Shift to Electric Cars in Future – A Long Shot?

“Electric Cars” is probably the most common term someone is likely to say as their answer, whenever you ask them what the near future of our world holds. It’s not just a very hot topic, and also an interesting one, because the fantasy of a world filled with electric cars is an exciting one, so let’s talk about it and weigh the pros and cons against one another and try to figure out how that future of electric cars can look like, and what kinds of impacts it is going to have on our world.

Environmental Concerns and The Need for A Future of Electric Cars

Pollution is one of the biggest factors behind global warming and climate change, and the carbon emissions caused by gasoline vehicles play a very major role in polluting the environment. More than the rising prices of gasoline, the negative impacts of it being in use on such massive scales are worrying, to say the least. The air we breathe is getting more and more poisoned every day, and electric vehicles are coming on top as somewhat a solution. I use the word “somewhat” because even electric cars aren’t a complete solution to the problem; every form of electricity generation has some sort of negative impact on the environment, as we’re yet to achieve a dependable way to generate clean electricity. And while clean energy seems a little out of reach, electric cars aren’t, and they do lessen the carbon imprint substantially when compared to a gasoline vehicle.

Mass-Produced Electric Cars: A Fantasy No More

Electric cars have been around for more than a fair share of a century, and they’ve had a rise and a fall within this period. But then came the 90s, and gasoline prices were soaring entirely new skies, and it was getting harder and harder for a gasoline vehicle to be efficient and cost-friendly at the same time, but Toyota came up with a solution in the form of a gas-electric hybrid named Toyota Prius, and it also became the first-ever electrical car which was mass-produced. Then emerged a small start-up from the deep pits of the Silicon Valley named “Tesla,” which started ‘luxury electric sports cars’ with a range of around 320km on a single charge. Today, Tesla is the biggest company that is trying to accomplish the fantasy of a future where electric vehicles are the new standard mode of transportation. A lot of new and old car companies are entering the market for electric vehicles. While the field might be dominated by Tesla at the moment, but, there is tough competition waiting for them ahead.

Light on Pollution, Heavy on The Pocket

While the lesser carbon imprint of a future of electric cars isn’t up for argument, there is a very big problem; they aren’t cheap. Electric cars are costly to manufacture, and they become even more costly by the time they become ready for a consumer to get behind the wheel. A major chunk of the cost of producing electric vehicles comes from the battery inside them. It’s difficult to manufacture, and because expensive materials like lithium, nickel, cobalt, etc. are used in it, it drives the cost even higher. But there’s a silver lining; the batteries are likely to become cheaper shortly as the technology becomes better, and it keeps getting a little easier and cheaper to manufacture them. So, as long as that doesn’t happen, the future of electric vehicles is an expensive one.

Boon or Bane?

While there’s no straight answer to this question, the pros do seem to outweigh the cons for a future of electric cars. Electric vehicles might be super expensive at the moment, but the prices are likely to come down eventually, which would contribute to mass-production, and making electric vehicles accessible for almost everyone who wants to invest money in a car. While gasoline cars have a clear advantage, they do not require to be put on hours long of charge every time they run out of juice, and electric cars do. 

But the charging speeds are already coming out to be fast, and they are bound to be substantially faster in just a few years. But all that comes to a halt when you consider the fact that how much less of a carbon footprint an electric vehicle leaves on our already polluted air, the cons start to seem very small. 

Clean energy, long charging times, expensive and hard to manufacture: all these are a few hurdles along the way, and hopefully we will get over them shortly. The future of electric cars is a future worth investing in, and it is a necessary one, for the sake of cleaner and breathable air.