Are Electric Cars Helping the Environment?
College Writing I
Zach Walton
Keystone College

Abstract
Everyone in this day and age loves to argue about global warming. The funny thing most people do not even know who to yell at. A large portion of these people target the auto companies. The auto companies are an easy target because it is easy for them to walk outside and see a handful of inefficient gasoline burning cars or trucks. Seeing this raises the question: Why do they not produce more electric cars? The truth is, electric cars are not the key to saving the environment.

Are Electric Cars Helping the Environment?
Global warming has become a large concern in today’s world. Most uneducated people love to point fingers at the auto industries. There is so much banter about producing inefficient gasoline burning vehicles. These people feel that since some of these production cars are getting a few less miles per gallon, that they are the main pollutant. The factory still needs its energy from somewhere, like a power plant. Electric cars still need to be built in a factory. That factory will have to receive electricity from a power plant. Many of these factories and power plants are the main polluters. Mainly because they burn coal, which is an environmental disaster. However, coal is a very efficient fuel. By knowing the facts it is easy to tell that electric cars are still polluting, making a miniscule impact, and are basically not even that great of a car.
Electric vehicles seem to be today’s key for cutting back on emissions. At first thought, it makes sense. But really getting into the nitty gritty , it is not the right way to go. There are even instance where electric cars have a greater impact than gasoline cars (Bomford). The impact begins with the raw materials needed and production to produce the strong lithium-ion batteries to power these cars. Electric cars becoming popular in the UK where 40% of electricity comes from coal as well as China gets almost all of it electricity from coal. Due to the increased need for electricity to power these cars, electric cars in China are producing 21% more carbon dioxide emissions than gasoline cars (Lomborg). The production of an electric car is not so perfect either. The electric motors inside the car contain rare earth metals, scattered very thinly across the globe. This adds another detrimental process to extract such metals (Zehner). It is noted that because of the difficult production of an electric car that of its carbon dioxide emissions, half of them come from production alone. Doubling the emissions from the production of a common gasoline burning car. Shanghai air pollution kills an average 9 people annually. It is projected that adding one million electric cars will kill 26 people annually (Lomborg). Not only is the production of electric cars not helping the environment, the cars themselves are barely making an impact. This correlates with emissions from production. For an electric car owner to obtain a net saving in carbon dioxide, the car would have to travel 129,000km (80,000 miles). This is practically unachievable for an electric car mainly because they average 145km (90 miles) on a single charge. Even at 160,00km (100,000 miles), an electric car will only save about a ton of carbon dioxide over a gasoline burning car, which will produce about 24 tons (Electric Cars). From a UK standpoint, a car driven 150,000km can expect to see a 25% improvement from a gasoline car. However, due to the UK’s use of coal, 25% is a high number to achieve. A more realistic number for emission savings in the UK is about 10% over that of a gasoline car (Bomford).
In addition to hoe electric cars are barely helping the environment; they are not even a practical car. For a person that travels frequently or even has at least an hour commute, it would be nothing but a struggle. If the car on average has a 90 mile range, someone is not making that two hour round-trip commute, or coming extremely close (Electric Cars). If someone tried to take an electric car on a long trip, it would take far longer than they had ever anticipated. To fully charge a car takes about 6 hours. That is absolutely ridiculous. The expensive batteries also wear out quick. Usually around 30,000 to 40,000 miles until a battery has to be replaced. That’s normal for a gasoline car, but a battery for a gasoline car cost around $100. To have the batteries replaced in a fully electric car can cost anywhere from $9,000 to $18,000. (Motavalli). Although these batteries are not just tossed aside when they need to be replaced. An electric cars battery may still have 70%of its life left when replaced. These batteries are either put to other uses until they run out of life, or are recycled for the valuable metals, such as nickel (Evarts).
So, is buying an electric car really helping save the planet? Is an electric car really going to improve someone’s life? Perhaps in years to come, but right now, no. Electric cars are unpractical for everyday use. The average person could not rely on an electric car. They seem cheaper in the beginning but as soon as something goes wrong, it becomes a bad idea. Electric cars are polluting just as much, if not more, of a gasoline powered car. So considering that electric cars are still polluting, barely making an impact to save the planet, and being a flat out bad car, are they really helping the environment?
So what is the best automobile option out there right now to help the environment. The answer is simple; none of them. In this day and age, the technology just is not there to cut back on pollution in the aspect of an automobile. A gasoline burning car is going to pollute from all the carbon dioxide emissions it produces. A hybrid car, which has a gasoline and electric motor, undergoes many of the same production process of an electric car while still producing carbon dioxide. So hopefully in the near future we can figure how to actually make a car that produces less emissions, but as of today’s knowledge it is an unclear process. Electric cars are just not the solution everyone makes them out to be.

Works Cited
Bomford, A. (2013, April 11). How environmentally friendly are electric cars?. In BBC. Retrieved October 17, 2014
Electric cars may not be so green after all (2011, June 10). In The Australian. Retrieved October 17, 2014
Evarts, E. (2013, October 4). What happens to electric car batteries when the car is retired. In Consumer Reports. Retrieved October 30, 2014
Lomborg, B. (2013, April 14). Someday, electric cars will be great. In Project Syndicate. Retrieved October 25, 2014
Motavalli, J. (2012, June 19). Replacing EV batteries: your cost will vary. In plugincars. Retrieved October 26, 2014
Zehner, O. (2013, July 2). Electric cars aren't so environmentally friendly. In Investors. Retrieved October 25, 2014