Arijit Saha                                                                                             

 

Every country is trying to make a move toward future America is no exception. Since the introduction of automobiles or any engine-powered object, it has been using gasoline. Gasoline is the prime source that powers the engines of ships, cars, planes and many more. As technology is advancing many other ways to power engines are being introduced. Electric power seems to be the most effective when it comes to replacing gasoline but it’s not that easy. Author Steve Levine does a great job highlighting the humble that the United States is taking on electric cars in the website article ”Great Battery Race.”

   

    From another source in a newspaper article by James R. Harley (Electric cars Vs. Gas cars ) he goes more in-depth with facts and statics adding to the argument of the whole future move from gas-powered cars to electric-powered cars. He provides much promising information about the topic which makes it more debatable that will electric cars be more efficient and cost-saving compared to gas-powered cars also in terms of saving the environment from the harmful gases released by gasoline engines. 

      

  From the New York Times Magazine the author Zach Wicher in his ”By air, land, and sea, travel is electrifying” takes it up a notch from just electric-powered cars. He does a very good job providing us information on that transportation by Air and Sea is also electrifying not just cars. Even if they are in their very early stages it is still safe to say that electricity is the future. It makes the debate more interesting that are electrifying our  transportation harming the environment any less than gasoline power and it is more cost-saving and efficient. 

       Author Peter Van Doren scholarly article ”Electric Cars” gives the audience the exact experience figures to determine the answer to the question Do electronic vehicle emit less carbon than a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle? 

       

 

  Author James R. Healey in his newspaper article “ Electric cars vs Gas cars “ goes more in depth comparing electric and gas cars.The genre of this article is nonfiction since the author is giving information about a specific topic. His purpose is to give the general public an idea about the two types of cars and help them make their choice. He uses an informative tone and formal language to provide the key facts and numbers regarding the comparison. So the audience of this article are the general human. “You have to hope new low-price lease deals are available, or be willing to make a higher monthly payment to get a replacement car.” This quote shows that the author is addressing the audience who are the general people and it also shows the formal language of this article. He states that “ that the power to run an electric vehicle costs only about one-third as much as the cost of gasoline to power a similar vehicle for the same distance.” This seems promising but this is not the full picture. Not every aspect is taken into consideration before making this point. It says in the article that burning coal produces electricity fast and it’s cheap to do so, but it has consequences. The author states that “It’s cheap because about two-thirds of it in the U.S. is generated by burning low-cost coal and natural gas. But coal isn’t always clean-burning, and natural gas, while cleaner, still has carbon emissions blamed for climate change.” The next point is that even though electric vehicles are a fraction cheaper than gas powered cars, electric cars are more expensive in price by a significant amount. Research shows that “The Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid, starts at $39,995. Chevy currently offers a $4,000 rebate and for those who qualify the federal government kicks in a $7,500 income tax credit subsidy”. Even so, that leaves the cheapest Volt at $28,495, or $8,605 more than the lowest-price Chevy Cruze, Volt is based, and which has more room for passengers. These research also shows the informative tone of this article. The most dominating electric car company Tesla as I mentioned before are doing great in the market but it isn’t for everyone since it’s not very affordable for a regular American. Electric cars cost more to manufacture reason being is that it is not mass production like other companies. They are not mass production yet because electric car industry is still in the super early stages. Electric powered cars are not so practical yet hence other mass production automobile companies are not making them. And as I said earlier, the few companies that are making them are not making them for the majority of the population. So electric cars are more expensive and since they are still in their early stages they will always keep improving, and these improvements will cost lots of time and money. As I quoted before producing electricity in a cost cutting way is harmful to the environment. 

      

 

