Benefits and shortcomings of Battery operated Electric Motor Vehicles:

Benefits and shortcomings of Battery operated Electric Motor Vehicles (EMV):

(A) Benefits of Battery operated electric motor vehicles are:

(i) Electric vehicles run on electricity generated from batteries do not emit air pollutants. Therefore, these vehicles are termed ‘zero emission vehicles’.

(ii) Within city, since most people drive vehicles less than 40 miles per day, electric cars are certainly practical for moving within a city.

(iii) Fossil fuel use in internal combustion engines give rise to various environmental problems and these problems may be solved by using battery operated electric vehicles.

(iv) Electric cars are more efficient than petrol / diesel driven vehicles in terms of performance per unit amount of money and yield better air quality.

(v) Decreased fuel costs for battery operated electric vehicles make them more cost-effective in the long run.

(vi) An electric car of today would only get better over time; as in near future the performance, cost and efficiency of batteries available would be much better.

(vii) In most of the case, driving an electric car is more smother and people feel very similar or better to driving a gasoline car.

(viii) Without the internal combustion engine, electric cars have the potential to be quieter and noise pollution is much less.

(ix) As the number of electric vehicle increases, number of recharging station will be more and drivers will be able to recharge their cars by plugging them in overnight to a recharging outlet or at home.

(x) Lot of research is going on for improving the battery size, battery life and recharging time for batteries; and in near future rapid developments could be seen in this respect.

(B) There are few shortcomings of electrically driven motor vehicles, which are mostly of battery related:

(i) While electric cars themselves are clean, but generating electricity to charge vehicle batteries produces air pollution and solid waste.

(ii) Potential health or safety risks associated with widespread use of electric vehicles have not yet been fully evaluated.

(iii) Many vehicle batteries contain toxic elements or produce toxic emissions which could make battery production, transport, use, and disposal a significant solid waste risks. We should try to use environment-friendly batteries.

(iv) People must consider how safely to dispose of or recycle these batteries. As current batteries are large and heavy, battery occupies large space leaving less room for cargo and passengers.