Electric cars are not really clean but they will still contribute to protecting the environment

Although still bringing environmental concerns like gasoline vehicles, electric motor vehicles will still be the answer to our pressing environmental problems.

With orders of 276,000 units in just over a day, the Model 3 proved a single fact: the future of the global car manufacturing industry belongs to the electric motor. But, at the same time, many people have raised their doubts : are electric cars really "cleaner" than regular cars?

Unfortunately, in many cases, the current answer is "No". Earlier this year, a report published by Reuters said the level of environmental pollution of electric cars in China is two to five times higher than cars running gasoline engines. The reason is that the grid in this country is mainly supplied from "dirty" thermal power plants, which run on heavy polluting fuels like coal.

In many cases, electric cars are not really "cleaner" than regular cars.

That's not to mention the mining process to use for lithium batteries (the most common type of battery today) will also cause serious harm. When giant batteries on trams go into the final stages of their life cycle, their recycling capacity is almost zero.

But that does not mean that the dream of a "clean" human transportation has ended.

Our grid is getting cleaner

The level of pollution generated by electric cars depends on their power supply. With the dependence on thermoelectricity as it is today, it is not difficult to understand if electric cars create carbon footprints many times larger than gasoline vehicles.
But the global situation will soon change. According to the number of 2013, large countries, including China and the US, have invested $ 214 billion in clean energy. Some countries have set out to switch to using clean energy, and there are now 30 countries using electricity with renewable energy rates of over 20%.

The determination of governments is also responded by businesses. A number of large technology corporations such as Google, Apple, Microsoft and Intel are aiming to use solar power for business and production facilities. Google currently has a clean electricity rate of 35% while Apple reaches 93%, while clean electricity is bought by Microsoft even higher than both companies combined. At the end of 2015, a series of big names in the tech world like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) and Jack Ma jointly announced the establishment of an alliance to invest in clean energy.

The top 5 companies in the United States in terms of renewable energy consumption, including four hi-tech corporations leading the world.

The strong impetus from both national governments and the business community is bringing encouraging effects. According to REN21 research, in 2015, clean energy accounted for 22.8% of global energy supply, an increase of 1.1% compared to 2013. This increase may not make you impressed, But many countries have achieved impressive rates of clean energy use such as Iceland (100%), Norway (98%) and Brazil (86%).

Not far away, in Vietnam, hydroelectricity accounts for 32% of total electricity output (2014 data).

This means that more and more the level of pollution caused by electric vehicles will decrease. This will happen even in countries with the most "dirty" power sources such as China, because in the last 5 years China has contributed to 40% of the "clean" electricity produced globally. In 2014, China invested up to $ 90 billion in renewable energy, higher than the United States and any other country.

Increasingly, "clean" electricity will be cheaper and more convenient

In the summer of 2014, people in Queensland, Australia began to get paid to use electricity.

In the summer of 2014, people in Queensland, Australia began to get paid to use electricity. The reason for this paradox is that solar power here is so popular that no one uses electricity from the grid , and factories are obliged to pay people to use their electricity because the cost is off. The transmitter will even be higher than the amount paid to the people.

Like Australians, in China solar panels have helped bring in 70% of the electricity used for water heating. The average standard of living in China is clearly not as high as that of Europe and the United States, and the popularity of solar power is only significant: once an expensive technology, solar power has now become one. Popular technology has access to the majority of the population.

Of course, heating water is not the only use of solar energy. In order for solar power to be handy, manufacturers are pushing technologies to store electricity for users, and leading people are none other than Tesla. On April 30, 2015, Tesla launched a storage battery called Powerwall , 10kWh capacity (for the purpose of protecting devices when power is lost) and 7kWh (for civilian use). The cost of installing this system is set to be USD 500 (about VND 11 million), expected to complete and go into wide-scale production in 2017.

Tesla Powerwall.

Besides Tesla, other names like Alevo, EOS, Greensmith or CODA are also participating in the race to produce solar storage batteries . The large participation of many large companies will bring breakthroughs in technology and cost, making battery storage a familiar item in every home.

These "big " capacity storage batteries will be the key to making clean energy a viable option for everyone, especially consumers - after all, you will use most electrical appliances in the evening.

The ability to produce and store solar electricity is being universalized, opening up a very interesting scenario: in one day, people can freely move on electric cars that run on electricity. No need to worry about costs. This will be an important driving force for us to completely replace gasoline cars that pollute with 100% clean electric cars.

There will be a day when your car costs you nothing.

Even when high-rise buildings are racing to install solar panels, office workers can fully think about the prospect of charging when sending in the tunnel / in the car park. Worries about the distance will be removed.

At the very least, you will have a cleaner city

If not able to protect the environment, electric cars still contribute to protecting human health better than before.

The undeniable benefit of electric motors is that they will not discharge CO ₂ and other toxic fumes into urban environments , which always have a very high concentration of population. The amount of dust produced by the gasoline turns into coal smoke at the site of the plant.

This scenario is still better, because it is clear that solving the problem of green trees in urban areas is much more difficult than the problem of trees in isolated areas used to build thermal power plants.

The long line of Model 3 waiters shows that we have really chosen electric cars as a solution for the future.

In short, even though today's electric cars are not really environmentally friendly as expected, they still hold the inevitable future of mankind. That is why the "soft" electric cars like the Model 3 will have a particularly important meaning: this is the opening shot of the race to a cleaner and safer future for people. There is also demand to have a supply: the initial success of Model 3 will certainly contribute to boosting the electricity industry to become more environmentally friendly to take advantage of consumer trust.

Increasingly, "clean" electricity will become cheaper and more popular. Electric cars will really become "green" cars . And that will be the biggest legacy of a car that costs just $ 35,000 like the Model 3.