Electric car

A electric car is a Automobile driven by one or more electrical motors.

The source of electricity for the engines was in the beginning a Accumulator battery. Perhaps tomorrow, the combustible batteries will tend to replace them. The experimentation showed that the electrical production can also be assured by solar panels.

History

At the end of the 19th century, three modes of propulsion divided the market incipient from the motor vehicle:

the Engine spark-ignition or “petrol engine”
the Electrical motor
the Engine steam

The electric car is an unquestionable success in the last decade of the 19th century, both in Europe, and in particular in France, in the United States. They are essentially fleets of taxis for the urban service, instead of the horse hackney carriages and other cars of hirings. These cars were provided with lead-acid batteries weighing several hundreds of kilograms ; they were reloaded the night in specialized stations. However, since the principal market of the car became the private car, that one wants to be able to use at long distances, constraints of maintenance and refill strongly penalized the electric car compared to the gasoline car. The attempts of the American producers of electricity to start again this market (which made it possible to make profitable the power stations at the off-peak hours of the night) in the years previous the First World War turned short and the electric car was gradually erased automobile landscape.

Let us note however that the first car having reached the 100 kilometers per hour is an electric car, the Jamais Satisfies with the Belgian engineer Camille Jenatzy, which reaches 105,88 km/h the 1er May 1899 or, according to other sources, on April 29th 1899.

The idea of a motor vehicle with purely electric propulsion reappears at the end of the 20th century because of raising of prices of the fuel, the prospect for oil shortage and the rise of the concerns concerning atmospheric pollution.

Distribution

The electric car requires an important recasting of the delivery system of energy to become a viable alternative to the vehicles with combustion.

In the case of the accumulators, of the electrical outlets external to the houses can allow recharging but the time necessary is important. A possible solution with this problem of time of refill, is the use of batteries designed to be easily interchangeable, as it is today the case for the electronic devices or in industry (with fast change of tool). With a battery standardized (like today with the piles), the change of battery could be done quickly (at least as much as full of fuel). According to viability, this system could perhaps available in service station or only for the important fleets, as for a company of taxi, having their own point of service.

In the case of the combustible batteries, it is necessary to reconsider all the fuel delivery system to include hydrogen at the service station.

In the case of solar panels, the vehicle would be self-sufficing in sunny weather but it is more probable than it is necessary to resort to a secondary system like accumulators for a permanent availability.

Until now, very few steps were done in this field.

Ecology

The electric car is frequently presented as an effective solution to fight against the Pollution, the Greenhouse effect and rarefaction of the reserves of Pétrole due to the spark-ignition engines. However, although the engine of the electric car is specific to the direction where, contrary to the spark-ignition engine, it does not produce a Gaz with greenhouse effect, the production of the electricity consumed by the engine is not it inevitably. There exist various projections as for the means of provision of the electricity of the engine. But as well the solution of the combustible batteries as those of the accumulating S, could appear polluting.

There exist two ways of manufacturing the Hydrogène used like combustible batteries. The first is done by chemical reaction starting from oil. This reaction produces gases with greenhouse effect, and thus résoud neither the problem of the rarefaction of oil nor that of pollution. The second is done by electrolysis of water, this process not polluting (the only products of reactions are hydrogen and Oxygène) but consumes much electricity.

One thus realizes that the challenge sociétal of the clean car consists in setting up a strategy of viable ecological electric production.

Electric production and pollution

It is a question here of making a critical assessment of the various means of electric production and their impacts on ecology, in order to be able to conclude on the ecological character from the electric car. The example of the California is interesting, the governmental efforts in favor of ecology make there the car electric tempting, but California makes already vis-a-vis serious problem as for its domestic power supply. Thus puts the following questions: how can one meet the new electric energy requirement? How much powerplant? Which solution to produce this electricity properly?

the thermo plants are not a good solution since it consumes fossil energies (coal, oil, Natural gas) and produce gas with greenhouse effect. On the other hand the energetic efficiency would be better (use of less fuel) if one to compare it with consumption fossil energy (oil) of the current thermal cars, the ecological impact (gas with greenhouse effects and wasting of the resources) would be thus less.
the nuclear plants, although solving the problem of the wasting of the resources and the Climate warming, would return to the electric vehicle Co-person in charge of the harmful effects generated by atomic industry
the hydroelectric stations are also a solution from a point of view of the production of gas with greenhouse effect and the exhaustion of the fossil resources, has many environmental disadvantages (floods of areas, displacement of population, relaxation of mercury in water by decomposition of the vegetation, etc)
the solar power station photovoltaic pose a problem during the construction which has a certain considerable energy cost. Moreover, the productions of the photovoltaic cells generate a certain pollution.
the wind S are ecologically interesting, but they raise many questions as for their impacts visual and sound about the environment. Moreover they are not necessarily available in sufficient quantity.

End-of-life and recycling

Finally at the end of the lifetime, depollution and recycling, for the two systems (combustible battery and accumulators), are not ecologically neutral. The functional components must be recycled which comprises a cost as much in energy that in Recyclage of potentially polluting matters. This is more important in particular in the case of the accumulating S: Lead, Nickel and other heavy metals.

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