The vast majority of people alive today only know a world fueled by oil. Because of its abundance and usefulness as an energy source, oil has driven industrialization of many a country, has been the key energy source in globalization, and has often dominated world politics. The Era of Oil is, however, about to end, due to the advent of modern, technologically-advanced electric vehicles that can easily utilize clean energy from renewable energy, especially from solar power.
Here’s why BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles) will cause the extinction of ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles :
- BEVs can easily utilize clean energy from renewable energy sources. As electricity on the grid gets cleaner, so do BEVs. ICE vehicles, on the other hand, cannot easily utilize this clean energy source and are only making slow advances at getting cleaner, due to being a very mature technology. While you can install solar power on your roof and then charge your car with sunlight, you’re not going to be able to have a gas station in your back yard.
- Batteries still have a lot of room for improvement. BEVs thus are still at an early stage of the cost and tech curve. It is therefore virtually inevitable that BEVs will become better and cheaper with time, while ICE vehicles are having a very hard time becoming more efficient without raising costs. The current downward cost curve for batteries strongly resembles the one previously seen with solar power, which has now become the cheapest source for new electricity generation in most of the world’s countries. For this reason, BEVs are set to become the most economical form of land transportation in the near future.
- BEVs have a tremendous potential for ease of use, ie. one can refuel them wherever electricity is available. All one has to do is plug in while at home, work, or shopping. While this is still a weakness for those who live in apartments where charging is not currently available, this will improve greatly as more charging spots become available. The days of having to drive to the gas station are coming to an end.
- BEVs have far less moving parts than ICE vehicles, so they will end up requiring considerably less maintenance, in addition to requiring less service. All those pesky and sometimes unreliable oil changes and cooling fluid changes will go out the window. Due to regenerative braking in electric vehicles, you can also expect considerably longer intervals between brake repairs.
- There is a very strong incentive for countries with limited or no oil reserves to push for BEVs, as this reduces oil imports and has a considerable potential to make these countries far more energy-independent. This is especially true for developing nations, where the health of their economies is often dependent on a low oil price. The incentive is even higher in countries like China and India, where the external cost of heavy pollution from ICE vehicles remains a serious problem in large cities.
- Battery Electric Vehicles already are considerably more efficient than ICE vehicles and will only improve as they progress on the technology curve. While ICE vehicles waste lots of their energy potential through waste heat and inefficiency of power transmission, BEVs have little energy-transmission loss and produce very little waste heat.
- Unlike ICE vehicles, battery electric vehicles produce very little local pollution. Expect cities, states, and countries that are struggling to reduce toxic air pollutants like nitrogen oxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, and particulates to increasingly push for vehicle electrification.
- There is a considerable “fun factor” with electric vehicles. Because of their direct power transmission, they accelerate much faster than comparable ICE vehicles. Due to their low center of gravity, they are also less likely to fly out of a curve or roll over.
- Last but not least, BEVs cause much less noise pollution than ICE vehicles. Would you rather live next to a busy road with only BEVs driving on it or one with noisy motors assaulting your hearing?
Vested corporate interests and their pet politicians have been spending lots of money and energy on preventing, or at least delaying, vehicle electrification, despite it being clear to informed observers that large-scale vehicle electrification is inevitable. With visionary companies like Tesla already proving that Battery Electric Vehicles can be as good, or better, than Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles, it’s only a matter of time before other automobile manufacturers go all-in with the mass production of BEVs.
It’s no accident that Motor Trend named the Tesla Model S the most influential “Car of the Year” ever. Don’t be surprised to soon see BEVs becoming dominant in the “Car of the Year” awards of virtually all automobile magazines.
Crossposted at Medium