Electric Car Collector

For most of us owning a car is not just desirable, but necessary. Due to a general lack of effective public transport, we are forced to rely on private transport. It would be best if this private transport could be as environmentally friendly as possible. So we ask ourselves, is it possible to run a car on solar energy?

Each day enough sunlight falls on the surface of the earth to power all human industry and transport many times over. Much of this energy is reflected from the surface of the earth back into space as light. Yet more energy is radiated out into space as heat, also called infra-red radiation.

The great advantage of solar panels is that they generate electricity from sunlight that is already falling on the surface of the earth. Had that energy not been converted into electricity in the panel, it would have been absorbed by the earth to be later released as heat, been reflected into space, or been used by a plant to make sugars. The electricity from the panel can be transported and used elsewhere. When used, the energy in the electricity is ultimately released as heat. This means that a solar panel is effectively converting sunlight into heat, but allowing that conversion to do some work which results in the heat moving to a different location.

This compares favorably with using fossil fuels as an energy source. Because these fuels come from long buried sources, the heat they add to the atmosphere when burned is additional to what would otherwise be there. This means that there is a net increase in energy in the atmosphere, and it is this that causes concern regarding the issue of climate change.

This makes it clear that being able to use sunlight to power our vehicles is a desirable option. But is this a realistic option? The fact is that this is already being done. Owners of electric cars are using mains supply electricity rather than petroleum to charge the batteries which power their vehicles. All that needs to be added to this scenario is to obtain the electricity from a renewable source such as a domestic solar installation or a solar power plant and one can effectively be driving on sunshine.

Read more about recent model electric cars at Roger Vanderlely’s website. You can also read about how best to look for cheap solar panels, simple no-cost science experiments for kids, theory behind the operation of solar cells and more.

It is rather apparent that pollution due to smog emissions has caused drastic damage to the earth, environment and our planet natural resources. We can clearly see the derogatory effects of our oil dependency in the current global warming situation, which is an issue which warrants our immediate attention. Despite the International Oil Embargo in 1973, the United States is still continuing to increase its import of oil volume wise. We Americans have become quite accustomed to driving our big SUV’s and cars. Luckily there is a solution in sight for this dilemma and that is mass producing the evironmentally friendly electric car.

At the turn of the early nineteenth century, electric cars were actually more popular when compared with combustion engines vehicles. Unfortunately, what gave way to this preference was the cheaper price of combustion engine vehicles and the lower price of oil; both of which were championed by the major automotive companies in the United States.

Pretty much all of the vehicles built in the twentieth century all had combustion engines. Experts and scientists have recently confirmed that humans are largely responsible for the planet’s global warming and a large part is due to our cars averaging nineteen pounds of carbon dioxide emissions for every mile driven. However surprising it may be, around the nineteen eighty’s the large car manufacturer GM had begun gaining attention for its focus on alternative energies in light of this looming threat. During this time, there was further pressure for auto companies to design and manufacture “clean” products. For example, the state of California had passed its “Zero Emissions Mandate,” which required there to be a certain percentage of cars manufactured that emitted significantly less carbon dioxide and pollutants. And in the 1990′s GM assigned Saturn to market the EV1, the first electric car ever built for mass consumption on a large scale.

The sales campaign for the EV1 specialized on a threefold consumer question: how far? how fast? how much? From the very start the car attracted what seemed to be major interest. In fact, there was a long waiting list of people who were interested in purchasing this car. Interestingly, GM did not put these cars up for purchase and were only willing to lease them. Nevertheless, the drivers were euphoric about the EV1 as it produced zero CO2 emissions and was fast and fun to drive. Clearly, these drivers actually preferred electric over combustion, despite the car only averaging 60 miles per charge. Thus, the clean, quick and sleek electric car was more desirable than its “nuclear time bomb” counterpart. So what happened to this new and promising car?

The makers of the EV1 sternly insisted that there was no strong consumer interest despite having put millions into campaign ads, and that the waiting list was not a viable source for proving actual demand. Eventually, the hype was killed with GM removing all leased EV1s from the streets and turning them into demolished cubes. In defense of these roguish actions, among many other discussions, the auto industry argued that electric cars, because they were charged with electricity produced by coal, were even more detrimental for the environment. On top of this, the oil industry supported arguments against this emerging technology, and President Bush pushed for the inefficient and impractical fuel cell and hydrogen technologies to be the wave of the future and replace traditional cars.

The fact of the matter remains that this energy efficient electric car was repressed by the car industry on purpose. The government and oil industry also played a large role in this. What is even more shocking is that we as consumers did our part to support such actions by passively watching the advent of the electric car slip through our fingers. Luckily it is not too late to get this technology back and mass produce it. The EV1 was incredible and any car enthusiast would enjoy taking it out on a spin. Lets take the steps and measures necessary in order to make this car a reality.

Written by Jacqueline Cao: Ford dealer Irving, Ford dealer Grapevine