Electric cars have been becoming more common. Why are they such a big deal?

by Elliott Owlsey

Staff Writer

The following story was written by a student on the staff of The Jaguar Times as part of Hilliard Bradley High School’s Journalism Production course.

Tesla Model S is a popular electric car. Photograph by Henry Yingling.

Recently, it has been more and more common to see electric cars out on the street. Electric car companies have been making more money, and selling more cars. When you think of electric cars, lots of people think of Tesla.

Tesla has made many accomplishments such as the best selling plug-in electric car worldwide. In 2017, their Model Y achieved the highest safety rating out of any other car.

More companies have started to earn a good reputation with electric vehicles. Polestar has taken on a ‘current day’ look with their cars. They have similar capabilities to a Tesla, but they look like any other gas powered car. Polestar isn’t strictly electric. They do have older hybrid models. A hybrid is a car that has both gas and electric powered motors. Polestar was originally part of Volvo’s luxury car brand dating all the way back to 1996.

Another big company on the rise is Rivian. They have taken a more rugged approach to their vehicles. They are very outdoorsy and adventurous oriented. The R1T, their pickup truck model, has lots of storage and even a built-in kitchen.

So why aren’t people sticking with gasoline powered vehicles? A simple answer is that they are better for the environment. According to the United States EPA, about 27% of air pollution comes from cars. In other words there are 4.6 metric tons of gas emissions from cars contributing to pollution.

However, electric cars don’t have engines that put carbon monoxide into the atmosphere. Shane Borden, an engineering teacher at Hilliard Bradley High school, says “electric cars are definitely the way to go.”

He makes a good point about future advancements. “I don’t see how we can keep moving forward relying on gas powered cars, and we should start moving towards anything that uses renewable energy,” he said.

Doing that would be a very long and difficult path to take. Nathan Chittum (10) doesn’t think we will get there soon. He says “we use lots of gas powered vehicles to build these electric car factories.” A lot of the components that make an electric vehicle aren't from electric manufacturing places. Even then, the companies that make the plastic and metal components contribute to a lot of the widespread pollution.

Lots of car companies are doing what they can to help reduce emissions. Dozens are expected to only make electric or hybrid cars by 2025.