Electric Cars: More Efficient Than You Think!

Yesterday a convincing argument against electric cars was made. I'd like to provide a simple counter argument based off of a study performed by Tesla Motors.

First off, the math performed by Professor Salmeen can easily be refuted by the Tesla Motors study. In the Tesla Motors study, electric cars are presented as far more efficient than gasoline cars. While Professor Salmeen's argument centers around mathematic estimates (as implied by his title), Tesla Motors provides concrete data from actual cars.

Also, the environmental benefits of electric cars were overlooked. We know the environmental detriments gasoline cars have on our society. Although it may be currently unclear whether electric cars are more efficient than gasoline cars, the fact remains that the end user can ultimately choose which type of electricity source to use to power their car. Imagine, powering your car with solar or wind energy!

Lastly, increased use of electric cars may change the composition of energy markets, but will energy prices really increase? Electric cars are becoming more efficient with new technologies. People are harnessing unused forms of energy (wind and solar). Taking these concepts into account one could argue that electric cars could lower energy prices in the future.

Although some of my points are based off of Tesla Motors, an electric car company, they present concrete numbers from concrete studies based on actual cars. I'm confident that with the increased popularity in electric cars, we will discover the answer to whether electric or gasoline cars are the way to go.

Auto Industry on a New Path

Obama has made it clear that he is going to push issues he talked about during his campaign. Less than one week into the presidency he has already made it clear that auto emissions standards are going to rise. Instead of increasing the national standards which is very hard politically he is going to give the states federal power to regulate their own emission standards. This is actually a really good idea because it will essentially bring all the states up to a higher level because the production is done in specific factories. They are going to build the parts in mass which is more price efficient for the company. This means that most the new cars are going to have higher standards or at least until the old inventory is used. It will be interesting to see what states take the initiative on this. I'm sure Michigan won't be first in line!