Electric cars, are they the future?

Will we ever be able to completely switch to all-and will we really want to make that change?

Pollutants affect everyone and everything on earth so manufacturing vehicles that run as cleanly and as greenly as possible can only be a good thing for all of us. Unfortunately there are many barriers to the large scale adoption of all-electric cars but with enormous amounts being spent on research and development it should be possible to overcome these problems.

Electric cars are significantly more expensive than their internal combustion counterparts, mainly due to their necessarily large battery packs. The limited range of electric cars and lack of a charging station infrastructure in the UK means that range anxiety will continue to be a hurdle until the new, longer range batteries are made fully available. Another criticism of the all-electric car is the amount of time it takes to re-charge, rapid charging stations are one consideration but the preference seems to be for battery swapping stations, which would be almost as quick as filling up your fuel tank, of course this would mean the introduction of standardised batteries for all-electric cars.

We also have to consider the actual manufacturing process of making these vehicles, they may run clean and green but is there any point if it causes twice the pollution just to make them? It also makes no sense if the electricity used to charge the battery of an all-electric car is supplied by fossil fuels!

Finally there is the problem with image; electric family cars available at the moment are mostly viewed as seriously un cool!

The all-electric car is a very good idea but not until we have found a clean and green way to manufacture them and then re-charge them, the modern diesel engine is a much better idea – for the time being.