The State Of Play
Hydrogen fuel cells, biofuel, etc. are all excellent alternatives other than the lithium-powered cars we have today. Graphene, a carbon compound which has nearly twice the energy density of lithium is being developed. But it is not mainstream yet, so aren’t the other aforementioned alternatives. And that’s really why electric cars make sense for today. They are certainly greener than internal combustion engines but are not as the other ways we can go about powering the wheels of a car.
The charging technology is not so good. How much ever you try, batteries need time to charge up. While companies have tried to minimise this time, they can’t make it as fast as just filling up a tank! This speed also hurts the age of the battery pack, which would lead to more replacements, more thousands of battery cells used!
The disposal of these cars is also not easy. The batteries need to be recycled properly. This means that they can’t just be left to decay, like many cars in junkyards. Cars are no more just metal, they have many environmentally concerning items inside of them that need safe disposal. We need to take proper care when doing so, as these chemicals present in these batteries should not come in contact with moisture or any organic material for that matter. Proper disposal services need to be initiated by the manufacturers or aggregators.
