Electric Vehicle

Electric cars have been designed to better our environment and save energy. They have many potential benefits such as the reduction of air pollution, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and less dependency on foreign oil. An interior electrical energy device, such as batteries rather than gasoline, powers an electric car. A controller regulates the energy based on the amount of power utilized based on the accelerator pedal. Common household electricity recharges the power stored in the car’s rechargeable batteries. There are many automobile companies that have extended their collections with a line of electric automobiles. Honda and Tesla are two companies in the electric car industry with rather new vehicles that are said to significantly improve the electric vehicle and improve the environment.

Tesla is a rather new company, founded in 2003 and on the road by 2008, by a group of Sillicon Valley engineers in California who wanted to prove electric vehicles are best. Two years later, they have 1,650 Roadster vehicles in more than 31 countries.

All vehicles need to over come road-load. Road-load is the resistance to the car whether it be wind, mechanical friction or tire rolling resistance. Road-load is greater at higher speeds due to the increase in wind resistance, resulting in the car using more effort to “push” forward. For Tesla, using less friction by designing new brakes, bearings and other rotating parts of the vehicle can minimize road-load. The chemical energy in an electric car is stored in the battery. Due to high-energy density, Lithium-ion batteries are used in Tesla vehicles. The chemical energy frees electrons resulting in 90% more efficiency, where some energy is lost to heat in current conductors and fuses. In a conventional car, gasoline is stored as the chemical energy. Combustion is used to create chemical energy to thermal energy. Unfortunately, the majority of energy stored as gasoline is lost as heat, where at best, it’s 35% efficient.

Vehicles using hydrogen fuel cell technology are the cleanest vehicles because they only emit water vapor into the air. By driving electric cars, we’re reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the air and reducing the amount of greenhouse gases. Honda’s new energy efficient car, the FCX Honda Clarity, uses fuel cells to combine hydrogen with oxygen to make electricity.  This is a tunnel that runs between the two front seats of the car, generating electricity but zero exhaust emissions. The clarity is a 20% increase is fuel economy, 30% increase in vehicle range at 270 miles, as well as a new lithium-ion battery pack that is 40% lighter and 50% smaller. Not only has Honda come out with a new fuel cell vehicle but is in progress with the creation of a hydrogen fueling station.

Both companies are to release the new lines of energy-saving vehicles in the near future. However, cars a limited and being accessible to southern Californian’s first.