Five Things You Thought You Knew About Electric Vehicles
Electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are now available in many vehicle classes, extending beyond small sedan/compact models. There are currently more than 50 PHEV and EV models on the market. More models are being released in the coming years, so vehicle class options are likely to expand. Electric cars are great for eliminating oil from transportation, because very little U.S. electricity is generated by burning petroleum. But electric cars may or may not help the country combat climate change—and it all depends on where the electricity comes from. But in California, the government is pushing ahead with the electric vehicle revolution.
Another term you may hear when discussing AC electricity is frequency. The frequency of the signal is the number of complete wave cycles completed during one second of time. Frequency is measured in Hertz and in the United States the standard power-line frequency is 60 Hz.
From the individual standpoint, electric cars do not require gasoline to run, which leads to cars with no emissions populating our highways and cities. While this presents a new problem with additional burden of electricity production, it alleviates the strain from millions of cars densely populating cities and suburbs putting toxins into the air (fig. 5). Hydrogen fuel cell cars are quiet, very energy efficient, produce no emissions and have equivalent range and performance to gasoline counterparts.
The first-life defines the lifespan of the battery's intended use, while the second-life defines the lifespan of the battery's subsequent use-case. Lithium-ion batteries from cars can sometimes be re-used for a second-life in factories or as stationary batteries. Some electric vehicle manufacturers, such as Tesla, claim that a lithium-ion battery that no longer fulfills the requirements of its intended use can be serviced by them directly, thereby lengthening its first-life. Reused electric vehicle batteries can potentially supply % of the grid-scale create electricity by driving a car lithium-ion energy storage by 2030. The carbon footprint of an electric vehicle lithium-ion battery can be reduced by up to 17% if reused rather than immediately retired.
EVs are mechanically simpler, which reduces the use and disposal of engine oil. It’s true that manufacturing an EV can use more energy than a conventional car, largely due to the manufacture of lithium ion batteries. More than a third of the carbon pollution created by an EV over its lifetime does come from its manufacture. However, if you look at the entire life cycle of the vehicle, an electric car ultimately creates fewer emissions than its gas-powered counterpart. A recent analysis in the Wall Street Journal compared the life cycle of a Tesla Model 3 to a Toyota Rav 4.
A 1000 watt, pure sine wave inverter can be purchased from Walmart for about $400. Then you need a set of heat-proof booster cables for prolonged use under the hood (about $100), and finally, you need a weather-proof housing that also allows for ventilation. If you’re an industrious, DIY-er who loves saving money above all else, you could definitely build your own CarGenerator; you’ll save about $150, providing your time isn’t worth anything. For the rest of us, who value our time and want an easy, proven solution, CarGenerator is simply the best possible option for worry-free, temporary power.
Add in CO2 emissions involved in manufacturing the cars and batteries and a battery electric vehicle’s (BEV’s) “carbon footprint” is much larger than it might seem. Like all-electric vehicles, fuel cell electric vehicles use electricity to power an electric motor. In contrast to other electric vehicles, FCEVs produce electricity using a fuel cell powered by hydrogen, rather than drawing electricity from only a battery. During the vehicle design process, the vehicle manufacturer defines the power of the vehicle by the size of the electric motor that receives electric power from the appropriately sized fuel cell and battery combination.