Busted Myths of the Electric Car

This morning, I was sifting through The Gazette local newspaper while sipping my morning coffee and came across a particularly interesting article. It tells how Quebec has a goal of having 100 000 electric cars on the road by 2020. This goal seems rather unrealistic at this moment, but I believe that with a little more publicity and education, that goal can be achieved.

The article describes that the lack of electric cars on the road was previously argued to be a lack of supply rather than demand, however this is now proven to be untrue. There is a low demand for electric cars (despite many incentives) mainly because people don’t know much about them and what they do know, is often a series of misconceptions. I quickly realized that I too have very little knowledge of electric cars, so this article encouraged me to do some research that I will now share with all of you. 

The main concern that people have with electric cars is the convenience of charging them. The myth is that the electric car is doomed without prevalent charging stations. The fact is that the vast majority of electric car owners only ever need to charge at home, and a little bit at work, but rarely. According to The Gazette, about 90% of the charging of a personal car will typically occur at home. Quebec is busting this myth by installing more and more charging stations across the province to show civilians that they could charge their electric car (if they had one) at many locations that they go to regularly, such as local arenas and grocery stores. The goal is to give them a comforting and reassuring feeling, further encouraging the purchasing of electric cars. Quebec is also working on installing super-charging stations along highways, making road trips with an electric car just as practical as with a regular car.

Another myth that I came across is that the batteries of electric vehicles will die after only a few years of usage. It is true that areas with extremely hot or cold weather can wear the battery faster than in more mild climates, but it is also true that manufacturers are constantly learning from their mistakes and improving the technology to increase battery durability. They also have made 8-10 year warranties on the battery packs, lightening the burden of a faulty battery.

The question that I found the most concerning is regarding the driving range of an electric vehicle per charge. While researching, I found out that the driving range for one full charge is actually eight times the distance of an average trip. Some models even have options to attach extra battery packs for long-distance drives. In addition to this, the gas tank of the vehicle will kick in and recharge the battery if needed.

Lastly, there is the issue of manufacturing the vehicle itself. The workers driving to and from the factory, the machinery, the facilities and the transport and fabrication of the materials all emit carbon dioxide, meaning that the electric car does have a carbon footprint. However, it is fairly obvious that it is significantly smaller than an internally combusting car. In this video, the two men discuss how the manufacturing emissions of an internally combusting car versus an electric car is 17% and 39% of the car’s total lifetime emissions respectfully. These numbers are extremely misleading, so let me put this into perspective for you. Electric cars have 0 tailpipe emissions whereas cars that use gas emit 20 pounds (9 kg) of CO2 per gallon (about 4 L) of gasoline that it uses. Add this up over the lifetime of the car, and you’ll have a massive amount of CO2. Although the percentages are different, the CO2 emitted in manufacturing is about the same. The percentage for the electric car is only larger because there are no tailpipe emissions to add to the total emissions. It’s basic math; 17% of a massive number is still much larger than 39% of a much smaller number.

I would consider this to be quite the successful post, as I have now educated myself and (hopefully) many others! I will definitely be investing in an electric car when the time comes for me to buy my own, and I will be for sure encouraging many of the people I know to do the same.