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James Low
Professor Allison Fernley
English 1010
May 1, 2018
Are electric cars really what they are cut out to be?

Cars have been around since the mid 1800s, there is no exact date of the invention of

the car or who actually invented it because of all the people around the world playing with the

concept. At the time the car was invented the major ideas was which would be better to power

these futuristic vehicle, electricity or gasoline? Just like back then the debate has started to

arise again, with society pushing for more electric vehicles. This paper will be broken up into

three categories each category answering a question. Are electric vehicles safer? What

financial impact do electric vehicle have, individually and collectively? Finally the big one what

impact on environment do electric vehicles has?

Are electric vehicles safer? At first glance electric vehicles may seem safer because there

less moving parts then a traditional combustible engine, there is less flammable liquid being

used and with all the computers on board how could they not be safer. In some way these

ideas are not wrong but there are other things that need to be considered. Electric engines do

have less moving parts so there's less parts getting over worked or breaking down, and

speaking from experience there is less moving parts means your less likely to get you hand

caught in something. However just because you have less moving parts does not mean your

engine won't over heat. The Batteries in electric cars made up of lithium-ion, just like our cell

phone and computer batteries, if these batteries are not kept at the correct operating

temperature they can over heat and catch fire. Christopher Lampton a writer for

HowStuffWorks.com described the Tesla Roadster as having 7,000 cell phone batteries
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underneath its hood. Kevin Bullis from the MIT Review expresses that yes there are dangers in

having lithium-ion batteries but combustible engine are also dangerous, I mean we are taking a

flammable liquid a purposely lighting it on fire to propel our cars forward.

Silence is great thing it can bring peace and calm especially to anxious students during finals

week, but there are some who say that silence can be bad even dangerous. Stephen Brand et al

from the Accident Research Unit in Hanover, Germany believes that the silence electric vehicles

bring can and will cause more vehicle accidents involving pedestrians specifically in suburban

areas. (Brand et al, 2013). The upside (not to say there is an upside to people getting hurt) is

that highways and freeways will be quieter and that hopefully better road etiquette will be

learned.

What financial impact will electric vehicle have as individuals and society? One of the big

selling points of electric vehicles is that they will save you money, specifically of gas. While it

may be true that electric vehicles save you money on gas "the cost of an electric car is still much

more than that of a gas powered car. To put this into perspective a Ford Focus electric cost

about 40 thousand dollars and a Ford Focus ST only cost 25 thousand. Now the upside to

electric cars is that there is little to no maintenance needed on the engine. If you are to

purchase an electric car you have to consider the cost of charging. While public charging

stations are cheaper then filling up on gas we need to keep in mind the cost of charging at

home and what that will do to your electric bill. On top of that you need to include the cost of

having a charging station installed in your home, which involves hiring an electrician" (Low,2018

p. 1). To balance this out there are options like installing solar panels on your home (that is a
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whole other debate of its own) depending on the manufacture you can get rebates and come

tax season an electric car can be used as a write off. It is hard to get an exact number because

of how much changes each year with taxes and manufactures but between the years of 2005

and 2010 you could get a tax credit of anywhere between 2,000 and 7,500 dollars ("Careers in

Electric Vehicles" 2011).

While the individual economical impact is not very complete, the impact that it has on the job

market is. According to James Hamilton from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the rise in

popularity of electric vehicles is creating more jobs, jobs like research and development,

manufacturing, maintenance, infrastructure development, and sales. What Mr. Hamilton does

not address is that the of jobs comes from production of electric vehicles in tandem with

traditional vehicles. Other countries such as India, China and other European countries are

working to stop production of petrol vehicles by the year 2030 or 2040. If successful this phase

out of combustible engines could 600,000 jobs in Germany alone (Dia, 2017).

What impact on the environment do electric vehicles have? Just like the many inventors

playing with the car, one thing that has stayed consistent is the question of what is the best

way to power a vehicle. Surprisingly the idea of an electric powered vehicle was thought of and

tested before a combustible (gasoline) engine, the reason that combustible engines were the

preferred was because it was cheaper to make and you could go farther without having to

refuel. Today the electric engine is catching up and may soon surpass the combustible engine.

