Alternative Fuel Vehicles
Alternative Fuel VehiclesEnvironmental demand for cleaner air has put a heavy burden on the automobile, much improved by stringent exhaust stands but still a significant source of pollution. High cost, technological obstacles and the resistance of the public to abandon gasoline have deterred the discovery of new cleaner alternative fuels to help 5the environment. Electric Vehicles are the cleanest burning of the alternative fuel vehicles now available. They are an efficient way to utilize fossil fuels (oil and natural gas) and convert them straight into automotive power. The fossil fuels are burnt at a power plant to produce energy to make electricity to recharge batteries rather than being used in air polluting internal combustion engines.” (Encarta)3 “Substances that pollute the air can be controlled more easily at a power plant than at the tailpipes of millions of gasoline-burning cars.” (Encarta) Electric cars are a simple and effective way to harness existing energy because any energy source can be turned into electricity. Electric cars have many advantages:
· “Less dependence on foreign oil because of a reduction of petroleum requirements
· Reduction in maintenance costs
· Reliability
· Simplicity of operation
· Improvement in air quality because of elimination of vehicle exhaust emissions
· Low energy cost” (Barbara Whitener 9)
Despite these advantages electric cars have not been widely adapted yet because they are not able to compete with gasoline powered cars. They have many limitations including power, acceleration, reliability and range. All of this however is about to change when the next line of EV’s are released. GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Daimler-Chrysler and Even the U.S. Army are in on the race because electric will be one of the leading alternative fuels in the near future.
Electric vehicles may have appeared as early as 1830. Historians generally credit J.K. Starley, an English inventor and Fred M. Kimball of Boston, Massachusetts with building the first practical electric car in 1888. Woods Motor Vehicle Company located in Chicago become the first American Producer in 1896. At one time, around 1904 one third of all the cars in New York City, Chicago and Boston were electrically powered. By 1912 thirty thousand electric vehicles roamed the United States. These cars are starting to surface again in anticipation of regulations designed to reduce air pollution emission in some states.
Many breakthroughs have been made in this field but some designs have stayed similar. An electric car has a battery, a charger for replenishing the battery’s power and a controller, which directs the flow of electricity between the battery and the motor. Lead Acid batteries are the most commonly used battery in the new fleet of EV’s arriving, but there are new types of batteries including nickel-metal hydride, zinc-chlorine and sodium-sulfur. Today’s electric cars come standard with regenerative breaking. Regenerative breaking is where the braking system recharges the battery. The motor acts as a generator when stopping and converts the energy caused by the movement of the vehicle back into electricity and stores it in the battery. “Converting the kinetic...
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