What economic, social, and mechanical

barriers are there to adopting electric

vehicles?

Garrett E. Hagen

Senior Project Advisor: Steve Smith

12th Grade Humanities

Animas High School
February 9th, 2017

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Introduction

Many people believe the electric cars were losing relevancy back in the 1990s with the

production and recall of General Motors EV1. What many people do not know, is that before

Henry Ford created the first, mass produced, combustion engine car, all that was on the market

were electric cars. Battery electric vehicles became irrelevant on the spot when Ford released

the Model T in 1901. History has shown that whenever electric cars become more prevalent in

society something new is released such as the Model T, which in turn causes the electric car to

lose steam in the motorized vehicle marketplaces. However, now in 2017, they seem like the

most reasonable option for transportation.

Due to all the political debating going on surrounding climate change, it is pertinent to

address key contributors surrounding emissions. The second biggest contributor being,

transportation. No one really drives around thinking about how many parts per million of carbon

dioxide they are releasing into the atmosphere. However, this becomes a reasonable thought

when humans could have health risks at 5,000 parts per million of carbon dioxide and a car

exhaust produces around 2,500 parts per million. Now take into account all the people that use

combustion engine transportation on a daily basis. Over time electric technologies have failed

due to several social, economic, and technological barriers, however, they are destine to

succeed in the future in result to their many advantages.

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Historical Context

Before combustion engine cars were even an option, believe it or not, electric cars were

the first motor vehicle. Back in 1906 Henry Ford came to Thomas Edison with the idea of a

combustion engine (Strohl). Thomas Edison had his own electrical illuminating company, which

in turn, might cause him to discourage the idea of a mass produced combustion engine car.

However, being very good friends with Henry Ford, he told him to pursue the idea and that it

would take off in the market place.

Although a lot of people dont know that before this break-through combustion engine

was being developed, both Henry and Thomas had been working together at Edison

Illuminating to build an affordable electric car. This electric car could travel 50-100 miles on one

charge using Henry Fords nickel-iron battery that weighs a significant amount more than the

current lithium-ion batteries (Strohl). When Henry Ford came out with this Model T, it

automatically killed the production of electric cars. This was due to the combustion car being

substantially cheaper than the electric car. The batteries are expensive to make. Its as simple

as that.

Then again in 1996, General Motor (GM) started the mass production of EV1s. This car

was the first mass produced electric car on the market. It was a front wheel drive, 2 seater, and

very ugly car. It only had 137 bhp and a range of about 70-100 miles using a lead-acid battery.

There are multiple speculations as to why EV1s stopped being produced. General Motor

suspiciously recalled all the EV1s on the road without reason. The most common belief is that

big oil companies worked with GM to stop production because combustion cars need oil to

function (Who Killed the Electric Cars?). Although, the real reason is still unknown.

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 Most electric cars, before the lithium-ion battery, were not good yet still expensive to

make and this is why they have failed in the past. They had a limited range which only applied

to drivers that drove a minimum of 80 miles a day. This, along with very limited charge stations,

caused the electric car to not be adopted. However, now the market is saturated with so many

different technologies and new ways to recreate the whole idea of electric cars.

Research and Analysis

First things first, range anxiety. This has been and currently is the biggest problem facing

electric vehicle drivers. Think about this: Youre driving along Route 66 in your Nissan Leaf and

your GPS says there are only 18 miles left until you get to Oklahoma City, where there are free

charging stations. The problem is you only have 16 miles of range left on your fully electric car.

So you start getting desperate and turn off your driving lights, heater, interior lights, and music.

The range then turns to 17 miles left, but now you have nothing more to turn off so you start to

get nervous and possibly panic. This is called range anxiety and it is currently the number one

reason why people do not buy electric cars. Now this usually isnt an issue because Nissan

Leafs and other fully electric vehicles meet 70 to 80 percent of urban drivers daily milage

(Nathan 1). However, these electric vehicles are very hard to do long journeys in. They simply

just dont have the milage to do 500+ mile road trips, and along with the lack of charging

stations, you will have to carefully plan out your charging if youre going to drive town to town.

