Government Incentives to Electric Vehicle Producers and Purchasers

Chapter 6, “The Burden of History: Expectations Past and Imperfect” from Kirsch’s book, The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History, focuses on the problem of automobiles in the modern day. Kirsch states that internal combustion engines release greenhouse gasses, which harm the environment. Each individual contributes to air pollution

Every day, millions of Americans turn on the engines of their cars and drive to school or work. What these people do not realize is that the vehicles they operate greatly pollute the planet. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent website post, “Environmental Impacts from Automobiles”,

The authors reveal the “desperate delusion that alternative fuels can solve the ecological catastrophe that is the private car”. Corn-based ethanol produces more CO2 than oil-based petrol “if all the energy used in the growth phase is properly accounted for”. Corn-as-fuel also takes up five times more land than corn-as-food. Using hydrogen or electricity to power US cars would need more dirty coal as an energy source. Either that or an area as large as the state of Massachusetts for solar panels, or New York State for wind turbines, or 200 new nuclear energy plants. (Mugyenyi and Engler, 2010, p.106-113) “There is no such thing as a green car,” the authors conclude. “Unsustainable” would barely describe the car’s environmental failure if the rest of the world were to adopt US patterns of car ownership and driving behavior (Mugyenyi and Engler, 2010, p.114).

Climate change is a threat that has been in existences for years, but appears to be a greater threat to the world currently. According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there is more than 90 percent certainty that emissions of heat-trapping gases from human activities have caused “most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century” (IPCC, 2007).

The idea of climate change, for many, is an opinionated subject with much discussion of whether it is a real issue or just a natural phenomenon. However in recent years it is clear to see that trends in the Earth’s climate and surface temperature has spiked to levels never seen before. Despite all the evidence of the high levels of greenhouses gases and the rise in temperature, many still believe that

Akio Toyoda, the founder of the car company Toyota Incorporated, once said “Automobiles are the pinnacle of human transportation. The percentage of families across the world who own cars have reached new heights in the past decade. Multiple families now have an easier form of transportation than walking or taking an overcrowded bus. For that reason, I am happy with what I do.” Akio Toyoda is right for saying so. The usage of automobiles increases by 150% since the past decade as more consumers look towards faster and cheaper methods of transportation. The increase in usage brings many concerns to well-minded citizens, specifically concerns regarding the environment and the conservation of energy. In order to tackle the problem locally, multiple

Former President of the United States, Barack Obama, once said that “No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.” In fact, scientific evidence for climate change is undeniable and the effects of climate change are beginning to be felt all around the world (“Global Climate Change”). Furthermore, evidence to support these claims for climate change can be found anywhere from the tops of mountains to ice cores drawn from the bottom of the earth. For these reasons, the causes, effects, and solutions of climate change need to be understood, so that all people of the next generation still have a suitable habitat to live in.

Historically, The United State had invented the steam engine and began using automobile long before 1896 when Henry Ford build the first car. Since then, the country has undergone series of dramatic changes affecting the automobile industry politically, economically, technologically, and socio-culturally, including series of global and environmental challenges. These environmental challenges facing the industries can be acknowledged in the following areas:

The automobile has been in America and has helped it for many years but as time goes by it seem to be doing more harm than well. From contributing to extreme stress to harming the environment the once “freeing” car is seeming more and more like a chain holding us down.

Electric vehicles today are promoted as the precursor to an environmentally cleaner future. At the same time these vehicles are stylish and high performance, however they can be very expensive. Which means they are not attractive to the penniless, but only to the environmentally committed rich. Those who own an electric vehicle might brag to their families, friends, strangers about their sacrifice for the world, however, are they really making a sacrifice? The answer is “no”. In reality, today's electric vehicle is trading one environmental problem for the other. It doesn't matter if the vehicle itself does not release carbon dioxide while it's running; an electric vehicle is as clean as its power grid. Since most of the united states electricity

This report will focus on the environmental challenges that the American automobile industry is facing today. First, we will discuss global competition for American automobile manufacturers. Next, we will look at new technologies that are revolutionizing the automobile industry. Then, we will consider the effect of automobile emissions on the environment and what the US government is doing to try to regulate this. Finally, we will discuss consumer opinions about the “American-made” automobile.

Climate change; the two words that have sparked controversy across the media in recent decades, has been highlighted as one of the greatest environmental threat to humanity in the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). With the current warming of the climate considered as “unequivocal”, the report drew attention to the numerous consequences, future projections, and how the expected impacts could be potentially alleviated. This new report has brought back the issue of climate change and global warming to the forefront of public and political debate, asking the question: is climate change real and should we really care?

For over one hundred years, people have been driving automobiles nearly everywhere they go. From the grocery store, to work, to school, cars are used as transportation all around the world. However, many people have been asking themselves the same pressing question: Is the modern-day car still beneficial, or does it hurt us more than help us? The answer is clear. Today’s automobile is no longer worth the cost to our bills, the risk to our lives, or the damage to our environment.

The American Auto industry has matured over several decades and is one of the best auto industries in the world. However, like any other industry, it is fraught with many environmental challenges that include Political and Regulatory challenges, fierce global competition from other auto manufacturers, rapid advancement of technologies for powering the products in this industry, as well as challenges from stemming from consumer opinions about their products.

Since the industrial revolution, the environment has gotten contaminated with carbon dioxide, the product of any combustion reaction. For many years a lot of improvement has been made in order for big industries to release less harmful gases to the atmosphere. Since 2012 the number of electric cars roaming around the world have quadrupled. This growth is linked to subsidies offered by different governments in order to reduce greenhouse gas emission. These cars are popular in many places like Norway, Quebec, and California. Recent ads suggest shifting to these cars due to their “zero emission feature”, since they run on electricity, their engine doesn’t have a combustion reaction and no carbon dioxide gets released. While it’s true that the act of driving one of these cars doesn’t contaminate the environment, there’s other factors to consider for if this transition is really all that beneficial like the media claims.