is useable, oil is now so valuable that there are wars over supplies.
Another negative side to the Internal Combustion engine is its inability to convert the energy