With global warming taking on international importance as of late, not surprisingly the focus has fallen on the automotive industry, with vehicle exhaust as one of the major contributors to global warming. Green cars have been held up as a potential solution, one that the major world economies should be embracing.
But just how “green” are the green cars?
Let’s look at all-electric cars. Can’t get any ‘greener’ than a vehicle that runs 100% on electricity, right? No fossil fuels being burned, etc…
Wrong! Unfortunately these electric vehicles are not so good for the environment. The reasons are that the electricity that they run on is produced in power stations, where only 30-40% of the energy is converted into electricity. Transmitting this electricity along power lines then results in a further 30% (approx.) being lost to heat energy. So by the time this electricity reaches an electric car a huge amount of the energy has already been lost. Producing this electricity burns fuel, coal, or some other ‘not green’ method (except for hydro-electric plants).
So the bottom line is that they are good for reducing inner city pollution but that’s about it.
Now let’s take a hard look at hybrid cars:
These things are getting popular and everyone is hyping how good they are for the environment. But is it more hype than fact? These cars contain both an electric motor and a gasoline engine, with the battery for the motor powered (largely) by the energy generated from braking. When it comes to being ‘green’ these cars in theory offer many more environmental benefits…
But in practice, hybrid cars aren’t really all that green: A consumer magazine tested four hybrid cars by driving them throughout London. The results were disappointing, as mentioned by a senior researcher. “Some of these should have performed much better,” he said. And what about how to dispose of all the toxic electric batteries?
Then there’s the cost of hybrid vehicles – the Toyota Prius, for example, is the most popular hybrid car but is about $4000 more than a similarly-sized car. This leaves only a scant fraction of the population willing to part with the extra money for a hybrid. So until the cost is at least equal to other like-model all-gas cars, a world of hybrids will be but a distant dream.
The bottom line is this:
Green cars produce less greenhouse gases, but they consume more energy to produce, are harder to dispose of (batteries), and they are far too expensive for the masses. The age of the green car is still on the distant horizon.