Electric Vehicles Are The Way Of The Future

Given the increasing scarcity of oil and the increase of pollution to the environment, it’s clear that a noxious system like the popular internal combustion engine found in most cars is somewhat ancient.  The drastic climate changes in the 21st century are evidence of the necessity to take action and eliminate the harmful gases released to the atmosphere in order to prevent global warming.

Making use of electric vehicles, thereby minimizing the use of the internal combustion engine, could be a good way to accomplish that.

Unlike conventional cars, these vehicles are battery-powered, meaning their levels of CO2 emissions are lower. Holistic use of electric cars could cut harmful emissions in half by 2050. Furthermore, electric vehicles don’t need a lot of the components that typical gas cars have, like transmissions, filters and mufflers, potentially reducing maintenance costs.

In 1990, the Sony Corporation manufactured the first commercially rechargeable Lithium Cobalt Oxide (LiCoO2) battery. Nowadays, another type of lithium battery, LiMn2O2 battery is more common because it is less toxic and cheaper than Lithium Manganese Oxide (LiMn2O4). Additionally, LiMn2O2  batteries weigh less than other types, which leads an electric car equipped with this battery type to have improved traction and performance. Even electric car races using these kinds of batteries have taken place.

The principal weakness of the electric vehicle, however, is actually its core component, the battery. One concern is long-range performance — every battery has a set number of charge cycles, which is the amount of times it can be charged without losing capacity and thereby needing replacement.

Another concern is the sheer capacity of these batteries — popular electric vehicles such as the Fiat 500e and the Nissan Leaf can only travel just under 90 miles before needing a full charge, which can take hours even if using a fast charger. This produces something known as range anxiety, a driver’s understandably strong feeling of worry that they won’t have enough juice to get back home.

I have a firm belief that they can become the vehicle of the future. Several researchers have even indicated that there is no lithium scarcity in the future and that most of the content from lithium batteries is recyclable. Electric vehicle technology is still in its infancy, but that will change as research and development brings down costs, eradicates range anxiety, and really makes EVs able to compete with the gas-guzzling automobile we’ve come to know and love.

Our world needs us to.