Electric Cars
Electric cars have some characteristics that enable them to make a valuable contribution to our transport needs:
Highly energy efficient, particularly in local traffic
Electricity can be generated from many different sources
Many countries have an established electrical infrastructure
As the purely electric vehicle does not burn any fuel, it does not pollute the air with combustion products where it is driven. On top of that a well designed electric vehicle can be so efficient in energy use, that even if electricity generation and distribution losses are included, it will use less energy than a conventional vehicle. It has a very high “well to wheel” efficiency. Electricity can be generated in many ways, rendering the energy supply system for transport highly flexible.
Critics are often led by dated and sometimes erroneous information. Yet if the future of new technology is to be assessed correctly, it is essential that the current state of the art is taken as a starting position. For defining this “state of the art” I like using energy, efficiency and range data the Tesla Roadster achieves, a car that can be bought and driven on roads and motorways. Thousands of real world kilometres provide by now a fairly solid data base for estimates relating to the points raised above.
More than 900 Tesla Roadsters have been delivered to customers and a lot of day to day experience has built up that can support and qualify those data.
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Overall energy use is reduced, even if losses in electricity generation are included
This lowers CO2 production and other pollution
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