  Another source Zach Wichters New York Times magazine “By land air and sea travel is electrifying”  really shows the technological advances to the general people who are the audience of this magazine article. It shows a step towards the ultimate goal of making everything electrically powered. It started as electric cars, now there are experiments and tests runs for electric planes and ships. According to the magazine Starting later this year, Hawaii’s Mokulele Airlines and its partner Ampaire, a California-based electric airplane startup, will begin testing a hybrid aircraft over Maui on the commuter route between the Kahului and Hana airports. These advancements are very promising as they say that electric planes will be commercial by 2021. It is said that these flights will cost significantly less than traditional fossil fuel driven aircrafts. Getting to electric cars again, this article focuses more on the positive arguments of electric cars. Nevada home to Tesla’s gigafactory, That state has a vision of making the interstate 95 an electric highway. Tesla has a noticeable influence in Nevada since their main factory is there that gives some companies in Nevada some commercial advantages. It states in the magazine that “along with portions of other major roadways in the state the “Electric Highway,” and is encouraging visitors to see the state by taking an emission-free road trip. Nevada is also home to the Tesla Gigafactory, which in some ways jump-started its electric vehicle efforts” Nevada got the most Tesla charging stations out of all the states which makes road trips in a Tesla very enjoyable since people don’t have to worry about running out of battery. However, all these advantages are only in Nevada not in all of the states, that shows how electric vehicles are still in the early stages. They are the future but electric cars are not the norm yet. And as technology is advancing so fast it can be expected that environmental damage due to gasoline and fossil fuels will soon be eliminated. So the audience of this article are the general people and the purpose is to enlighten them about the advances of electric cars, planes and ships. The author used  an informative tone and formal language to serve the purpose of this article. The genre of this article is nonfiction since the author is talking about a specific topic supporting his ideas with claims and quotes which I mentioned in the paragraph. In the article it states “We have a lot of car enthusiasts who love their electric vehicles and they love to drive them, so it’s the road trip and the joy of a road trip that lures them to use the highway.” This quote shows out of the general people specifically car enthusiasts are the audience. 

 

      In the website article “The great battery race” Author Steven Levine Starts off by saying  that “ United States spends 300 billion dollars per year importing oil.” he makes a point that achieving fuel self sufficiency is vital to the future of America and the money used to import oil should be invested here instead. What Levine is saying to the general public, the audience of this article “that switching to electric from gasoline isn’t cheap”. Research shows that running and maintaining an electric car costs a lot of money. For instance Levine says that “ The parking lot of New York’s Yankee stadium hold 8000 cars. For half of those to recharge fully while the owners watch a game, the parking lots would need 400 megawatts of power, the full output of 150 maximally sized wind turbines.” producing 400 megawatts of electricity will be really expensive and adding to that electricity is not as available as gas so putting 400 megawatts of power just on cars is not efficient enough keeping the cost into consideration. However gas is more efficient but it is also very expensive to import and it harms the environment a great deal by the carbon monoxide getting pushed out of the cars. I think the genre of this article is nonfiction since the author is talking about this specific topic. So the author is proving the purpose that it is really a challenge to replace gasoline with electric power. By the research done till now it shows that electric power is not very efficient yet compared to gasoline. The author uses an informative tone and formal language to say that the electric car technology is still pretty much in its early stages and there is still a long way to go for making electric power efficient compared to gasoline. Some companies are doing it, Tesla for example using all electric power which the company generates itself and provides for the cars by their own charging stations. But there’s only one company whos doing it. Sadly that’s not the majority yet and electric cars aren’t the norm. But America still relies on gas and electric power is definitely the future and investing more money on electric power is a foot in the right direction.  

 

      In the last and final article “Electric cars:” Author Peter van Doren serves the purpose of answering the question “ Do electric cars emit less carbon than conventional gasoline powered vehicles.” Typically the answer would be yes but the answer depends on the type of fuels used to generate electricity and charge the batteries. Peter takes the real data of these cars to answer the question. He takes data from each car and sees the gas mileage of the car and how much carbon dioxide is released per mile. He compares how much carbon dioxide emission is done per mile and how much carbon dioxide is released while generating the electricity to power the cars. Peter says “Current plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) consume 0.35kWh per mile, and thus result in 0.735 lbs. of carbon dioxide emissions per mile. Gasoline-powered autos and light trucks in the United States in 2009 averaged 21.7 miles per gallon, and each gallon of gasoline consumed resulted in 19.6 lbs. of carbon dioxide.” So the author uses an informative tone and formal language to answer the question I mentioned earlier. And the genre of this article is nonfiction since the author only talked about that specific topic with research that I mentioned in the paragraph. 

 

LeVine, Steve. “THE GREAT BATTERY RACE.” Foreign Policy, no. 182, 2010, pp. 88–95. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/29764925.

Healey, James R. “Electric cars vs. gas cars.” USA Today, 13 June 2013, p. 01B. Gale Academic Onefile, https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A333770050/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=b209cf88. Accessed 24 Sept. 2019.

van Doren, Peter. “Electric Cars.” Regulation, vol. 35, no. 4, 2012, p. 61+. Gale Academic Onefile, https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A315221921/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=a5f5aa7b. Accessed 24 Sept. 2019.

 Zach Wichter. “By air land and sea travel is electrifying” https://nyti.ms/2SoLIK3