Task 2c: Climate Change

Who killed the electric car?

Who killed the electric car gave me great insights on the control of massive organisations have over government bodies trying to reduce the environmental impact. I suppose my generation only now understands that the electric car is slowly emerging to reality. Little did we know that 100 years ago electric vehicle were everywhere in fact more prominent than petrol vehicle. They were clean, quiet and efficient, easy to fix and still are but interestingly the underlying question is; why has the electric car been dormant for the 100 years?

One of the most interesting facts is that there is still 100 million barrels of oil still in the earth yet to be bored out. Coincidently throughout the last 100 years oil giants mocking and have been purchasing battery patents and effectively destroying the electric car market while controlling the only established source; Petrol vehicles.
It’s hard to say who was playing more of a part in the controversial petrol vs. electric battle, whether it is the oil giants or the car companies. I find it funny how everyone says electric cars don’t go that far, actually the technology has been around for a long time. It may haven’t been advanced as petrol combustion engines in comparison over the last 100 years, but there’s battery technology out there that will do 300km on one charge and there are electric cars out there that will do 200km/hr. comfortably, IE the Tesla. It is said that if California successfully established the zero emission law for new vehicles, they would reduce air pollution by 2/3rds.

It’s true that good commercial design is all about timing, no point designing something if there’s need or value for it. When I was growing up Electric cars seemed dull, inefficient and cheap. I think that has always been the perception. Don’t get me wrong I love the sound of a roaring V8; I’ve grown up following and participating in motorsport. The technical achievements of designing and engineering something to its limits is great in its own right (for motorsport) but when you’re talking about transportation in the city where performance has no value, it makes me think; what a waste, why do we need it. Ok, to consider that electric cars will have a lower environmental impact is a plus, its cheap to run is another plus, cheap to fix again is another plus, quite that depends on who you talk to but I guess is another plus as well, and so forth.

Basically to sum, I have nothing against petrol cars except for the fact that is becoming more and more expensive to obtain, again nothing against electric cars either, they both have their pros and cons, but the thing that gets me is that clean electric cars where around before dirty hard to run petrol cars and that massive organisations have monopolised and disabled alternate solutions, if you think about it, just for cash. Who’s to blame them, we all in business to succeed. The scary thing for me is that it has been done that not even the environmental regulators and government bodies have limited control over it.