Green Cars: Is it Enough?

Electric vehicles have grown up quite a bit.

SeedSing is proud to offer voices from all over the globe. Today we present a guest post from professional mechanic Giles Kirkland. Get your ideas heard by writing for SeedSing

Electric vehicles are, without a doubt, one of the greenest options drivers have when it comes to their choice of car. These vehicles - known as EVs for short - don’t emit any emissions, helping to reduce your carbon output. Yet there is much more to the automotive industry than just fuel emissions, so are today’s green cars enough?

Adoption Rates

First of all, it’s worth noting that, no matter how good EVs may be, the benefits are somewhat diminished if the adoption rate is so slow. No matter where you are, a quick glance at the road will reveal more petrol or diesel based vehicles compared to electric options. As such, there’s clearly some barrier to entry that needs to be readdressed.

One of the more obvious problems is the cost. EVs are relatively new cars, with upcoming models like the Tesla 3 costing around $35,000. Compared to a second hand, petrol based car, there’s a big margin in affordability.

In time, this will go down as the technology becomes more widely available and a second hand market emerges. Even now, however, it's estimated that hybrid cars have a higher cost - up to 20% more - compared to fully petrol based vehicles. That’s still a big margin, especially for budget buyers.

Energy Sources

While cutting on a reliance of fossil fuels is certainly green, the energy used to charge a car from is also just as vital. If such an electric car is powered via coal-generated electricity, can it truly be green? For any car to be environmentally friendly with electricity, owners must ensure they only use renewable power.

It’s also worth noting that some drivers have the option to use a greener fuel source without upgrading their car. Many diesel vehicles are able to use biodiesels, which is much more sustainable. You can even make biofuel at home and it is legal in many countries across the world, including America and the United Kingdom. Just make sure your diesel particulate filter is in the exhaust system cylinder, rather than the exhaust pipe.

Construction Materials

Furthermore, while the likes of Tesla are busy creating lithium-ion powered vehicles and driverless cars, there’s little talk about the actual materials used in their construction. These vehicles still use metal and other natural elements, which may or may not be acquired through sustainable means.

Of course, many manufacturers (although not all) are actively recycling materials where possible. Car bodies, for instance, are typically made from aluminium or steel. Ford alone recycles enough aluminium to produce 30,000 trucks per month, which is certainly a very green effort.

Similarly, more and more car parts can be recycled, provided owners dispose of them responsibly. Glass, of course, can be melted down and re-made, while car tyres can be recycled for their rubber.

Yet this need to recycle is more important in the very green areas. Catalyst converters use three rare earth metals - platinum, rhodium and palladium - while even EVs use lithium-ion for their batteries. This battery source doesn’t have an indefinite lifetime, so recycling efforts will be needed to curb lithium mining as much as possible.

Other Forms Of Transport

As good as green cars can be, they are not the only forms of transport available. When it comes to adopting sustainable travel, there are many more obstacles to be tackled. While electric trains and buses have been in production for some time now, there’s a much greater difficulty in getting the power requirements to replace aircraft and ships.

Even when it comes to electric cars, there are numerous gaps in the market. 4x4 cars, vans and trucks all have big markets - contributing significant emissions in their own rights - yet have little in the way of green alternatives.

Cultural Perceptions

Finally, there are still many people out there who are afraid or unsure of EVs. Part of this is down to a fear of new things, as studies have shown people greatly come around to the idea after being inside an electric vehicle.

Similarly, one can also look at automotive media for a prime example. Motor shows, magazines and other media prioritise the power and performance of combustion engines, rather than the efficiency of EVs. Even when it comes to power, there are a number of plug-in hypercars in production, showcasing the capabilities of EV, but these seldom get mentioned.

Ultimately, it is up to drivers, as people and as consumers, to encourage a greener driving reality. An increased uptake in EVs, certainly, will encourage a wider availability. Yet even people without this financial option can undertake more eco-friendly methods. Whether that’s using biofuels or adopting green driving methods, such as a better fuel economy or car pooling, there are many areas where people could do more, but often don’t.

So, are green cars enough? While they are good, they don’t achieve everything that a truly sustainable, green option should. That being said, they are a large step in the right direction and this should not be underestimated.

