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Is the Future of Cars in Electric Powertrains?

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Automobiles have been with us for over 100 years now and they do not seem to be leaving us any time soon. Actually, in fact, it seems that the internal combustion engine is going to leave us in the future. As horrible as it sounds, we are one day going to have a world without V8 engines to buy from new. There are three main reasons for this: CO2 produced by ICEs which contribute to global warming, the health risks of ICEs on humans such as with NOx and particulates and, of course, the limited simply of oil mother nature can supply. So, is the future really electric cars for mankind? 

 

So we all know about the Toyota Prius and most people are starting to learn that electric cars don’t have to be ‘Prius’ like – the Tesla Model S has a model variation with a ‘ludicrous’ mode which can propel the car from 0-100kph in a staggering 2.8 seconds, beating pretty much every car on the market.

So to answer the question ‘are electric cars cool?’, yes, they can very well be and I think we are going to see a lot more ‘cooler’ electric cars in the future – the Tesla Model 3 is a great example of this.

 

However, what are the main benefits of electric vehicles? Well, here are the main benefits that come with owning an electric vehicle:

  • Cheaper to run – Because of the tax that is on oil and the supply of it slowly decreasing causing the price to rise, electric vehicles are much cheaper to run than ICEs because the equivalent cost of electricity as compared to fuel is much much lower.
  • Cheaper to service – The main part of the service for cars is the engine, looking to change the filters and the oil. Since electric cars do not have these, the cost to service it will be much cheaper too, possibly only looking at the tread on the tyres and the brake’s life.
  • Kinder to the environment and humans – The main benefit is that electric vehicles are completely clean. In built up cities, this is a huge bonus as the level of nitrous oxides, which is a carcinogenic gas, is extremely high and can only be reduced by reducing the amount of engines that pump this gas into the cities and replacing them with cleaner electric equivalents.
  • Can use renewable energy sources – Because electricity can be produced from wind, light, waves or even nuclear (if you deem nuclear to be ‘renewable’), electric cars will be using energy that we can replenish as a species.
  • Instant torque – Talking in terms of performance, the motors on an electric vehicles can produce the maximum amount of torque instantly, resulting in extremely quick accelerations.
  • Reduced weight in the transmission – Since torque is instant from a motor, there is less of a need for a transmission, resulting in the overall weight of the car to reduce, as there are few parts needed to convert the torque from the motor to the wheels.

 

So, in answer of the question, there are many benefits to using electric vehicles.

But, ultimately, is it the future? I think so. Hydrogen fuel cells seemed to be the future. But, the way the fuel is packaged is too inefficient for mass production. Petrol and diesel engines will still be with us for the next 10-20 years as engineers make them more efficient and kinder to the environment. But, there will be a time when the ICE has been ‘maxed out’ in terms of efficiently resulting for most people to turn to the next best thing: electric vehicles.

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