Electric Cars Pros and Cons

In the past few decades, there has been a lot of hue and cry about environment awareness and saving our planet, and the whole issue of global warming. Rightly so, as there has been an excessive use of exhaustible sources of energy and fuel. In an attempt to provide solutions to this problem, alternative fuels are being experimented with for running vehicles and other motor operated things. The reason behind is to get eco-friendly fuels, and to delay the exhaustion of fossil fuels. Electrochemical cells are such an alternative fuel that are very frequently used, not only in electric cars, but hybrid cars as well. Now, eventhough these electric cars are claimed to be eco-friendly and not adding to the deterioration of the environment, there are some other factors which have to be considered. Following are the pros and cons of electric cars, for your perusal. Take a look.

Electric Cars - An Explanation

What are electric cars exactly? Let us try to figure that out for those who do not know about it. Electric cars are propelled with the help of electric motors, which receive power by means of electrochemical cells. There are battery packs in the car itself, and that is also the reason these are referred to as battery electric vehicles. These cars do not need gas or petroleum to run. It is obvious that if it is powered by a non conventional energy source, there are going to some good things as well as some disadvantages of these electric cars. If you read on a bit further there is more coming up on that.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Electric Cars

Advantages
Let us turn on the ignition on discussion of electric cars pros and cons, beginning with stating with the advantages. So, here goes:

Advantage #1
The first advantage of having an electric car is that you are not contributing to the pollution of environment. It is absolutely a clean source of energy. No fumes, no smoke, in short, no emissions or toxic gases are spewed in the environment.

Advantage #2
Did you know how energy efficient are these cars? These electric cars are extremely energy efficient, for they secure their power from the sun or hydrogen fuel cells. Surprisingly, even though the electric car engines run on alternative fuel, they get thrice the amount of energy stored to the wheels as compared to a regular internal combustion machine. Further, after the electric car is turned on, there is no build up necessarily, resulting in zero energy loss. Maximum torque is produced by electric cars even with zero RPM.

Advantage #3
A number of such cars can be plugged into a standard 110 volt outlet for car battery charging. Such a car's charging costs the same as leaving a 60 Watt light bulb on. If a person plugs his car to charge for 3 hours turning off one light, which most of us, in some cases, would keep on for the whole day, would not drastically increase the electricity bill. So, it does not consume too much electricity as well.

Advantage #4
Finally, depending upon how much you drive, it can save money as well, after the initial investment of buying the car. Moreover, electric cars are compact, lightweight, and safe to drive, and come with electric car conversion kit.

After we have given the electric cars the thumbs up for the above points, here are a few aspects which give it a thumbs down.

Disadvantages
Certain aspects of electric cars are such that they prove to be drawbacks. These are the following shortcomings of electric cars:

Disadvantage #1
Storing energy needed to run an electric car is one of the most evident and major drawbacks. The whole electric car battery and the paraphernalia is heavy and not at all user-friendly.

Disadvantage #2
The range of an electric car is not as good as cars running on conventional fuels. The top speed achieved by an electric car is less than that of a standard gas tank. These are great for short range city driving because of the low range of speed.

Disadvantage #3
The time needed to charge the vehicle battery is too long (12 hours), and so, it has to be done overnight. The charging stations are far and few, so in the day, you cannot take the risk of recharging the battery. Most importantly, if you mess up the distance to be traveled and are out of charge, you are going to be in big trouble.

All in all, if you have your workplace and other areas frequented close by, and you do not mind charging the car whole night and finally, handling the batteries, then electric cars are for you. However, if care for the environment lies a little low on your priority list, you might as well go for a usual four-wheeler.