One author, Louis Woodhill in Electric Cars Are An Extraordinarily Bad Idea, argues against

electric vehicles, stating, On Wednesday, Jan. 26 a major snowstorm hit Washington D.C.

Ten-mile homeward commutes took four hours. If there had been a million electric cars on

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American roads at the time, every single one of them in the DC area would have ended up

stranded on the side of the road, dead. And, before they ran out of power, their drivers would

have been forced to turn off the heat and the headlights in a desperate effort to eek out a few

more miles of range. Now, one might argue against this saying simply that an electric car user

would be able to turn the electric motor on and off with ease while at an idle in traffic. However,

electric motors automatically turn off when they idles. Range anxiety is a reasonable concern

with the electric cars of the past, which were limited to a maximum range of 60-107 miles.

However, electric vehicles of today, like Teslas Model 3, exceeds a range of 200 miles which

changes the game in terms of the battery and distance traveled. This is why range anxiety most

likely wont be an issue in the future, making electric vehicles easier to be adopted.

Another vast contributor for the lack of electric vehicle adoption is the initial cost. Tesla

sold 76,230 electric cars last year (Higgins 1), compared to GMs 17,550,351 (Vlasic 1). GMs

total revenue last year was $166.5 billion and Teslas revenue was $6 billion (Google). This is

due to the fact the Teslas are very expensive to make. They almost lose money on every car

that come out of the dealership, but they dont because of subsidisation from the government

(Campbell). Although, the electric car comes out on top when comparing a combustion car and

an electric car of the same ability. The Nissan Versa (a combustion engine vehicle) costs

$17,250, while the electric Nissan Leaf (the fully electric equivalent) costs almost twice as much

at $35,430. To make up the price gap of money being saved on gas you have to drive the Leaf

164,000 miles, which comes out to the 60 miles range every day for nine years (Woodhill 1).

However, this was back in 2006 and the gap is said to switch very soon with electric cars being

easier to charge and having farther ranges over the lifetime of ownership, thus saving money

and encouraging more people to buy electric vehicles in the future. The sweet spot for

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producing the most cost effective electric car is $25,000 with 300-400 miles of range. Cars like

this are scheduled to start hitting the market within the next 10 years.

Efficiency of electric vehicles is significantly higher than that of combustion engine cars.

Combustion engine cars only generate 20% of the energy stored in petroleum and converts that

into the wheels turning. The rest is lost to heat energy. Despite that, the electric car converts

80% of its stored energy into the wheels turning, thus making it 4x more efficient

(Foster)(Slavin). The rest of this energy in electric vehicles is lost to friction, heat from the

electric motor and battery, and current fluctuations. This means the electric car needs overall

less energy to go the same distance and this uses resources in a more useful way. Efficiency is

the biggest advantage to battery electric vehicles right now because they directly affect other

key advantages to electric vehicles. If there is a high efficiency, it mean theres less energy

reserve needing to be stored for the same distance when comparing combustion and electric. It

also means less money will be spent on charging due to the less power needed. This, in turn,

then affects how much fossil fuels we use in the most effective and efficient way.

There are so many emerging battery technologies being introduced each day. The most

recent breakthrough idea is the use of hydrogen fuel cells. This takes the planets most

abundant resource and combusts it in an engine in a very efficient way. Lithium-ion batteries still

reign as the king for vehicle batteries, as well as most electronics today, due to the fact they can

be recharged a significant amount of times while, for the most part, maintaining their efficiency.

As the world evolves it makes more sense to move to the hydrogen fuel cell. However, batteries

constantly are evolving themselves, possibly causing them to be a more reasonable option than

the hydrogen fuel cell purely based on potential.

