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To the surprise of many people, the concept of vehicles powered by electricity is not a new one. Although there has been much widespread publicity in recent years about the new age of greener and more environmentally friendly vehicles powered by electricity rather than gas, the first successful electric vehicles were actually being developed nearly two hundred years ago, back in the 1830s. Robert Anderson in Scotland created a successful electric carriage capable of speeds up to 65 miles per hour, and by the 1900s electric cars were more popular than gas powered ones, and were certainly quieter, cleaner and easier to start. Perceptions of electric vehicles today tend to lurch from rickety old golf carts to the slightly absurd milk flats, but the truth is that electric cars today can easily out perform their gas powered counterparts. Not only can they outperform them, but they can do so at a fraction of the cost to both the consumer, and more importantly, the environment. For example, the new Tesla Roadster can leave the Ferrari Spider standing at the lights whilst gliding effortlessly past the Mercedes SL550, whilst costing about a cent per mile in the process. With a top speed of about 130 miles per hour and with a three hour charge sustaining a full 250 mile trip, this is anything but a milk float. Often it is forgotten or ignored that there is another side to the use of electric vehicles to be kinder to the environment. It's not all about the smoke and fumes that will be saved, but also the noise factor. Electric cars are almost silent, the only sound from within the sporty models being a vague impression of having a hairdryer in the boot. Noise pollution is a forgotten attribute of gas powered cars, but imagine a world of near silence. Some people have expressed concerns that with nippy little cars silently dashing about that children and the elderly may find it difficult to anticipate or seen these coming, and that road calming measures or extra noise making speaker need to be fitted. Besides the greener conscience that road users will have through purchasing an electric vehicle, there are many other benefits and incentives on offer which help to make the whole idea of ditching a gas powered car a much easier decision. For example, if you were to purchase the popular little G-Wiz at under 5,000, you will receive a number of benefits in the UK alone. There are now over two hundred fuelling stations across the UK - so maintaining it is much easier than before, and if you drive round London you'll benefit from free parking, itself worth 5,00 a year! There's also no road tax to pay, and the car sits happily in the lowest insurance category, so is a far cheaper option all round. On a much larger scale, one country has taken the gigantic step forward and proposed a strategy to entirely eliminate their need for oil to support their road traffic within ten years. Israel has recently unveiled its Project Better Place which is a long term plan to replace oil based gas guzzling vehicles with electric ones, with an estimated completion date of within ten years. The country already has half a million stations which support the re-charging of electric vehicles, and with the average distance capable of being travelled between charges more than ample to enable a vehicle to travel between any two points within the country without the need to stop, it is both an ambitious project but one which looks as though it could very well set a high standard for the rest of the world. The plans include introducing electric vehicle distribution in a similar way to mobile phones, with companies giving the cars away free whilst users simply pay for the cost to use or charge the car, doing so either on contract with unlimited usage, or on a pay-as-you-drive basis. As with any new development, the ultimate success relies heavily on consumer demand, and companies piloting electric vehicle schemes are trying hard to win that consumer demand and interest. With electric vehicles being showcased in Hollywood, such as the Lexus driven by Tom Cruise in Minority Report, people are starting to realise that the future isn't a world full of milk floats, but of slick and powerful cars that anyone would be proud to drive. With the US home to nearly eight million electric vehicles, consumer demand is very much a voice loud enough to have caught the ears of politicians. An issue that those sceptics raise concerning electric vehicles is that although eh car itself might not be giving off fumes and harming the environment by burning up fossil fuels, the energy for the batteries has to come from somewhere, and this is likely to be through the main electricity grid, itself powered through the burning of fossil fuels, so that ultimately the whole scheme simply shifts the focus away from the end consumer and back to the big industries. In fact this argument is not entirely valid, since more and more power companies are turning to renewable sources of energy, and this is likely to continue. The other argument is that of the fuel consumption ratio. Gas powered cars burn the fossil fuel in a very wasteful way, whereas electric cars use energy in a much more efficient manner. In this way, the actual amount of energy used, and therefore the amount of fossil fuel burned, is far less. Imagine a future where we can all drive around in almost virtual silence, with no fumes, no smoke, and even if we get stuck in traffic jams or sit stationery at lights, we don't have to worry about burning fuel unnecessarily. Some people have expressed concern that in this seemingly idyllic future the power companies would fail because at night, when we all plugged in our cars to recharge, we'd overload the grid. In fact, at night this is when the grid is used far less, and estimates have been made that if we all switched to electric cars, the power grid would be able to work at almost half the capacity it does now. Perhaps we can envisage a future where we come home, plug our car into the fuel cells charged through the day by the solar panels on our roof, and sleep with a clean, and green, conscience.
Article Source: http://www.rent-car.infositehome.com
With modern technology on everyones lips, more of us are turning onto the colour green. From electric cars to hybrid cars the world now has a conscience. The environment is on everyones minds, the forests, wildlife and nature..green is the future.
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