Electric cars: advantages and disadvantages
One of the clear advantages is zero emissions when using an electric vehicle.
Also on the list of benefits, we include the lower price of electricity compared to diesel or gasoline, but also the bonuses that states are willing to grant to those who buy such a vehicle. Reduced noise pollution is another advantage that not only benefits the owner but the entire community.
Because electric cars use fewer moving parts, periodic overhauls will result in lower maintenance costs throughout their lifetime.
The high purchase price is still a disadvantage of electric cars. Even with government bonuses, such a model ends up costing more than an equivalent diesel or petrol car.
In recent years, the charging infrastructure has developed a lot. The European Union proposes a series of projects to support the installation of stations for recharging electric cars, but even so, the number of public sockets is not high.
As for the infrastructure for hydrogen-based fuel cell electric cars, it is almost non-existent, with few operating points at the European level.
Although there have been major improvements in autonomy in recent times, electric cars still cannot cover distances comparable to those of diesel or gasoline cars. For this reason, many of the electric models are seen as cars intended for urban use on short and medium distances.
If in the case of cars with internal combustion engines the refueling takes place in just a few minutes, in the case of electric models you have to allocate more time for recharging the batteries. At a household outlet, you will wait up to 9-10 hours, depending on the battery capacity, while at a high-power station (50 kW, 100 kW), charging up to 80% of the battery capacity takes less than an hour.
The actual use of an electric car does not generate emissions, but the manufacturing process of the car, the production of the batteries, the generation of electricity from non-renewable sources, and the recycling of the batteries can make the CO2 footprint balanced until the end of the life cycle. However, in recent years, several officials of major vehicle construction companies have announced that clear targets have been set for the companies they run to become carbon neutral.