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Muir
Jonathan Muir

Professor Rebecca Morean

English 1201.509

22 October 2021

Are Electrified Cars Really the Future?

As concerns about climate change and global warming have taken the world by storm,

more and more people are looking to reduce their carbon footprint. One way people are looking

to cut their emissions is by switching to electric and hybrid cars, which have been rising in

popularity throughout the past few years. Electric and hybrid car sales make up 3% of all car

sales (Kopestinsky.)

Many governments are also trying to push their citizens to use more clean energy. This

push towards clean energy has led for some governments to subsidize the electric car industry.

Because of their high costs to manufacture, the United States government subsidizes up to

$10,000 per car (Lomborg). Countries like Norway also offer benefits, such as “[Waiving] most

costs, including taxes, tolls, parking, and congestion surcharges” (Lomborg).

Electric cars operate in a completely different way than gasoline or diesel cars. Instead of

using a piston engine with the explosion of fuel to turn the crankshaft, in turn driving the wheels,

electric cars take a different approach. They use magnetized motors, switching the attraction and

repulsion of components at high rates to turn the drivetrain, causing the wheels to turn (Markus).

Electric cars aren’t exactly a new concept. The first electric cars were produced in the

mid-1800s, when chemist William Morrison made the first American electric car, a “six-

passenger vehicle capable of a top speed of 14 miles per hour.” However, electric vehicles did
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not last long due to their high cost compared to widely accessible gasoline models that became

available, like the Model T from Ford (Matulka).

Another popular option is plug-in hybrid vehicles, which are electrified cars without the

full commitment to electric, using both a gasoline engine as well as an electric drivetrain. Data

from Gale showed that “If you have a short commute operating mainly in electric mode and

charge your vehicle regularly, then you will likely have emissions lower than the average

manufacturer's value of 44g of CO2 per kilometre. If you often make long journeys and never

plug the vehicle into the mains, your emissions will be comparable or worse than a non-hybrid

vehicle, as the recent report highlighted.” (Fly).

Electric cars are also getting increasingly easy for the average consumer to ultilize. For

example, high school chemistry teacher and trained ninja Jennifer Chast stated that “Charging is

a non-issue.” She owns a small Mini Cooper with one of the lowest ranges on the market, only

110 miles on a single charge (Stafford). When she is going on a long road trip, like to New York,

her and her family take their Tesla Model 3, which offers 263 to 353 miles on a single charge,

depending on the model (Dorian and Capparella).

One concern individuals have about electric vehicles is charging on the go. With Tesla,

all charging stations are completely free, but most individuals opt to charge at their home unless

they are out and about for long periods of time. However, this isn’t always the case with other

brands as “free EV charging stations are far less common than those where you pay” (Ganz).

Electric cars have an image of being incredibly green. However, some studies have

shown that this isn’t always the case. The department of Road and Transport from Slovakia

found that “Therefore, it can be said that from the local point of view the electric vehicles can

contribute to reduction of CO concentration in densely populated areas. However, from the

warming,” highlighting a slight misconception about the actual benefits of electric cars (Synák).

The United States is not the only country with rising electric vehicle popularity. In fact,

the United States only makes up 17% of electric vehicles worldwide. China leads the way with

over 4.5 million electric vehicles active in the country, 44% of all the electric vehicles worldwide

(DeSilver). However, the growth rate of sales of electrified vehicles in the United States has been

slowing, “largely due to the declining popularity of plug-in hybrids and the phaseout of federal

tax credits on some of the most popular models” (DeSilver).

Although electrified vehicles don’t directly burn gasoline, switching to electric vehicles

isn’t likely to solve our climate crisis. The Hoover Digest estimates that “If the whole world

follows through and gets to 140 million electric cars by 2030, the IEA estimates that will reduce

emissions by just 190 million tons of carbon dioxide--a mere 0.4 percent of global emissions.”

and that hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius save about the same amount of CO2 emissions as

electric vehicles throughout their lifetime (Lomborg). This data points to the fact that although

electric vehicles tend to not emit as much as gasoline cars, much more must be done to prevent

climate change.

Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has also come under some scrutiny for its selling of

its “carbon credits.” According to CNBC, “In the U.S., California and at least 13 other states

have rules surrounding regulatory credits. They require auto manufacturers to produce a certain

number of so-called zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) based on the total number of cars sold in that

particular state” and that “If [automotive manufacturers] can’t meet the target, they can buy them

from other companies that have excess credits” (Kharpal). Because Tesla sells their carbon
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credits for profit, they use the environmental sustainability of their cars to bail out other

manufacturers that create vehicles that are not so environmentally friendly.

As people and the government push towards a greener future to save our planet, we find

ourselves trying to find any way possible to decrease our carbon emissions. Electric cars do tend

to reduce the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere, but not by a large amount. Although

electric cars certainly are “cool” and reduce emissions, much more must be done if we are to stop

climate change in the future. Electric cars are futuristic, and certainly will be a viable option

from now on, but they will not be the sole source of climate change prevention and aren’t always

the greenest option for consumers.

Chast, Jennifer. Personal Interview. 27 Oct. 2021.

DeSilver, Drew. “Today's Electric Vehicle Market: Slow Growth in U.S., Faster in China,

Europe.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 10 June 2021,

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/06/07/todays-electric-vehicle-market-slow-

growth-in-u-s-faster-in-china-europe/.

Dorian, Drew, and Joey Capparella. “2021 Tesla Model 3 Review, Pricing, and Specs.” Car and

Driver, Hearst Digital Media, 7 July 2021, https://www.caranddriver.com/tesla/model-3.

Fly, Ashley. "Are plug-in hybrid cars worse for environment than factory tests suggest? It

depends how you drive them." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2021.

Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/WSWUFL280353974/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-

OVIC&xid=410667ff. Accessed 17 Oct. 2021. Originally published as "Are plug-in

hybrid cars worse for environment than factory tests suggest? It depends how you drive

them," The Conversation, 21 Sept. 2020.

Ganz, Andrew. “Everything You Need to Know about EV Charging Stations ...” Kelley Blue

Book, Kelley Blue Book Company, 23 Apr. 2021, https://www.kbb.com/car-advice/ev-

charging-stations/.

Kharpal, Arjun. “What 'Regulatory Credits' Are - and Why They're so Important to Tesla.”

CNBC, NBCUniversal, 18 May 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/18/tesla-electric-

vehicle-regulatory-credits-explained.html.
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Kopestinsky, Alex. “Electric Car Statistics and Facts 2021: Policy Advice.” PolicyAdvice,

Policyadvice.net, 12 Aug. 2021, https://policyadvice.net/insurance/insights/electric-car-

statistics/.

Lomborg, Bjorn. "Gridlock on Electric Avenue: Electric cars aren't climate-change heroes. The

do little to reduce carbon pollution and in some ways even increase it." Hoover Digest,

no. 2, spring 2021, pp. 150+. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A661724998/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-

OVIC&xid=8f2ce242. Accessed 17 Oct. 2021.

Markus, Frank. “Electric Cars 101: How EV Motors Work, Tech Differences, and More.”

MotorTrend, MotorTrend, 8 July 2021, https://www.motortrend.com/features/how-

electric-cars-work-ev-differences-definitions/.

Matulka, Rebecca. “The History of the Electric Car.” Energy.gov, U.S. Department of Energy,

15 Sept. 2014, https://www.energy.gov/articles/history-electric-car.

Stafford, Eric. “2022 Mini Cooper Electric Review, Pricing, and Specs.” Car and Driver, Hearst

Digital Media, 6 July 2021, https://www.caranddriver.com/mini/cooper-s-e.

Synák, František, et al. “Assessing the Energy Efficiency of an Electric Car.” Komunikácie, vol.

23, no. 1, Jan. 2021, pp. A1–A13. EBSCOhost, doi:10.26552/com.C.2021.1.A1-A13.