NiraliSherni’s blog

A couple of recent articles:

http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2008-03/how-electric-cars-could-re-ar...

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn13418-thirsty-electr...

have been unnecessarily alarmist about EVs, which can negatively and inaccurately skew present perceptions about EVs.

The popsci article talks about how the increased demand for electricity due to use of EVs will "rearrange the grid". I think this is an rather unnecessarily alarmist attitude. EVs are essentially an answer to rising oil prices, rising pollution, rising transportation costs and unhealthy levels of vehicular emissions.

Firstly, people are not all going to go out and buy an electric vehicle right this moment, the demand and the supply of these vehicles will rise gradually and any consequent rise in demand for electricity will only be required to keep pace with that.

Secondly, if demand for electricity does in fact rise considerably in the foreseeable future, a time table and cost structure could be put into place by supplying grids that could easily take care of such an eventuality.

If, for acquiring the obvious benefits available thru EVs we have to make some adjustments and modifications, we must make them!

The second article talks about an increased demand for water due to the use of EVs. The article quotes a Paul Denholm of the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado as stating that "the overall impacts of plug-in vehicles are modest in the larger scheme of things". I agree with that.

When you look at the big picture, the pros far outweigh the cons of Electric Vehicles. Especially if EVs are powered by sustainable sources of electricity like hydro, wind or solar power, the benefits to the environment are so considerable as to practically nullify the impact of slightly increased usage of water resources.

Also, there is no comparison between oil as a resource and water as a resource. The scarcity of the former and abundance of the latter make this is a superfluous comparison.

This New York times article talks about alternative power and alternative dealers of unconventional automobiles. The dealership is called Ecomotion, which i think is a nice appropriate and catchy name as well.

The columnist in the write up refers to the vehicles (which are electric vehicles from ZAP among others) as a little funny looking. I actually think they are quite cute looking and really compact. I like a compact car, which i think is really convenient for city driving. It gets into all the itty bitty parking spaces that your common or garden variety of car will not be able to fit into.

The great thing about electric vehicles (apart from the obviously great thing that it is has zero emission and is therefore a non-polluting vehicle) is that because of their compact design they take up a lot less room on the roads. This is important when you consider how much bumper to bumper traffic slows you down during rush hour! This is a huge plus which is often overlooked when you talk of all the positives of electric cars.

The connection between the Taj Mahal and electric vehicles is not apparent is it? But it is! There is a strong connection between this most romantic of monuments, the first wonder of the world and electric. Some years ago, the authorities realized what petrol/diesel fumes and other toxic emissions from industry were doing to this priceless historical treasure. The Taj was getting dirty, it’s very existence was being jeopardized!

They needed to do something on a war footing! They therefore created a green zone in a one kilometer radius around the Taj. No combustion vehicles are allowed here. Electric vehicles take you to and from the Taj. If you are more adventurous, a horse drawn carriage or a pedal rickshaw will take you!

The point I am trying to make is that traditional vehicles create a noxious and harmful environment for all of us and our need to travel not going away or even going to lessen. We need alternatives to fossil fuel vehicles, and fast!

Pioneering efforts by companies like ZAP (http://zapworld.com) to mainstream electric vehicles of all sorts are laudable.