If you don’t live under a rock, you probably know that electric cars are here. Most major automakers already are selling them or will start selling them in the near future. Batteries that are cheaper, store more energy, and charge faster have finally made it a practical proposition and batteries will only get better in the future.
The benefits of this usually focus on climate change and conserving oil and those are great, but what is not appreciated is just how much better driving and owning a car will be when it runs on electricity. We will see internal combustion for what it is; a noisy, heavy, expensive, unreliable, bulky, and inefficient way to drive a car that we only use because gasoline is able to store far more energy than our batteries until recently.
Here is what we can expect (I’m not talking about today’s electrics which still have many bugs to work out, but what I believe will happen in about 10 or 15 years)
-ICEs turn most of their power into heat, only 20% of the energy in gasoline makes it to the wheels. Electric motors are 90% efficient, you will spend far less on electricity for your car than you did on gas. Electric cars can easily get the equivalent of 100 mpg. They will use so little fuel that we simply will stop caring about their costs. No more hypermiling, no more obsessing about tire pressure, and no more shame about driving a giant SUV.
-Electric motors have no valves, pistons, fuel injectors, or air intake. Because they produce huge amounts of torque, they don’t even need a transmission. And since they don’t produce so much heat, they require a much less complicated cooling system. This will make electric cars more reliable and, once battery costs fall, cheaper to build. This will also mean less depreciation.
-The electric motor takes up much less space. Tesla takes advantage of this by giving their cars 2 trunks. This will free up stylists and engineers.
-Putting in all wheel drive is a much simpler affair with no heavy space hogging driveshaft. You just put motors on both axles.
-Electric motors produce virtually no noise or vibration. The economy car of tomorrow will be as smooth and quiet as today’s Rolls Royces.
-You will no longer need to change out spark plugs, air filters, oil or even brake pads. Your standard hydraulic brakes will only be used for emergency stops, regenerative brakes will be used for most normal driving. That also means your wheels will not get covered in brake dust anymore.
Beyond the environmental benefits, you will find that electric motors are superior in every single way to internal combustion. The current Rube Goldberg method of powering our cars will be chucked into history and we will move smoothly and silently into a better future of electric cars.