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... can be made to fit these smaller cars making them inaccessible to some cars and trucks, safety will increase because of the maneuverability and low speed of the NEV and because of their small size there will be more space available to be put to other uses. These NEV's will lead to non-industrial neighborhoods. Neighborhoods will keep the industrial world and all of its problems out by making the roads smaller so they handle only NEV traffic.
Households will tend to "run" less and instead of owning gasoline powered vehicles, they will simply rent them for long trips, saving them more money. NEV neighborhoods and the people in them will have a slower pace of life than what we are used to today, reducing stress and health risks. The cultural impact of the EV and NEV are truly positive and will benefit everyone when the total switch from gasoline powered vehicles to electric powered vehicles occurs. III.
Economic A. Costs to the manufacturer The battery for the EV is still the single most expensive part of the EV. It is yet to be seen if cost reductions from improved technology and mass production will bring the cost of the EV down to that of gasoline vehicles. Most likely this will never happen when looking at the initial purchasing price, but it is certain that the cost in the long run of the car will be better than that of the gasoline vehicles (Sperling 1996). Electric vehicles will have much lower operating costs and a longer vehicle life than gasoline cars, and, not including the battery, will be less expensive.
Ford's director of electric vehicle planning and program office comments, "Its hard to see that we can't build an electric vehicle that's cheap, or maybe even slightly cheaper than our current internal combustion engine vehicles. The bottom line on the cost is in the battery. " (Sperling 1996). The way people buy cars has changed also. By 1994 some twenty-five percent of new cars purchased in the United States were leased (Sperling 1996). The new trend in car buying is to lease, especially expensive cars whereas much as seventy percent of some models were leased.
Leasing is an easy way for spreading out the high costs of batteries and lowering the costs of producing EV's. B. Costs to the Consumer The retail cost for an EV will vary on the battery in the car, the bigger the battery for longer range, the more the EV will cost. The EV will save its owner money because of its operating costs, it is less likely to be in the shop than a gasoline powered car would be.
The cost of an EV at present time is a little more than that of regular sized car, Solectria is selling its sedan for $ 25, 000. This will likely all change as the deadline for the ZEV nears and auto makers are forced to come up with a quality EV. Battery prices, as expensive as they are now, will drop and also make the EV more affordable (Yamaguchi 1996). Prices of EV's will drop and become more affordable as the technology becomes more advanced and the EV moves into mass production. IV. Environmental Impacts A.
Greenhouse Gasses It is a general consensus around the world that major reductions in greenhouse gasses are needed in order for the human race to avoid economic and ecological disaster. In 1993 President Clinton endorsed and agreement from the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit to cut U. S. greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2000 (Sperling 1996). In 1994, meeting that goal by the year 2000 would require a reduction of emissions by seven percent. Battery-powered vehicles would provide modest greenhouse gas savings if introduced to full-scale production today.
The energy efficiency of the EV would only increase, drawing less energy from power plants meaning even more of a substantial cutback in greenhouse gasses. Electric vehicles using electric from natural gas power plants will only cut the release of greenhouse gasses more, natural gas is the cleanest burning and most efficient fossil fuel. The EV's do not burn the fossil fuel, they just use the electric generated from the natural gas power plant. EV's that run on electric which was generated by nuclear of hydroelectricity would have nearly zero greenhouse emissions.
The switch to EV's would also lessen the drilling for oil and our dependency on other nations to readily export it to us. B. Air Qualities The primary reason the government has shown its support for the EV has been air quality. The sole reason for the ZEV mandate is controlling air pollution. Automobiles and small trucks are responsible for about half of all urban air pollution. Today's vehicles powered by gasoline and diesel fuels emit the vast majority of carbon monoxide, half of the hydrocarbon and nitrogen pollutants, and a small proportion of particulate and sulfur dioxide.