According to the EPA, the parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere has reached

406.07, which is the supposed point-of-no-return for carbon dioxide. This is when it starts to

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have a major part in affecting our environment. Transportation accounts for 28% of carbon

emissions, and this isnt even accounting for the 33% from electricity generation and the 20%

from industry which both also indirectly go towards transportation (Matson). You might say that

the 33% electricity generation of carbon dioxide might increase when electric car sales go up.

Although, my argument against that would be that renewable energy is the only way to move

into a successful future. Norway has a 99% renewable energy grid, thereby using less

resources and money in creating needed power. It is the most reasonable solution to the energy

debate and I am very convinced the future will hold more viable options for electricity. The

world, and hopefully America, will move towards renewable energy more and more as the cost

of fossil fuels increase.

Another problem with electric vehicles that discourages people from buying them is the

convenience of charging. Currently there are a total of 121,446 gas stations in the US alone.

There are also 15,506 electric charging stations across our country. When comparing these two,

it works out to a ratio of 600 gas stations for every 77 electric charging stations. This is

shocking. What is even more shocking is when you take into account that charging stations are

usually in urban areas, electric cars are only reasonable for urban use. There are few places to

charge electric cars if you are going on a road trip through multiple towns because odds are

youll have to wait for a major city to find a viable charging station. Adding to that, is the fact that

fully electric car companies are starting to use chargers only usable for their certain car, it limits

the options even more. Also, filling up on gas only takes about 5 minutes for 300-400 miles of

travel while electric cars take about an hour and a half to fully charge for about 100-250 miles of

travel. However, depending on the make of the vehicle, charging can take about 30 minutes but

thats with buying a $100-$200 charger.

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Conclusion

There are multiple factors to why electric technologies havent been adopted in the past.

The main ones being; range anxiety, charging access, and initial cost. Although, EVs are bound

to succeed in the future due to the fact that electricity is becoming the only renewable resource

available, electric cars are more efficient in the use of energy, and electric technologies are

constantly going to be advancing.

The main reason why they are bound to succeed in the future is they are far more

efficient. Electric vehicles are 4x more efficient when it comes to using energy. Combustion

engines convert 80% of petroleums energy into heat energy, which means they only utilize

20%. This then means that electric cars need less energy storage than combustion engine cars.

This also means that it uses our limited resources in a more efficient way. With fossil fuels set to

run out around 2088 (The End Of Fossil Fuels), an alternative transportation grid has to be

adopted before that, this is so it is more easily transitioned to when the oil does run out.

One might argue that electric batteries are very heavy. Well, they make up for that in

torque directly distributed among the wheels. Electric vehicles have maximum torque at zero

speed. Combustion engine cars have to go to around 3000 rotations per minute to get the most

amount of torque. Depending on what the engine is, it might be higher or lower. Along with this

there are many technical benefits to electric vehicles compared to their combustion engine

counterpart. First, when they are idling at a stoplight or in traffic they dont use energy to keep

the motor running. Second, the electric motor runs in one gear and doesnt have to shift. This

might not seem like a big deal but it saves a significant amount of power over a longer period of

time, thus making it more efficient. Third and finally, combustion engine vehicles are a lot of

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moving parts. It goes from the air-fuel ratio being exact, all the way to the transmission and drive

shaft. There are so many things that can go wrong that they just simply will never be as reliable

as electric vehicles.

In conclusion, electric vehicles have failed in the past, but will most likely be a huge

success in the future. My main argument to support this is that combustion engines can only get

so fuel efficient. What I mean by this is, fuel efficiency can only go so far until its the most you

can get out a engine. There are few things you can modify to get the most MPG out of a

combustion engine car, these being combustion ratios, efficiency of energy converted to the

wheels turning, and the type of fossil fuel used.

Why electric cars are better, in this respect, is battery technology will constantly be

evolving. By 2088, fossil fuels are predicted to run out, and we could potentially have a battery

that lasts for 1000 miles. Combustion engines cant get anywhere close to that unless a huge

fuel tank is used, which isnt reasonable. We will always be coming up with new and innovative

ideas to storing electricity in small areas but high capacity. Electric cars have a very prominent

place in our future.

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