Green Cars Not So Green - Essay Example

How much truth lies behind claims that such cars are good for everyone? According to recent studies, there are very few reasons to purchase what has become known as environmentally friendly cars, which turn out to be anything but environmentally friendly.

For years, electric vehicles have been lauded as the savior of so-called global warming, natural resource depletion and apocalyptic pollution, but nothing could be further from the truth. There are multiple reasons why government and car manufacturer claims about EVs’ superiority are fallacies. A widely publicized study reports that electric vehicles have limited range (often under 100 miles); long charge times (up to 20 hours); limited charge stations (gas stations outnumber them 10 to 1); an exorbitant price (even with a $7,500 tax credit, the Volt EV costs $14,000 more than the comparable Cruze gas vehicle); when factoring in manufacturing and disposal, EVs contribute to more pollutants than gas vehicles; government endorsement over-values EVs, promoting unaccountability and poor quality; and electric cars have been a repeated failure for 180 years, as gas has proven to be more efficient and easily accessible than electricity with regards to cars (Adams 2011). All of these strikes against electric vehicles go to show that these cars have only been a vehicle to extract money from gullible, undiscerning, or politically motivated consumers.

Hybrid cars, which run on a combination of gas and electricity, have also been proven to be a hoax when it comes to their environmental and financial benefits. But what about their touted excellent gas mileage that supposedly saves thousands with today’s high gas prices? It is reported that gas prices “would have to approach $8 a gallon before many of the cars could be expected to pay off in the six years an average person owns a car,” (Bunkley 2012). A person purchasing Nissan’s hybrid Leaf ─ over the comparable gas-powered Versa ─ would have to drive it for nine years at today’s gas prices before seeing any savings ─ after paying a $10,000 higher price tag for the hybrid. Just as with EVs, the promises behind hybrids’ superior technology and better fuel economy do not pan out, as their “new” engineering proves to be more detrimental to the environment than their gas-engine counterparts, which are also much more economical.

Yet, when it comes down to it, consumers purchase hybrid cars not because of their proven benefits, but because of the social and politically correct pressure to drive what is considered a smart and environmentally friendly car, as opposed to a “stupid” and environmentally hazardous gas guzzler. However, the misinformation and manipulative effectiveness of the green agenda has seen sales of hybrids increase by 60 percent this year, which now accounts for three percent of total auto sales in the United States. In Japan, on the other hand, hybrid sales have decreased with the economic hardships brought upon by the massive 9.0 earthquake and tsunami last year, and the continued economic woes in the United States could trigger a similar trend, especially as more studies are exposing the fraudulent claims and deceitful endorsement of green vehicles by car manufacturers and governments alike.

Buying electric vehicles and hybrid cars are proving to be not all that they are cracked up to be as more and more research divulges the truth that such automobiles do not deliver environmentally or economically, yet many of today’s consumers, who have been conditioned and indoctrinated with environmentalism for decades through the media and school system, continue to buy into the movement. With figures consistently indicating that these cars cut pollution as little as they cut costs, one has to conclude that the prime motivation behind this green movement is profit, as the government and auto industry exploits an impressionable public sector to get them to pay top dollar for a product with little return.

The increased hazardous waste that must be disposed of, as well as the higher amount of energy ─ and resulting pollutants ─ used to produce the heavy battery packs of “environmentally friendly cars makes them merely a choice of status today ─ not one of financial and environmental accountability. Therefore, it is clear to see that hybrids and electric vehicles are not for good stewards of the earth and finances; they are for those wanting to make a political statement for the green agenda. Read More