Introduction
An increase in the negative impact on the environment accompanies the development of traditional road transport. During the combustion of petroleum fuel, about two hundred different harmful substances are formed in internal combustion engines. Given the current environmental problems, a potential solution is to use cars powered by gas or electricity rather than gasoline. However, electric cars have a significant number of advantages over gas ones. Therefore, they are the key to an environmentally friendly future.
Comparison
A common feature of gas and electric vehicles is the breadth of the range of new cars on these types of fuel. Approximately the same number of manufacturers represents these segments of the automotive market. Currently, electric vehicles for every taste are offered on the market: hybrid, charged by an internal combustion engine (HEV), hybrid with the possibility of charging from the mains (PHEV), purely electric (EV), fuel cell (FCV). Most gasoline-powered cars can be converted to gas fuel. In addition, gas and electric vehicles’ engines work more smoothly. This advantage is felt when choosing high-quality gas and electricity as the car’s fuel.
At the same time, refueling is a problem for electric and gas vehicles. The key problem of switching to gas–engine and electric fuel is creating a refueling and service infrastructure. Due to the lack of gas stations, cars are forced to make idle runs. At the same time, the network of gas-filling compressor stations is growing slowly due to the small number of methane-powered and electric vehicles and the low demand for this fuel. There are few electric or gas stations, and finding a gas station with methane or electricity is especially a big problem. It is easy to charge a car only in large cities, and there are no charging stations between cities.
In addition, the engines of both an electric car and a gas-powered car have a minimum number of structural elements. This reduces the risk of damage to parts and the engine itself. However, using gas and electricity as motor fuel poses many serious technical problems. In particular, the engine power is reduced, and problems are starting the engine in the cold season.
Contrast
Despite all the advantages of gas-powered cars, the main one is efficiency; they have drawbacks. The first of these disadvantages is the explosion hazard, which electric machines lack. This disadvantage concerns, first of all, the propane-butane mixture. Both components belong to the second class of sensitivity of combustible substances. At the same time, electricity belongs to the class of insensitive substances, which makes it an even safer fuel than gasoline, which is familiar to motorists. Another disadvantage is the loss of power by a car converted to gas-powered fuel. Along with fuel costs, the owner’s enjoyment of management is also reduced. At the same time, filling the car with electricity is more profitable for the motorist.
Electric cars have one severe advantage over gas cars. Their main advantage over all other machines is that they have zero emissions. Volkswagen recently announced the abandonment of cars powered by natural gas and is focusing on producing electric vehicles. This is because the company’s gas-powered cars will not be able to meet the new environmental standards shortly. Thus, electric cars, unlike gas-powered cars, are environmentally friendly.
Although electric vehicles do not have the problem of environmental pollution, there is another problem for them – the problem of battery disposal. At this stage, this is the most urgent challenge for the industry since batteries do not allow electric vehicles to be considered environmentally friendly transport to the end. However, it is only a matter of time – at this stage, there are various ways to reuse spent batteries, the duration of use of which also increases with the advent of new technologies. In particular, Tesla recently announced batteries capable of traveling almost 2 million kilometers. Therefore, unlike gas cars, environmental pollution from electric vehicles will be minimal.
Conclusion
Thus, the future belongs to electric transport, the energy for which will be obtained from renewable sources. Using gas as a motor fuel does not fundamentally solve the environmental problem in transport and is only an intermediate stage in the evolution of vehicles. Creating another costly gas-engine infrastructure besides the existing liquid fuel filling and service infrastructure is impractical.
The course on gasification of transport is strategically unpromising, so it does not receive a new quality of development for the field of ecology. Gas cars do not provide zero emissions, the efficiency of their engines has structurally reached its limit, and it is unnecessary to expect an energy-efficient green future from them. Progress in electricity generation from renewable sources and energy storage has determined the course of transport development – in the future, it should be electric-powered.