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Electric Cars

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Electric cars have been around for a long time. An electric vehicle is powered by a battery instead of an internal combustion engine. Surprisingly, they have been around longer than gasoline powered vehicles. One of the first electric vehicles was created in 1828 by Ányos Jedlik in Hungary. Throughout the years, they’ve been more or less popular, depending on technology and fuel costs. Recent electric vehicles include the Tesla Roadster and Nissan Leaf. A related technology, the gasoline-electric hybrid car is powered by both large batteries and a gasoline engine. Working together, this setup improves fuel efficiency. The first thoroughly modern hybrid car was the Toyota Prius, which was released in 1997. Recently, there has been a small surge of popularity spurred by government subsidies and rebates which have been driving the sales of these types of vehicles up. Usually they are more expensive compared to cars with similar power, and consumers understandably may be hesitant to deal with this extra cost. Although initially more expensive, electric cars and hybrids cause a reduction in environmental damage because they have higher fuel efficiency, reduced air pollutants, and less petrochemical waste. The average consumer must be able understand why it’s important to replace the internal combustion engine with cleaner technology. This is vitally important for our future.
Fuel efficiency is usually one of the main features that are looked at when buying a new vehicle. For the most part, hybrids and electric vehicles have a much higher efficiency compared to regular vehicles. A hybrid will usually only use the gasoline (or similar fuel) engine when a low RPM (rotations per minute) output is needed. A higher RPM always needs more fuel. For example, when accelerating from a dead stop, the battery will power the vehicle during this initial burst of acceleration. The

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