Hugo Tournier weighs up the pros and cons of electric and petrol cars
This debate is regularly brought up when you need to buy a new car, or simply because you can’t decide between the two. On the internet, you will find all kinds of opinions and so it can be difficult to really understand the challenge of electric cars and their advantages and disadvantages over the combustion engine.
What are the four most important things to consider?
- Carbon footprint
For this point, the victory is obviously for the electric car. It does not emit poisonous gases, and during its life it does not contribute to the greenhouse effect.
But contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t have zero pollution. In fact, more pollution can actually be created during the construction of an electric car than in the construction of a combustion engine in order to create the battery and the other components. It needs an impressive quantity of water, and the extraction of lithium for the battery is a really long process which releases harmful gases, in addition to the devastation left by the mining.
However, in terms of emissions, it can’t be denied that an electric car is two to six times less polluting than a combustion engine vehicle.
- Cost
A new electric car is often really expensive because of many factors: the technology for the suppression of the gearbox, the battery which is ensured for eight years, the more expensive parts for the production…the list goes on!
The combustion engine is definitively the winner in terms of cost for buying a new car, because it costs between £15,000 and £30,000 against £20,000 for an entry level electric car and £90,000 for the best.
However, cost is not the only factor; the money you use to operate your vehicle is also important. Currently, to drive 60 miles with a combustion engine, you will have to pay around £15 against only £5 for an electric car. The disadvantage? In some parts of the countryside, you’ll be lucky to find a charging station! Although this is set to change quite rapidly but we are not there yet.
And with an electric car, you will also need plenty of time because to fully charge your battery can take between forty five minutes and three hours, depending on the model of your vehicle and the charging station.
- Maintenance
Both types of vehicles need regular checks, but it’s a little bit more complex for the combustion engine because there are more parts and fine-tuning. But with a little bit of training and basics in mechanics, you can solve some of the problems by yourself but this is much more difficult for an electric car given the nature of the parts.
- Noise emissions
Electric cars are totally silent, so much better than a combustion engine car for this point, but it is also more dangerous because you can’t hear them coming.
This absence of noise has been so problematic that the major brand car companies have created a simulator of the noise that a combustion engine makes for battery-powered cars. For some of us, this is proof that sometimes there is nothing better than the sweet purr of a Porsche and the roar of a BMW…
For the passionate car enthusiast like me, it is difficult to dethrone the combustion engine. Go out and look at all its wonders: marvel at the Jaguar XK 120 which was created three years after the Second World War, with a top speed of up to 120mph; be dazzled by the 007 James Bond’s car, the Aston Martin DB5; appreciate the practicality combined with beauty of the Mini Cooper.
The combustion engine will remain forever in our memory. It will soon be the hour of the electric world with electric cars, necessary to help save our Earth… But there are many other urgent important things to do to save the environment right now. Leave us a little more of this pleasure…
