1. Electric Cars vs.
Gas Cars
BY GREYSON HOBBS

2.  This graphic illustrates the main
differences between gas and electric
cars. It shows that while gas powered
engines produce greenhouse gases and
pollution, electric cars have no tailpipe
emissions. The fuel used for gas cars
comes from OPEC and is a non-
renewable resource, as opposed to
electric cars that get their fuel from utility
companies. Even though electric cars
do save you 10 cents per mile, they take
almost eight times as long to refuel, and
go less than a third of the distance of
gas cars.

3.  While gas cars can save you money in
the short term, electric cars save a lot
more money in the long run. Based on
this graphic, it costs around 2,100
dollars to fuel a gas car the first year
you own it. A solar electric car on the
other hand, cost 8,000 dollars for the
first year to initially buy the solar panels.
Then after fifty years of owning the cars,
the gas car cost 275,000 dollars
throughout the life of the vehicle. The
electric car; however, only totaled at
12,000 dollars.

4.  Driving a gasoline car can cause you to spend a large amount of money on
fuel for the car. Depending on the miles per gallon of the vehicle you could
spend hundreds of dollars on fuel just for one month. Even though some gas
cars can get thirty or more miles per gallon, they still use over a hundred dollars
worth of gas a month.

5.  This graphic compares electric vehicles
to both fully gas powered vehicles and
hybrid (gas/electric) vehicles. It shows
that even though hybrid vehicles do
cost a lot less money to fuel, it does still
cost almost twice that of fully electric
vehicles. It also shows that fully gas
powered cars cost more than three
times the cost of electric vehicles, and
just under twice the cost of hybrid
vehicles.

6.  Through an experiment it was proven that
some of the electric cars that do produce
CO2 emissions have a 5.261 percent chance
of producing a higher amount of CO2
emissions than gasoline cars.
 In terms of fuel cost between gas and electric
cars, there is no comparison. Electric cars cost
much less than gas. The average price of a
gallon of regular gas is 3.863 dollars, and the
average cost of one kWh of Electricity is .1153
cents.
 Electric cars are not the cheapest in every
way however. Once every five years the
battery for an electric car, which costs
9,428.55 dollars, needs to be replaced.
 This graphic makes electric cars out to be the
more expensive of the two just because of the
battery of electric cars needing to be
replaced, but it neglects to include the cost of
maintaining a gas engine which can also be
costly.

7.  Gasoline prices have varied
greatly throughout the years,
and sometimes it has hit
prices that are almost too
high to pay. Electricity on the
other hand, has stayed within
the same general price
range. The highest electricity
has ever been was one dollar
and fifty cents, and the
lowest its been is around
ninety-five cents. The price of
gas; however, has had a
lowest price of one dollar
and twenty five cents a
gallon, and gone all the way
up to four dollars and twenty
cents a gallon.

8.  The graphic shows the estimated total
cost of ownership for different kinds of
vehicles, including: gas, diesel,
biodiesel, electric, and more. Based on
the chart, regular gas vehicles vary the
most in costs and are the only ones
effected by medium energy prices.
Diesel and Biodiesel vehicles look to be
about the same in total cost of
ownership and can vary a few
thousand dollars based on energy
prices. Electric vehicles that get a tax
credit have the lowest total cost and
are effected the least by energy
prices. Electric vehicles that do not get
a tax credit on the other hand, are
about the same total cost as some of
the regular gas vehicles, but their cost
is not effected by varying energy
prices.

9.  The graphic shows more
differences between gas and
electric vehicles. Like the first
graphic, it shows that electricity
cost about ten cents less and that
electric cars go about a third of the
distance of gas cars. This graphic
also includes the greenhouse gas
emissions of each car. Gasoline
cars emit about a pound of CO2
every mile. Electric cars that run
with electricity from coal produce
just short of that, at 0.8 pounds per
mile. Then cars that run on
electricity from renewable
resources produce zero emissions
per mile.

10.  This is an advertisement for Ford’s
line of electric, hybrid, and gas
engines. Their EcoBoost engine
runs on gasoline but claims to be
up to twenty percent more fuel
efficient than similar gas engines.
The Fusion Hybrid, runs on both gas
and electricity, and claims to get
seventy-eight percent better fuel
economy than similar four-cylinder
cars. Then they have an electric
engine that is supposed to get the
electric equivalent of one
hundred miles per gallon.

11.  This graphic shows the average cost to drive twenty-seven miles in an average
compact gas car compared to the average cost to drive an electric vehicle. The
cost to drive the gas vehicle has gone up constantly since mid 2009, but the cost
to drive the electric vehicle has stayed fairly constant for the last ten years.

12.  Environmentally, electric
cars produce zero tailpipe
emissions. Although electric
cars charged on the grid
can produce tailpipe
emissions, they emit fifty-
four percent less emissions
than regular gas vehicles.
 Regular electric cars are
not the only option as
opposed to gas cars. There
are also HEVs (Hybrid
Electric Vehicles), PHEVs
(Plug-in Hybrid Electric
Vehicles), and FCEVs (Fuel
Cell Electric Vehicles).

