Petrol and diesel weren’t always destined to be the driving force of motorcars around the world. The model T was designed to run on vegetable oil, to begin with, and it was only after the intervention (and possible bribery) of big oil companies that Ford set his sights on a car that needed fossil fuel. Of course is this alternative world we would just have seen mass-deforestation instead of massive carbon emissions, which would amount to the same result overall.
Examples of popular electric cars on the market at the moment aren’t exactly pure electrics, but rather hybrids. The Honda Insight manages to get around 83 miles per gallon out of its unique Insight Engine, provided you’re not doing long distance or fast driving. Also the Toyota Prius has gained a reputation as a super-green car. Both are great examples of the burgeoning field of electric car manufacture, and thanks to government incentives such as 0 road tax they’re becoming increasingly common.
But how much of a difference is this making? If large companies continue to pump out the equivalent of annual motor emissions daily, and Americans continue to drive around in pointlessly fuel inefficient SUVs, it makes almost no difference at all. Also you can get a better mpg rating out of fuel-efficient diesels such as the Skoda Fabia with a 1.2 TDI engine, than any of the hybrids.
Of course where this might change is with better pure electric cars. At the moment these would require a significant input of electricity from your home supply, and so end up costing a lot, and relying on an energy source that still mostly depends on coal burning. Personal power supply might help here. The government has created a feed-in tariff in the hope of encouraging people to set up their own solar panels or wind turbines to power their homes, and in turn get money for the energy they generate. With this kind of small-scale supply powering a car would be much more cost effective, as it’s your own personal energy you’re using.
So until things change it’s still likely that we will use alternative sources in favour of electricity to power cars.
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