Electric Cars....

More and more people these days are stressing the importance of environmentally friendly products, packaging and recycling! The main new product which will be introduced into the market will be the electric car, as of 2012 there is a limited number of available electric cars because they are not essentially at the same level as a petrol based car.

Although, there is a serious amount of interest in the electric car market as can be shown by the current sales of the Nissan Leaf. Which was brought onto the market in December 2010, since then sales  have rocketed and it is said to be the best electric car on the market.

Sales of the 100-percent electric Nissan LEAF totalled 954 units in December, with deliveries totalling 9674 since the vehicle's December 2010 U.S debut. With sales exceeding 21,000 globally, the Nissan LEAF is the worlds best-selling electric car.
 (http://www.inautonews.com/us-auto-sales-nissan-sales-up-77-in-december-2011-volume-up-173)


After some research into electric cars it seems that there are a number of companies willing to develop the innovative vehicles as a result of peoples interest in reducing pollution and lowering carbon emissions.  The electric vehicle developed in Spain aspires to transform city transport, doing for electric cars what London's "Boris Bikes" had done. The idea is that local authority owns a fleet of Hiriko cars and rents them out to people who need them for a small fee. They have an inbuilt GPS system so they can be located by smart phone and can be left anywhere and the electric batteries mean they have zero emissions. 


Although the statement about emissions being reduced is true i did notice a comment on the article about the electricity being used by these cars from Wadjet (2012). Basically explained that the electricity used to recharge the batteries is used by the public electricity supply and how is that generated within the UK? The majority is generated by fossil fuels, mainly by the highest carbon fuel of all namely coal. The only real environmental advantage electric cars enjoy is that they have much smaller ranges and recharge times last several hours. So they are unable to run the same mileage a petrol car could go for. 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/17/hiriko-electric-car-social-purpose


To conclude i can see why more people are attracted to having an electric car with the constant increase of petrol prices and the attractiveness of having a car which is environmentally friendly, although with the electric costs and the need for recharging often puts doubts into my mind as to whether they are really worth it....


References


Website: Hiriko Electric Car Social Purpose
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/17/hiriko-electric-car-social-purpose
[Internet] Accessed 14/01/12


Website: US Auto Sales Nissan
http://www.inautonews.com/us-auto-sales-nissan-sales-up-77-in-december-2011-volume-up-173, [Internet] Accessed 14/01/12