13.  This graphic includes a surprising
fact about the CO2 emissions
created by electric cars. It says
that concentrations of CO2 have
increased since 1960. This is
because of the means by which
people get the power for electric
cars. The power produced from
coal and other sources produces
CO2 emissions. Whereas, powering
an electric car with natural
resources, such as solar or wind
power, produces no CO2
emissions.

14.  The cost of ownership is more than just paying to buy a car. It is the cost to
maintain and fuel the vehicle as well. As displayed by this graphic, combustion
engines always cost more and more the longer that you have them. Hybrids are
right after them, and gain about a thousand dollars in additional costs per year.
Electric cars appear to be the most expensive, but they keep a fairly constant
cost. Plug-in cars, like electric, have fairly constant additional costs, but they stay
about two thousand dollars lower than electric cars.

15.  Another way to look at the
advantage of electric versus gas
cars is the efficiency of the
vehicles. Gas cars use only about
fifteen percent of fuel energy to
move the vehicle. That means that
for every two gallon of gas used,
only around a liter of it went to
moving the car. The other five and
a half liters was wasted on just
keeping the engine running.
Electric cars on the other hand
utilize eighty percent or more of
their fuel energy to move the
vehicle. So less than twenty
percent of the energy is wasted in
electric vehicles, compared to the
eighty-five percent wasted in gas
cars.

16.  This graphic is a screenshot of a calculator that compares the
average cost of a gallon of gasoline in your state and the average
cost the electric equivalent of a gallon of gas. It shows that on
average, one gallon of gasoline costs more than three times the
cost of an electric gallon of gas.

17.  This graphic takes a satiric
approach of advertising electric
cars compared to gas cars by trying
to say that you save so much
money with an electric car that it is
pretty much flowing out of the car.

18.  Due to the high population and
excessive traffic found in Los
Angeles, California, Children there
have ten to fifteen percent lower
lung capacity than children in
cleaner, less crowded cities.
Electric vehicles would greatly
reduce this problem, and improve
health for the citizens in Los
Angeles because of their much
lower emissions.
 Other than the emission
advantage of electric vehicles,
they are also almost
maintenance-free other than the
occasional battery replacement,
because they do not require the
same upkeep as gas cars.

19.  This graphic provides a great visual
representation of Carbon Dioxide
emissions in electric, hybrid, and
gasoline vehicles. It shows that there
is about a seven-hundred gram per
mile difference between the highest
emission car (Maybach 62) and the
lowest emission car (Toyota Prius).
This is a drastic difference when you
think about the fact that you could
go four miles in the Prius and still not
emit the same amount of Carbon
Dioxide as the Maybach in just one
mile.

20.  There are many ways to
compare the costs and
efficiency differences
between gas and electric
vehicles. The most direct is
fuel cost differences. In a
comparison between two
similar sized vehicles, one
electric, one gas, it showed
that the electric car only cost
two dollars and sixty-four
cents to go the same
distance as the gas car
which cost fourteen dollars
and twenty-five cents.
 It is also interesting to
compare and electric car to
electric household
appliances. A hair dryer for
example, takes fifteen hours
to use the same amount of
energy that is required to
fully charge a Nissan Leaf.

21.  This graphic takes the approach
of trying to appeal to the
viewers logical sense. It
attempts to try and get you to
question why you would think
that environmental groups
would spend their own money
to work with the majority of the
world scientists if they are not
trying to do what is best for the
environment and for everyone
else. It also attacks big oil
companies in by talking about
how they spend their
unreasonable profits to bribe
anyone who can actually stop
them from making more
money.

22.  Aside from all the previously mentioned advantages of electric cars,
it is hard to say that you would not want an electric car when these
look as awesome as they do. Other than the price tag on the three
of these, I would choose one of them over most gasoline cars any
day.

23. Sources:
 http://srpe.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/subLEAF.jpg
 http://news-archives.solarenergy-usa.com/site/gallery/ev-pics/electric-car-vs-gas-car-analysis-cost-of-driving-gas-car.jpg
 http://images.thecarconnection.com/med/gas-car-vs-solar-powered-electric-car-costs-50-years_100381539_m.jpg
 http://www.plugincars.com/sites/default/files/gas-electric-v6.gif
 http://derekbruff.org/blogs/math216/files/2012/04/Stats-Info1.png
 http://images.thecarconnection.com/med/monthly-gas-price-vs-electricity-price-in-gallon-equivalent-1976-2012-edison-electric-institute_100391293_m.jpg
 http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/images/cv/Chart-Gasoline-vs-Electric-Fuel-Costs_Full-Size.jpg
 http://news-archives.solarenergy-usa.com/site/gallery/ev-pics/electric-cars-vs-regular-cars-graphic.jpg
 http://www.snappygreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/gas_vs_electric.png
 http://i2.wp.com/cleantechnica.com/files/2013/06/electric-car-cost-vs-gas-car-cost.png
 http://leannekroll.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/ebay_1-electric.gif
 http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BF-AB161_Autohe_G_20110701183015.jpg
 http://www.altenergystocks.com/archives/Pike%20TCO%20comparison.png
 https://power2switch.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Electric-Car-vs-Gasoline-Car_Power2Switch1.png
 http://obtuseobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Fisker-Karma.jpg
 http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/50a40659ecad040f3a000007/bmw-has-2-awesome-cars-that-will-shape-the-future-of-electric-vehicles.jpg
 http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/porsche-918-spyder.jpg