With gas prices soaring up as we consume the available fossil fuel, consumers needed to have an alternative mode of transportation. Companies like Tesla Motors and Toyota answered the call by manufacturing hybrid and fully electric cars. Now, gas prices may start to go down but almost all major car brands are still coming up with newer and more efficient electric cars.
Supply Versus Demand
The demand for gasoline has always been high, which is most likely the reason why the cost of petrol and diesel rarely goes down. However, governments are becoming stricter with regulations and emissions. Fuel economy is now being strictly rated and looked ay by consumers who tend to choose to buy the vehicle that can stay longer on the road with as less fuel as possible. The demand for gasoline can only last as needed, with the emergence of hybrid and electric vehicles, this demand becomes less, which leads to gasoline prices to go low.
Advantages Of EV's And Hybrids
Let us start with hybrids; a hybrid car is normally a vehicle that uses both gasoline and an electric motor. The advantage of using one is that most of the time, the electric motor powers the car, leaving the gasoline engine to be used only as a means to charge the battery or only runs as a backup when the battery is running out of juice. Even supercars like the new Acura NSX runs on a hybrid engine that can outperform any other petrol powered supercar.
An electric vehicle uses just the batteries and the electric motor to send power to the cars wheels. Petrol or diesel is not needed and can be charged by simply plugging the car into an outlet. Thus, being friendlier to the environment as there is no unnecessary gas emission that is happening in the background.
Petrol engines, even with the most economical one in the market, still hurt the environment with carbon dioxide emissions and still use up fuel. The engines tend to be noisy especially on older models. Even one of the most reliable companies like Volkswagen had a scandal in September 2015 when a device was found on some of their cars that cheat emission results.
The Evolution Of Cars
According to Wall Street Journal, the sales of plug-in or electric cars are up in 2016. This is probably because most car manufacturers are introducing their own electric cars. Currently, only one percent of light vehicles all over the world are composed of electric cars, however, that small percentage does not mean that the future of technology is dark.
Some theories say that cheap gasoline will kill the evolution of electric vehicles. According to Forbes, new standards in car technology does not mean that it is more rational or achievable than the existing ones. However, that still does not stop car brands from creating new electric cars. There is still the fact that a lot of environmentalists have emerged to battle the pollution being caused by burning fossil fuel. Production costs may also be lower in manufacturing batteries and use renewable electricity as a power source.
Plans for new electric and hybrid cars are being announced by known car brands such as Tesla, Toyota, Nissan and a lot more. Tesla CEO Elon Musk even predicts that the use of fossil fuel can already be disrupted as early as 2022 due to the high number of electric car users. What we know today, is that technology is advancing, and this might be the time that we finally move to using a more advanced renewable power source such as electricity to power our transportation.