It seems that the debate of how it affects our environment is a bit issue. The common thinking

is that because there is less greenhouse gas coming out of the tailpipe of electric vehicles that it
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is better. Thinking this way is like looking at a picture and basing its value off of one of the trees

in the corner. Yes electric vehicles produce less emission while on the road, but where are the

vehicles getting their power when they're being charged? Only a small percentage of the

power in the US comes from renewable energy, the rest comes from burning coal, fracking or

other forms of mining. If we increase the number of electric vehicles that will increase the

demand for energy which will lead more burning of coal and putting more emissions in the air

making the environmental part of the electric vehicles useless. In an article entitle Electric

Vehicles Climate Saviors, or Not? author Jack Barkenbus states that the eco impact of electric

vehicles depends on the time of year and the time of day. In his article he talks about how if a

cities power grid is dependant more on carbon plants (coal burning) it will reduce the

effectiveness of the vehicle verses if the city gird is based off renewable energy or a

combinations of the two.

I believe that electric cars are our future but they are not our present. We are still

working on making them better and it will take time just like it took time to get our current

standard of cars. In the mean time we should continue to move forward in making as much

progress in both of these fields including hybrid vehicles. I plan to continue my education from

here in hopes that I can contribute to these changes.

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References
Barkenbus, Jack. "Electric Vehicles Climate Saviors, or Not?." Issues in Science & Technology,

vol. 33, no. 2, Winter2017, pp. 55-59. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=120774617&site=ehost-

live.

Brand, Stephan, et al. "Hybrid and Electric Low-Noise Cars Cause an Increase in Traffic Accidents

Involving Vulnerable Road Users in Urban Areas." International Journal of Injury Control

& Safety Promotion, vol. 20, no. 4, Dec. 2013, pp. 339-341. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1080/17457300.2012.733714.

Bullis, Kevin. “Why Electric Cars Could Be Safer than Gasoline-Powered Ones.” MIT Technology

Review, MIT Technology Review, 26 Nov. 2013,

www.technologyreview.com/s/522046/why-electric-cars-could-be-safer-than-gasoline-

powered-ones/.

Dia, Hussein. “Jobs, Tax and Politics: Three Ways Electric Vehicles Will Change Our World.” The

Conversation, 5 Oct. 2017, theconversation.com/jobs-tax-and-politics-three-ways-

electric-vehicles-will-change-our-world-84910.

Hamilton James. “Careers in Electric Vehicles.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of

Labor Statistics, 2011, www.bls.gov/green/electric_vehicles/.

Lampton, Christopher. “Are Electric Cars Safe in Accidents?” How Stuff Works, How Stuff Works,

6 Dec. 2011, auto.howstuffworks.com/are-electric-cars-safe-in-accidents.htm.

Low, James G. “Gas vs. Electric Cars.” 15 Feb. 2018.

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1. Describe the feedback you got from me. Give specific details. How did you revise your
paper using this feedback?

When I came in for my final conference with you I had maybe a page and a half written
with the rest looking like an outline. I had very few citations done and the wrong MLA
type headings a lot of proof reading errors.
I did my best to fix all of these, I went through and add citations and used citation
machine to do them so they are correct. I went back and looked at assignment
examples to make sure I had the heading right. The biggest thing is I finished the paper
and then read it out loud a couple of times to make sure everything flowed and that
there are no mistakes, I'm not perfect so I'm sure there are mistakes.
2. What do you think you have done best? What have you changed that you really
want me to pay attention to in this revision?
I can't think of anything in particular that I would like you to pay attention to, maybe just
that I quoted myself because I thought it would be funny. I don’t know if this is what I
have done best, in all of my assignments I tried to make the words mine so I researched
a lot so that I understood what I was writing about. Something that I don’t do well is
adding variety in my writing specifically my sentence structure, so I tried to think of
different ways to say something before I put it on paper.