Giles Kirkland

Giles Kirkland is a professional mechanic with a passion for greener living and sustainable developments. Have an idea? Tell SeedSing all about it.

Welcome to the Future: Kirk looks at self driving cars Part 2

The new Tesla? Code named T-Edsel?

This is a follow up to part 1 of Kirk's look at self driving cars.

I cannot say I particularly enjoy driving. I enjoy the convenience that comes with driving. I like being able to go anywhere I please at a near whim. But the experience could be improved as far as I am concerned. I could find better use of my time than staring at the road. Sometimes, if I have the extra time, I take public transportation because it is not the commute that I dislike, but the bore of it. I love to have the opportunity to read a book or interact with my partner or my kids while I get to my destination. The passengers of the vehicle that I pilot get this. The technology is soon here for me to get this too. And it can be public transportation but with the same privacy I now enjoy. When thinking about self-driving vehicles, these are some of the ideas that delight me.

How about I start with the public transportation aspect. As of right now, if I want a fast way to get to my destination I need to own my vehicle. This means several things. I need to have insurance. I need licenses. One for myself to drive and one for the vehicle to be on the road. I need to have a place to put this vehicle when I am not using it, which happens to be the vast majority of the time that I own it. I need to maintain it; gas, oil changes, and the like.

Contrarily, once self-driving vehicles are widespread, I no longer need to own the vehicle. Transportation will be a front door service and it will be much faster, cheaper, and more versatile than taxi cabs currently are. There will probably be periodic rates for frequent users to benefit from. I need to run to the store because I forgot the milk? A couple of smart phone taps and I will have a vehicle in my driveway within minutes. This comes with exactly the same privacy that I already have with my own vehicle and with the other aspects of owning a vehicle obscured into the cost of the transport and taking no physical effort on my part. Because we do not pay a driver, this will cost less than a cab. The economic implications are definitely something to consider here, but I will wait for another post to get more into that.

Another thing that excites me is the environmental impact. Once the use of public self-driving vehicles is set in we can start making all sorts of cuts in where we currently have waste in exchange for convenience. One example is that it is no longer going to be one vehicle taking you or your party everywhere. Right now I drive a SUV, but I am no where near using all the space and power that requires a SUV every time I drive. Many times it is just me. Cut to the self-driving vehicle service, and I can specify exactly how many seats and storage I will need. Getting groceries? A one seat vehicle with enough storage for a bag or two will do. Going on a date? A two seater with no storage works. Family vacation? Four seats and lots of storage. Taking the dogs along? Special storage options available. A lot less energy wasted. I could go on.

An added energy benefit is the fact that a human is not navigating. Some drivers are certainly more efficient than others, but all of us are have emotions. Those emotions necessarily affect our driving. We misjudge how much time we have we have to make the gap, then in attempt to recover we slam on the gas. We switch back and forth between lanes in a jam on nothing more than a hunch wasting countless energy. Not only can computer give up the emotional aspect of driving, but the can also communicate telepathically. Self-driving vehicles can communicate with other self-driving vehicles in a way humans never can. Need to merge? There is no guesswork, just a seamless merge. Traffic jams on the interstate? Reroute X number of vehicles to a secondary route.

The last benefit I want to address in this post is the additional freedom of the youth of tomorrow. Say your ten year old wants to go to a friend’s house but there is no one to provide the ride. With a self-driving vehicle service, there is.

This may scare some parents. I certainly know more than a few parents who want to keep their kids locked down as much as they can for as long as they can. For these parents, there will probably be ways to secure the service to only be used with particular amounts of permission. There will also be kids who get around this as they always is with technology lockout systems. (Another topic for another post I suppose.) And sure I think that a certain show of responsibility should exist before a kid can set out in a self-driving vehicle alone, but this takes down a lot of barriers to those kids who are deserving of that responsibility. They do not really need to be responsible enough to drive a vehicle in order to benefit from the geographical freedoms associated with it.

How do you feel? Are you excited about the changes to our world that self-driving vehicles might mean? Are you concerned about some of the details that have yet to emerge into our collective consciousness? Let’s discuss it.

Kirk Aug

Kirk is getting settled into his virtual cubicle of internet journalism. He is looking for ideas on other near future technologies that will change your life. Follow him on twitter @kirkaug