Ryan McArdle
Disclaimer: This paper partially fulfills a writing requirement for first year (freshman) engineering students at The University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering.This paper is a student paper, not a professional paper. This paper is based on publicly available information and may not provide complete analyses of all relevant data. If this paper is used for any purpose other than this author’s partial fulfillment of a writing requirement for first year (freshman) engineering students at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, users are doing so at their own risk.
ENGINEERS FIGHTING GLOBAL WARMING WITH ELECTRIC CARS
Ryan McArdle ()
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Ryan McArdle
A PROBLEM THE WORLD MUST SOLVE
One of Earth’s biggest problems, to date, is global warming. Humans are emitting greenhouse gases at an alarming rate. These gases cause the Earth’s surface temperature to continuously rise. If no action is taken against this issue of emissions the problem is going to get exponentially worse and could possibly cause mass extinction in many different species. [1] Also, fossil fuels are a nonrenewable resource, meaning Earth will eventually run out. All of these issues are very complex and cannot be solved with one solution alone. Engineers are working hard to come up with many different solutions, because there is no, one right answer to this intricate problem. One of my favorite solutions is the integration of electric cars. More specially, production of cheaper and more efficient electric car batteries. These cars and batteries continue to impress me and I think it’s the best solution to combat this problem. Tesla is one of the biggest companies at the forefront of this issue. They are leading the charge, pun intended, of an all-electric car company and many other companies are following in suit. I think this company is doing amazing work and that their product is great. I have seen these cars in person and they exceed every expectation you could have in a car.
THE PROBLEM
In 2014 the United States alone emitted 15.1 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide. [2] Use of fossil fuels produced 85% of that carbon dioxide. [2] Engineers, all over the world, are working hard to create different inventions to cut back on emissions. One of the ways to lower emissions is to make electric cars available to the general public. Historically, electric cars were only available to very wealthy people with cars costing upwards of $100,000. This was a huge turn off for many people because most people do not have that kind of money to shell out for a car, especially when there are cheaper gas-powered vehicles available. Many companies make electric cars, but what makes Tesla special is their battery pack that they put into all of their cars. The Tesla’s battery pack is made up of many small batteries rather than one or two large batteries, like most other companies use. This way of dividing the batteries up has a wide variety of advantages from consistent cooling to cheaper battery packs. For example, most electric cars have one large battery that the motor uses to draw energy from. This one battery is very hard to cool because it heats up inconsistently throughout and there are hotspots. These inconsistencies are not the same in every vehicle. Tesla’s battery is made up of 7,000 cylindrical lithium ion battery cells, and all of those cells are incased in a cooling fluid creating uniform cooling. [3] This uniform cooling increases the longevity of the battery as well as making the battery more efficient. This efficiency leads to better mileage and further trips on a single charge. [3]The battery cells are connected in series, as well as, parallel connections to get the desired power output from the batteries. All of the cells are arranged in detachable modules which make repairing easier and cheaper. [3] Another reason for using many small batteries instead of a few large batteries is price. Tesla can produce their battery cells cheaply and efficiently because the technology they use for each cell is not very different from an average laptop battery. This makes Tesla one of the top, if not the top, car companies that sell all electric vehicles. Many companies are pledging to follow Tesla’s lead, and convert their companies to produce only electric cars, some as soon as 2020. [4]
PROBLEMS WITH THE SOLUTION
When people hear about electric vehicles a couple of practical questions immediately pop into their heads. Examples of these questions are; how far can I drive, how would I go on long distance trips, how much does it cost to charge my car, and how long does it take to charge. These are all valid questions and some bring up flaws with electric cars. The biggest one is the range of an electric car. An average charge will let you go 310 miles. This is comparable with an average gas-powered vehicle. The only difference is that you cannot just stop at any gas station and fill up like you can with a gas-powered vehicle. There are many Tesla charging stations throughout the country already, but they are currently spaced out very far apart. Tesla is working on making their charging stations more available to their customers by adding charging stations all over the world. [5] Another big concern is how long it takes to charge their vehicle. No one wants to get stopped and have to sit in the same place for hours at a time to let their car charge. Tesla’s engineers realized this issue early on and made the Supercharger Stations. These stations can charge 80 percent of your battery in less than a half hour. All Tesla Model S and Model X owners receive 400 kilo-Watt hours of free credit, annually. This amounts to about 1,000 miles of free driving. Electric cars, even though they have dropped in price dramatically, are still pretty expensive vehicles. I see them more as an investment. The amount of money you will save of gas and the amount you are helping the environment is priceless to me. I personally think that Tesla’s are well worth the investment. An average gas tank holds 12 gallons of gas. [6} That would cost you around $50 to fill up every time you go to the gas station. Compare that to a Tesla, which cost about $8 to fill. [5] So eventually, if you keep the Tesla long enough it will pay for itself. Tesla’s are also relatively maintenance-free vehicles. There are not nearly as many moving parts compared to a gas-powered vehicle, which means less can go wrong.
