A very controversial topic right now is electric vehicles and whether they are worse or better for the environment. A misinterpreted thing about electric cars is that full-on electric cars do not produce any tailpipe emissions, which is true. But, while electric vehicles may not produce emissions at the tailpipe they do by charging and manufacturing them. In an article on January 5, 2024, the Reuters entitled US EPA reviewing California 2035 electric vehicle sales mandate Plan Reports that “Electric vehicles are starting to be a requirement for car dealerships to sell and will very soon be 35% of the dealerships lot by 2026 in the state of California.” So in the near future, electric cars may be the only thing dealers are going to be selling, and that goes for any state. I don’t think they are worse or better compared to gas vehicles, I just think they have a long way to go before they will be the majority on the road. This is because they are still very pollutant, they have batteries that use rare fossil fuels, people have to wait for them to charge, and they can be very expensive upfront.
The first reason I won’t buy one is they are still very pollutant. So why should I buy one of those instead of just driving my gas-powered vehicle that I already have? The main reason that they are so pollutant is because of the battery that makes them go. According to an article in 2024 in the YPTE entitled “Electric Cars,” “Manufacturing a gas or diesel car releases about 7 to 10 tons of CO2 while electric vehicles, including the battery, make a total of 16-19 tons of CO2, while a combustion engine vehicle makes a total of 6-11 tons of co2.” Another thing that is pollutant about electric cars is the tires they use. The tires they use are thicker and heavier plied than a gasoline vehicle comparable to an electric model of the same size. This is because of their weight, and specified in an article on April 28, 2023, in the AXIOS entitled “EVs are much heavier than gas vehicles,” “The electric Hummer weighs 9,000 pounds while the comparable GMC weighs 6,000 pounds.” With how much heavier the electric cars are, this also makes the tires wear faster making another expense with having to buy more tires. They have heavier tires for this reason. This is a reason why I wouldn’t buy an electric car, because they are so polluted but this is mainly because of the battery, which brings me to my next reason.
My second reason I wouldn’t buy an electric car is because of the battery, specifically the range they have. Don’t get me wrong, the sticker on the window of the new electric vehicles says they have super long range, which they do, but that range is done when the battery is empty. So people either have to find a charging station and wait for it to charge or hope the car is already home. Unlike a gas vehicle, it doesn’t just take 5 minutes to fill up and gas stations are way more common than charging stations right now. The next thing that is bad about the battery is the weight of the battery. As explained by an article on July 24, 2024, in the VEHO, entitled “How Much Does A Car Weigh,” “The average car engine weighs 400 to 700 pounds while the drives and electric battery together weigh about 1500 combined.” The battery alone is double the weight of the average combustion engine. This matters because of what I said at the beginning of this essay. This makes electric cars use a lot of tires, which pollutes even more. The last thing that is bad about the battery on an electric vehicle is mechanics can’t work on them easily, they either work or people end up getting a new one, which is very expensive as specified in an article in 2024 in the Recurrent entitled “Electric Car Battery Replacement Costs,” “The average cost of an electric car battery replacement is $6,500 to $20,000.” So with what I have explained here, electric car manufacturers have some things to improve on in the battery department.
The next reason electric vehicles have a long way to go is their charging aspect. The first thing is the charge time, according to an article on Feb 13, 2024, in the Pod Point entitled “How Long Does It Take to Charge an Electric Car,” “Electric cars take an average of 30 to 40 minutes to charge from 0% to 100%.” This may seem reasonable but it only takes about 5 minutes to fill up a gas tank on a combustion engine vehicle. The next thing that is bad about the charging aspect of electric cars is the availability of charging stations. There may be more charging stations than gas stations, but a lot of the charging stations are brand only stations. This means people can only charge with the same brand charger. They are starting to make collaborations, but there are not that many yet. The biggest collaboration according to an article on May 25, 2023, on Ford entitled “Ford Ev Customers To Gain Access To 12,000 Tesla Superchargers,” “Is the collaboration between Ford and Tesla.” The last thing that is bad about charging stations is that they may save money by having an electric car, but the time it takes to charge them may be bad. Most of the charging stations are by stores, which is for a reason. They want people to plug in their cars and go shopping in their store, and they make up the difference that people save by going electric, which brings me to my next point.
My last reason electric cars have a long way to go before they will be the majority is the high price upfront. As specified in an article on Feb 6, 2024, in the Inside EVs entitled “U.S. Electric Car Prices 2024: Cheapest To Most Expensive,” “Electric cars range from $35,000 to $150,000 and when people buy a car they can get up to $7,500 from a federal tax credit.” Now $35,000 may not seem that bad for a car these days, but the car and quality of the car is very poor. The range is not comparable to a gasoline vehicle of the same price. The next thing that is very expensive that I cited above is the battery of the car. This battery is a way higher quality than a battery in a gas vehicle, but that does not mean it will go bad. For the states that get colder, they are going to go bad faster, and they will for sure get less mileage out of a charge with colder weather. The last thing that is expensive, mainly for the higher end cars, is the memberships that have to be purchased to get such as the self-drive feature or the extras on the wanted screen in the car to do more than just base model cars. With all of the things I have listed in this section, the prices add up to quite a bit, keep this in mind when buying an electric car.
Today I have shared the reasons why electric cars have a long way to go before they will be the majority on the roads. This is because they are very pollutant, from the fossil fuels to the battery, the tires they use, and the manufacturing of the eclectic vehicles. Other factors include the battery's limited range, they are very heavy and the ordinary person can’t work on them at home. The charging is also a problem, because of the charge time, the locations of the charging stations, and the branded only charging stations. Lastly is the high price up front, the battery is expensive to charge and people might have to pay memberships for the car to do all that it is capable of. With this trend of the states making it mandatory for dealerships to have 35% of their lot electric, people may end up with one sooner than people think, but by reading this essay, I hope this gave an insight into why they have a long way to go before everyone will have one, and why they are not better or worse for the environment.