Tomorrow’s Vehicles

Environmentally Sound

Displacing gasoline with electricity lowers emissions and decreases petroleum use.

The electric vehicle advocacy group “Plug In America” has compiled a summary of more than 40 studies, analyses, and presentations that show the significant environmental improvements associated with using electricity from today’s power grid rather than gasoline.  (Remember that today’s power grid is nearly half fueled by coal!)

Additionally, the use of electricity for vehicles has potential to significantly reduce our nation’s reliance on petroleum based fuels.  According to the Electric Power Research Institute, on a typical day half of all drivers log 25 miles or less. Electric vehicles – if widely adopted by those short distance drivers – could reduce petroleum fuel consumption by 70 percent to 90 percent.

There is already ample electricity generating capacity to serve a large fleet of electric vehicles. Because the vehicles mostly charge at night when demand for electricity is lower, the efficiency of electricity generation actually improves. The existing electrical grid’s off-peak capacity for power generation is sufficient to power 73 percent of commutes to and from work by cars, light trucks, SUVs, and vans without building a single new power plant if people drive plug-in hybrids, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. In addition, the existing nighttime electricity could be stored in plug-in vehicles and retrieved during peak-demand hours through vehicle-to-grid technology for use by the grid, helping to meet society’s daytime power needs.