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Electric Cars Getting Cheaper | Earth Wise

April 12, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Electric cars are getting cheaper

A sticking point for buying electric cars has always been that they are typically more expensive than equivalent gasoline-powered cars.  But increasing competition, government incentives, and falling prices for lithium and other battery materials is changing the equation.  In fact, the tipping point when electric cars are as cheap or even cheaper than internal combustion cars is likely to happen this year for many cars and, in fact, has already happened for some.

Battery production is ramping up for Tesla, General Motors, Ford, and others, creating cost savings from mass production. Companies manufacturing batteries in the United States are receiving government subsidies as part of a drive to establish a domestic supply chain and reduce dependence on China.  Before anyone cries foul, it should be noted that globally, oil companies received a trillion dollars in subsidies last year.  The Inflation Reduction Act is making it cheaper for automakers to build electric cars (provided they do it in the United States using US materials) and cheaper for consumers to buy them because of tax credits.

Multiple companies have lowered the price of their electric vehicles in recent months, including both the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, which are the best-selling electric cars in the United States. GM’s electric Equinox crossover will start at about $30,000, which is still about $3,400 more than the gas-powered version.  But once the electric vehicle tax credit is figured in, it will actually be cheaper.

Electric cars are already cheaper to own and operate because of the much lower cost of powering with electricity instead of gas as well as the greatly reduced maintenance costs for the vehicles.  Once the purchase price of these cars is less than that of gas-powered cars, the economics becomes a no-brainer.

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Electric Vehicles Could Match Gasoline Cars on Price This Year

Photo, posted May 11, 2021, courtesy of Chris Yarzab via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Contrails And Climate Change

September 6, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The white wispy trails of condensation produced by the exhaust from aircraft engines have been the subject of a popular conspiracy theory for quite a while.  The story goes that the long-lasting condensation trails are actually “chemtrails” composed of chemical or biological agents left in the sky by aircraft and are intentionally sprayed for a variety of nefarious purposes undisclosed to the general public.  This story, of course, is nonsense.

But while contrails are not deliberate efforts to modify weather, control population, manipulate psychology, or any of the other bizarre things attributed to them, it turns out that they are having unfortunate effects on the climate.

It turns out that contrails are creating an often-invisible thermal blanket of cloud across the planet that has a significant effect on atmospheric temperatures.  Contrails are essentially human-made clouds that form above 25,000 feet where the air is moist and colder than -40 degrees Celsius.  At times, contrails stick around in the sky, either as tight, white lines like chalk marks, or by spreading to create thin layers of ice clouds.  At any one time, contrail-created clouds cover more than half a percent of global skies.

Research has shown that when contrails are around, nighttime temperatures can go up appreciably.  After 9/11, when all U.S. flights were grounded for three days, the difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures actually increased by about 3 degrees Fahrenheit because nights were cooler.

The effects of aviation on climate, both from the CO2 emissions from aircraft engines and from these contrail effects are becoming an increasingly important issue. To complicate matters further, as aircraft engines become more efficient, they will create more, whiter, and longer-lasting contrails.

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How Airplane Contrails Are Helping Make the Planet Warmer

Photo, posted May 15, 2012, courtesy of Mike Lewinski via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

More Power From The Sun’s Heat

November 29, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/EW-11-29-18-More-Power-From-The-Suns-Heat.mp3

When we think of solar power, we usually are talking about the panels that generate electricity using the photovoltaic effect.  These panels are on millions of rooftops around the world and in utility-scale solar farms.   There are also solar water heating systems that use the sun’s heat to provide hot water for homes and businesses.

[Read more…] about More Power From The Sun’s Heat

European Diesel Under Siege

June 5, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/EW-06-05-18-European-Diesel-Under-Seige.mp3

Diesel cars have never been very popular in the US and in the aftermath of the so-called Dieselgate scandal at Volkswagen, they are even less so.  Less than a dozen diesel car models are available for purchase in the US and only one of those is from a German automaker: BMW.

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The Changing Face Of Air Pollution

March 21, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/EW-03-21-18-The-Changing-Face-of-Air-Pollution.mp3

Air pollution in cities is a global problem that has reached crisis proportions in places like China and India.   In our country, since the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970, there has been a great deal of effort exerted in controlling pollution from vehicles.  A combination of pollution-limiting changes to engines, fuels, and pollution control systems has significantly reduced the amount of air pollution associated with the transportation sector.

[Read more…] about The Changing Face Of Air Pollution

Coffee Power

January 3, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/EW-01-03-18-Coffee-Power.mp3

The residents of London are known for tea drinking, but in fact each of them consumes an average of 2.3 cups of coffee a day as well.  But now, it won’t just be commuters that are running on coffee in the morning.  London buses will in part run on oil produced from coffee grounds.

[Read more…] about Coffee Power

China And Electric Cars

December 19, 2017 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/EW-12-19-17-China-and-Electric-Cars.mp3

While American politicians were voting on eliminating tax credits for buyers of electric vehicles, auto executives from around the world were gathering to make ambitious plans to sell more electric cars in China.

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Energy From Evaporating Water

November 17, 2017 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/EW-11-17-17-Energy-from-Evaporating-Water.mp3

Researchers at Columbia University have demonstrated a potential new energy harvesting technique based on the natural evaporation of water.   Every day, vast amounts of water evaporate from the surfaces of lakes and rivers, a process powered by the heat energy of the sun.   The amount of energy involved is enormous but generally speaking is not something we can tap into.

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Lawnmower Pollution

October 25, 2017 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/EW-10-25-17-Lawnmower-Pollution.mp3

Over 50 million Americans mow their lawns each week, which uses 800 million gallons of gas per year and produces tons of air pollutants.  Garden equipment engines were completely unregulated with respect to emissions until the late 1990s and still emit high levels of carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and nitrogen oxides.  In fact, gas mowers and their relatives like leaf blowers and edgers produce 5% of the air pollution in this country.

[Read more…] about Lawnmower Pollution

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