EV Cars Offer Cleaner and Greener Local Driving

Ev cars are coming.

In fact they are already here. There are already nearly 100 thousand in the US alone. Style icon and screen heart-thob George Clooney drives one, so they are even cool!

Electric cars are a great way to green up your motoring. There's more choice than ever before and almost every motor manufacturer is scrambling to get on board.

So how green are they? What are the benefits and what are the downsides of EV cars? This page takes a broad brush approach to this relatively new and growing market.

EV Cars - what are they?

EV cars are just cars which run solely on electricity (EV = electric vehicle). The electricity is stored in a battery and the car needs to be plugged in to charge up the battery every so often.

Electric vehicles are not really new but recent technological developments mean that more new models are available today. EVs represent one way of reducing our burden on the planet because they are cleaner than petrol and diesel cars. Their carbon emissions are much lower, too.

What are the advantages?

They are cleaner, first and foremost. There are virtually no emissions at street level, so they leave no direct pollution. They still do cause some pollution, of course because most electricity is generated from polluting hydro-carbons such as coal. Nevertheless, most environmentalists agree that they are an advance upon the petrol engine. Power stations are gradually becoming greener as more ways are developed of sourcing "green energy", that is energy with a low carbon footprint. On average, green EV cars are thought to create about 40% less greenhouse gases than petrol models, taking all aspects into consideration (manufacture, power station emissions etc).

The other main advantage is that they are amazingly cheap to run. If you are used to seeing a big percentage of your take home pay disappearing down the petrol nozzle into your car, take a look at the cost benefits of EV cars. A simple overnight charge costing a few pence or cents could get you to work and back and take you to the supermarket or farmers' market and still allow you to enjoy an evening in town. Well that's if you don't live miles from your nearest town or your workplace. Which brings us to the main disadvantage of electric cars.

(There are lots more advantages. We'll get back to them in a moment.)

The disadvantages of EV cars

The main disadvantage as things stand is that EVs are very limited as to distance travelled between charges. You cannot be buzzing about in your EV and just decide at the drop of a hat to take off for the coast. You will probably run out of steam - or rather, charge. Most EVs do around 40 - 60 miles per charge so you have to know what you are doing in advance and stick to it.

Public plug in points are being developed and you might well be able to charge up at work or a friend's house, for example but the truth is, at the moment EVs are strictly limited by their battery charge life. The battery typically takes about 6 hours or more to charge, though you can often do a booster charge quite quickly on some of the newer models.

Traditional lead-acid cell batteries can only manage 100 kms of travel-power at best, so now alternatives are being sought. Nickel metal-hydride (Ni-MH) and lithium-ion (Li-Ion) cellsbatteries are now frequently used by the newer EVs on the market.

There are no gears on an EV car, so they are beautifully quiet to drive. The downside of that, of course, is that pedestrians are used to listening for cars as much as looking.

Most small electric cars designed for city driving only go up to about 50 mph, so you may a bit out-classed on urban freeways and more rural roads.

Nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides, the polluting gases from power stations, can actually be increased due to electric cars. This is because these gases are released during the generation of electricity. of course, if you are able to use green energy to power your car, this does not apply. If you switch to a green energy supplier your electric car can be almost 100% carbon neutral.

Lithium (li-ion) batteries are difficult and expensive to recycle effectively as they contain toxic metals. Re-processing facilities are less than adequate - even non existent in some countries. However, most of these batteries should last for 100,000 miles or more.

OK, that's the disadvantages taken care of.

Here are quite a few more advantages, mainly but not all to do with the big advantage: running cost.

More advantages of EV cars

The power-train used by EVs suit the stop start conditions of urban traffic. EVs are particularly energy efficient at this kind of travel as compared to petrol and diesel cars.

Some EV cars also use regenerative braking, just like hybrid cars. This means that every time the brakes are applied the battery charges up some. This can mean as much 20% more efficiency.

Some of the newer EV cars are able to close down entirely whenever the car is stationary. This is highly efficient and quite safe. As soon as the accelerator is pressed the car comes back to life. This saves more energy.

In the UK EVs are zero rated for road tax and there are other savings: no congestion charge in central London, free or cheaper parking in some areas, free charge points, to name a few. There are already dozens of public charge points in central London.

With far fewer mechanical parts and no spark plugs and oil to be changed, maintenance tends to be a whole lot cheaper.

EV cars are typically a lot lighter than conventional cars. (However, the batteries are heavy - about 300kilos. You can't remove them at home.) You must plug the car in where it stands to charge up. A normal plug socket can be used.

A full charge literally only costs a few pence. Even some workplaces now have charge points.

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