THE EFFECT OF THE SOLUTION
If every car today suddenly was converted into an electric car, emissions from cars would be cut down drastically. To produce electricity, we still use fossil fuels, coal being one of them, but it would still be better for the environment,because the rate at which we use them would go down as well. I believe that converting to all electric cars is the way of the future. I also think that if they keep improving their batteries that the market for electric cars will skyrocket, if we make this transition to electric cars it can spark a chain reaction of inventions that could cut back on emissions even more. For example,there is technology that was invented by Nikola Tesla, in the early 20th century that would allow you to charge your car as you drive down the road. [7] Another example of an innovation this may spark is solar panel roadways. [8] If we combined the three inventions of electric cars, solar panel roads, and wireless charging roads we could cut emissions from cars to zero. I know it would be a long and expensive road but I believe it would be worth the investment.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I believe that electric cars are the way of the future. Their benefits outweigh their downsides. From cutting back on emissionof greenhouse gases, to saving everyone money in the long run, to becoming more affordable to the average person. I believe that engineers should continue to focus on the electric cars batteries specially because improving them will be the deciding factor on whether electric cars become a main stream thing. I believe that Tesla is creating great products that will shape our future. Electric cars are going to be everywhere soon and I am excited to see how engineers continue to improve them to make them as cheap and as high quality as possible. I will definitely continue to follow the progress that car companies make in creating these new cars of the future. Ideas like these, are the reason why I want to become a mechanical engineer. I wholeheartedly believe that these ideas are going to change the world in a positive way, and the fact that I can be a part of it is amazing to me.
SOURCES
[1] A. Bradford. “Effects of Global Warming.” Live Science. 8.12.2017. Accessed 10.26.2017.
[2] “Climate Change Indicators: U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions”. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Accessed 10.27.2017.
[3] C. Morris. “Tesla’s Electric Vehicle Technology, Explained”. Clean Technica. 6.23.2017. Accessed 10.26.2017.
[4] B. Williams. “Here’s how every major automaker plans to go electric”. Mashable. 10.3.2017. Accessed 10.26.2017.
[5] “The World’s Fastest Charging Station”. Tesla. Accessed 10.25.2017.
[6]M. Michelle. “What Is the Average Size of an Automobile Gas Tank?”. It Still Runs. Accessed 10.27.2017.
[7] S. Ahn. “If Electric Vehicles Could Draw Power from the Streets, There’s No Telling How Far They Could Go”. Charging Up the Road. April. 2013. Accessed 10.25.2017.
[8]J. Golson. “World’s first ‘solar panel road’ opens in France”. The Verge. 12.22.2016. Accessed 10.26.2017.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Tesla, in advance, for helping me stop global warming by giving me a brand-new Model S. Also, I would like to thank my family and friends for their love and support. Lastly, I would like to thank Stranger Things for coming out and completely distracting me from this paper. I could not have done it without you all.
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