The switch to EV's would dramatically reduce all of these pollutants in urban settings. In some cities the air quality impact of electric vehicles can be extraordinarily positive, such as Los Angeles. EV's may not eliminate all air pollutants, and depending on where their electric comes from, may contribute minutely to some pollutants like nitrogen oxide, but their impact on air quality is greater than any of the negatives. The main reason is that many power plants are located far from populated areas, and a large proportion of emissions from electricity production are released at night when sunlight is not present to form ozone and when people are indoors not exposed (Sperling 1996). Internal combustion engine emissions are always in our face, while EV emissions are far off and at night.
I think the entire world would benefit greatly from cleaner air and the reasons need not be elaborated on, they are that evident. Forecast With 1998 drawing near, major auto makers like the Big 3 in the U. S. are forced to better their EV technology and as a result I see the EV industry and market taking off within the next five years. When the EV will debut in full production its purchase cost will deter many potential buyers, but as the technology improves and the EV's become more attractive and efficient to own, the cost will fall allowing productivity and purchasing to increase.
As the technology vastly improves I see the Federal Government stepping into the industry to help push it along. It can only be in the Government's best interest to help speed up the production and advancement of the EV because of the cost cutting it will provide for the Government. The Government will not have to spend money, that it does not have, on emissions testing or subsidize research on the reduction of pollutants emitted from gasoline powered vehicles, because EV's are almost emission free. The United States will also not be held at the whims of the oil producing nations whom we rely on for the export of their oil because EV's obviously do not rely mainly on the use of fossil fuels. Not only will it save money but it will also help the welfare and health of this nation by helping to advance EV technology.
Clean air is a necessity theses days as is the Ozone layer and the switch to EV's will only improve both. Twenty five years from now I believe the number of electric battery powered vehicles will greatly outnumber the gasoline powered engine vehicle. The gasoline powered engine will not yet be obsolete but it will be headed in that direction. The super majority of American automobile owners will own an EV and many will be a type of NEV as neighborhoods redesign their infrastructure to accommodate only these vehicles. Gas stations will be in serious decline as they are replaced by charging stations and the price of gasoline will be extremely high because the U.
S. will not import as much oil as it had twenty-five years ago. Researchers Comments I find it hard to believe that the EV is not already in full-scale production today. As I stated in the beginning of my paper EV's were preferred over gasoline powered vehicles but gasoline powered vehicle technology developed faster than EV technology.
This may be true, but the technology for EV's never disappeared and other nations around the world were still working on the development of EV's. Granted, the big oil companies have put up a major fight as to allowing this technology to advance and they have promised to make gasoline more efficient, but from the research I have done on this topic it is far less costly to produce and operate an EV in the long run. I think more push has to be made to convince the American public that these vehicles will save them money if they look past the initial purchasing cost. Auto manufacturers like Ford, GM, Toyota and Honda seem to be way ahead of others in the sense that they have placed their EV's into the market in the southwest!
and these vehicles are starting to dot urban areas more and more. One main question that I found in researching the ZEV mandate was what if the auto makers qualifying for this mandate do not meet the standards because they do not have a perfected model that can be released to the public? Are they going to be fined, or will they not be allowed to sell their vehicles in California? Perhaps a solution to this question would be some type of agreement between those companies, that must meet the ZEV mandate that would allow companies to gain access to certain EV technology that will help them in developing their own model. Works Cited Works Cited Doctors, R. (n. d. / 1996).
A system approach to batter power vehicles. web Moore, Taylor. (1996). The road ahead for EV batteries. EPRI Journal, 21 (2), 6 - 16. Sedgwick, David. (1996 December 30). Entrepreneur prepares to zoom into market for EV batteries.
Automotive News, 15 - 20. Sperling, Daniel. (1995). Future Drive. Washington, D. C. : Island Press. Yamaguchi, Jack. (1996, July).
Honda and Toyota enter the electric vehicle market. Automotive Engineering, 28 - 34. (n. c. / 1996). Ford Motor Company: Electric vehicles. web
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