It is high time for electric cars to get out of the shadows and become more accessible both in terms of prices and in terms of the opportunity to buy them. Today there are a lot of popular representatives - numerous unique, hand-picked, Tesla, BMW i3, Chevrolet Spark EV, Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi i-MiEV (Peugeot iOn, also Citroen C-Zero). However, it is still difficult to buy such a car in Russia.
Even more questions arise about their charging and maintenance - we are simply not ready for a massive influx of electric vehicles. But I would like to repeat the words mentioned in the movie "Who killed the electric car?" - if mass production began, the solution of problems would be found quickly.
Obviously, the next step in the development of cars (using the example of flying vehicles) is unmanned vehicles. Self-driving, a car from Google, the inhabitants of the West see quite often - run-in is the computer control system of the machine.
This is not the first project on this topic, however, realizing that such a giant as Google is engaged in development, I want to believe that very soon we will open a new era - the era of unmanned vehicles or electric vehicles.
They can bring to our lives a cheaper and safer way of transportation. The trip will not be spent man-hours, and therefore, you can go anywhere, without wasting time on driving.
A detailed review of these and other unmanned vehicles we will do very soon - wait. In the meantime, I would like to say that such a revolution will not happen tomorrow or in a few years. No. Most likely, this will happen not earlier than in the next decade. The auto industry is quite inert, and some issues are not resolved yet. However, as soon as this happens, we will get into a true revolution!
Electric Cars = Ecomobiles?
Today, manufacturers and marketers try to substitute "eco" for all products from all sides. The century of ecological products, eco-biofuels and eco-cities is in full swing. Did not pass this fate and electric cars. Yes, they do not need oil products for traffic. Yes, electricity is generally safer and less harmful to nature than burning gasoline or diesel.
However, electricity must be accumulated somewhere in sufficient quantities. The production of batteries is not the most environmentally friendly process. And the composition of the batteries is far from being "eco". In most hybrid cars, manufacturers put batteries in the lower part of the body - under the floor, so that they occupy as little as possible of useful space. However, in case of any accident, if the battery is damaged, the car from the category "eco" will suddenly become unsafe for the environment. In addition, the accumulating elements have their own life cycle. And so far it is not as great as we would like.
But the batteries are not the only problem. A much bigger question arises after the clarification of the way of electricity production: 66% of electricity in Russia, according to data as of January 1, 2015, is produced at TPPs. And these billions of kilowatt-hours are produced by burning other fuel resources. Next are HPPs and nuclear power plants - about 15% each, followed by alternative sources of energy - windmills, solar panels and so on.
Neither HPPs, NPPs, TPPs, nor even solar panels (no matter how green they may appear) do not represent a truly environmentally friendly way of obtaining electricity. In each of them there is a spoonful of tar. It would seem, how can the ecology prevent the HPP (if everything is approximately clear from the NPP and TPP)? The fact is that any introduction to human nature somehow shakes the balance. Because of the dams, about 400 thousand square meters were flooded. km of the most fertile land and valuable forests, 20% of freshwater fish species in the world either disappeared or are under threat of extinction, due to the accumulation of untreated sewage conditions for the multiplication of pathogens are created, diseases that were not previously characteristic of the area appear. And this is not a complete list - any ecologist will tell you more than one dozen problems related to any receipt of electricity.