Chase Harmon

Dr. Mitchell
UWRT 1101-003
20 February 2018
Are Electric cars the Wave of the Future?

Ewing, Jack. “What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the World.” New York
Times. 18 December 2017. Business Day. Web. 21 February 2018.

I found an article from the New York Times written by Jack Ewing listing some of the

reasons why electric cars cannot become our norm for automobiles yet. The reasons he

listed were: the cost of building motors and components will have to decrease, there must

be a steady, affordable supply of the resources to make the batteries, more charging

stations will need to be built and they will need to charge faster, drivers will need to ditch

the feel and sound of gas powered vehicles, and the car industry will have to leave some

of its old habits in the past. Everyone of these points was backed up with fact and

statistics supporting his case. Ewing talked about how to make a car battery to power an

electric car in mass quantities, cobalt, lithium, and graphite will need to be mined in

excess. However, these elements are not as easy to find as that of oil. Another issue we

face when dealing with the conversion to electric cars is the amount of time it takes to

charge the cars battery and how abundant charging stations will be. Edwin Stafford took

his family through California in his Tesla S but had to plan out his stops to charge his car

along the way. The Tesla S can travel about 190 miles compared to an average of 435

that a conventional gas car can travel. This means more frequent stops and longer trips;

which people will not want to do. Once you stop however, there is the time needed to

charge your car, yet another problem facing electric car manufacturers. Ewing went on to
 explain more about the various topics presented in his article, all of which I can use in the

forming of my argument. This article is extremely beneficial to me because it provides

statistics and a lot of evidence to support the idea that we are not ready for electric cars as

humans. This popular source, the New York Times, can be used as one of my sources and

provide me with plenty of information in forming my argument.

Farrell, John. “Report: Choosing the Electric Avenue- Unlocking Savings, Emissions
Reductions, and Community Benefits of Electric Vehicles” Institute for Local Self-
Reliance, 7 June 2017, https://ilsr.org/report-electric-vehicles/

This article strongly supports the idea of electric cars because they save people money,

they reduce emissions released into the atmosphere and they benefit the community.

John Farrell directs the Energy Democracy initiative at the Institute for Local Self-

Reliance and he develops tools that allow communities to take charge of the future, as

well as transition to renewable energy. Farrell is a strong believer in the idea that electric

cars will benefit our society and open new doors for Americans, as well as all humans

that we never thought of. Farrell explains and provides detailed evidence on how much

money the average American spends on service bills and gas for their vehicles and simply

changing to electric vehicles will take care of this issue. He found that the average

American would save up to $10,000 a year simply by getting rid of gas powered vehicles.

Farrell also stands behind the idea that electric cars will benefit the environment and

every community. Simply by switching to electric, cars will no longer pollute the air, and

they will be using renewable energy that is safer and more abundant than petrol. Another

benefit to electric cars is that the energy created by the electric batteries can power a

house during a power outage or in a time of need. This article is from the Institute for
 Local Self-Reliance and is a credible site that will help me form an argument for a future

of electric cars as well as show charts and graphs backing up the benefits to switching to

an all-electric vehicle.

“Paul Brian Discusses the Future of the Electric Car Industry.” YouTube, uploaded by CGTN
America, 14 October 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrx5PhBwm6w

Paul Brian is an automotive analyst that explains how in today’s world, only 2% of the

consumers demand electric cars. He describes how this number has not risen since the

big push for electric cars in 2006, and states that car manufacturers are pushing electric

cars too much. Brian states that consumers are not entirely sold on electric cars, backed

up by the idea that only 2% of people demand them, and that car companies are trying to

follow an “agenda” of getting electric cars into the economy instead of basing everything

on the consumers. He also talks about how there are over 200 electric car manufacturers

in China in 2016, and it looks like they will be the first to institute all electric cars.

However, this will not solve the pollution issue China faces, as there are still emissions

released from electric cars that will pollute the air. This article is beneficial to my

research because it shows someone who deals with the car industry daily, and how he has

the “inside scoop” of the future of electric cars. This article is on the side that electric

cars are not the future as of now because there is simply not enough demand from the

consumer.

“Tesla News- Elon Musk about Electric Cars and Gasoline Cars- CNN News.” YouTube,
uploaded by Tesla Fly, 10 December 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
j2zn5hyxLQI
 Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla, a completely electric car manufacturer. In this video he

explains how oil prices were at a low in 2016 and how electric cars will face issues

whenever oil prices are low. This is because people do not have a problem with buying

new cars and buying gas when oil is low, but Elon Musk is trying to change the consumer

mindset. He is looking into the future, not living in the present. Eventually we will run

out of oil and be forced to turn to renewable sources. One renewable source: electric.

Electric is a source that can be generated in many different ways and because of that,

electric will always be around. Tesla is trying to change the way consumers see cars

along with other companies such as Nissan and Toyota. The goal for Elon Musk and

Tesla is to make electric cars the future and to save our world from using up non-

renewable resources. I can use this article to my advantage because it is a primary source

coming directly from the CEO of Tesla. These are his direct words and comments that I

will be able to use in evaluating if electric cars are out future.

Van Doren, Peter. “Electric Cars.” Regulation, Winter, Vol. 35, p. 61, 2012. Cengage Learning,
Inc. ISNN: 0147-0590.

This article from Peter Van Doren is a peer reviewed article posted in his 2012 edition of

Regulation. He is a senior fellow and editor for Cato Institute and is the writer of a

quarterly journal on housing, land, energy, the environment, transportation and labor.

Van Doren spoke in his article about how the carbon output from electric cars is more

than a conventional gas-powered car. He broke down the carbon output into kilowatts

per hour and concluded that electric cars produce more emissions than a gas-powered car.

He talked about how electric cars can get away with saying they produce “less emissions”

because they cannot go as far on one charge as comparable gas cars. Electric cars can run
 a maximum 500 miles on one charge compared to a gas car that gets 31 miles per gallon

of gas, which in the end gets people further. Van Doren provided me with plenty of facts

that can be used in my project that relate directly to the argument that “electric cars are

not the wave of the future.” Through his article I can form solid background knowledge

through facts that will help me when it comes to the time of picking a side to my

argument. This article is also beneficial because it is a peer reviewed article that is from

a scholarly source and will fill one of the requirements for my annotated bibliography.

Watkins, Matthew. “Why Don’t Electric Cars look like the Future?” The Conversation, 9
January 2018, https://theconversation.com/why-dont-electric-cars-look-like-the-future-
89388

Matthew Watkins is a Senior Lecturer in Product Design at Nottingham Trent University

and backs the side that electric cars do not look like the future for now. Watkins explains

how to go to a completely electric car right now would result in an immense loss of

money over the past century. The amount of time and money put into cars to make them

more aerodynamic and ergonomic would all be thrown away. The idea of taking a car

from running on gas to running off electric defeats the purpose and time spent on making

vehicles aerodynamic and would in the end cost the United States and the world lots of

money. Watkins also talks about how consumers see electric cars looking like that of

“Tron” rather than an average car, and because of this will not show as much interest as

manufacturers would hope. There is also a problem with safety, states Watkins, because

cars have been developed and made safer and heavier over the years and to get the most

out of electric cars, they would have to become lighter resulting in less safety features.

Matthew Watkins has a PhD in Sustainable Design and Education and his research
concerns sustainability in relation to cars and the automotive industry. This source will

be useful to me because it provides information against electric cars taking over the car

industry and gives information on how consumers feel as of now about electric cars.

Watkins also describes the details of safety and aerodynamics to show how electric cars

as of now, will not be the future for cars, which will help me when I must pick a side to

follow.