Today, we discuss electric cars vs gas cars in detail!
Electric vehicles are a trending topic in the automotive industry. The automotive industry changes slowly and focuses now on electric vehicles.
All the major vehicle manufacturers declared their plans about the electric vehicle.
Why electric vehicles?
Let’s compare electric cars and gasoline cars and find out the advantages and disadvantages.
Electric Cars vs Gas Cars
Here is a detailed comparison of electric cars and gasoline cars. The pros and cons of both are mentioned below.
#1 Year of invention
Electric Vehicle: Electric vehicle was manufactured in 1832 by Robert Anderson. Even though electric cars were invented earlier, gasoline cars captured the automotive market.
The storage of electricity was the main drawback of electric cars. The battery technologies were not that advanced so that to have a high impact of EVs on the automotive market.
Gasoline Vehicle: 1886 is considered as the birth year of modern gasoline car when Karl Benz patented Benz-patent Motorwagon. The abundant availability of fossil fuels, the technological advancements in combustion technologies, etc. helped the gasoline vehicles to attract more customers.
#2 Fuel
Electric Vehicles: Electric car uses electricity stored in a battery for propulsion. The energy will be converted to mechanical energy by the use of an electric machine.
Gasoline Vehicles: Gasoline cars use fossil fuel as the source of energy. The internal combustion converts the chemical energy to the mechanical energy to propel the vehicle.
#3 Power Train
A power train is a group of components in a vehicle, that generate power and deliver to the surface where the vehicle travels. We have a detailed post about power trains and drive trains. What are Electric Power Train and Hybrid power train?
Electric Vehicles: The components in an electric vehicle power train are
- Inverter
- Motor
- Gears
- Differential gears
- Wheels and shaft
Gasoline Vehicles: The power train of an internal combustion engine car includes
- engine
- transmission
- driveshafts
- differentials
- final drive
#4 Weight
Electric Vehicles: Electric vehicles are around 20-30% heavier than the corresponding petrol cars that provide the same power output. The battery of the electric vehicle adds more weight to the vehicle.
Gasoline Vehicles: Even though gasoline vehicle has more components than an electric vehicle, it weighs less.
#5 Selection of Vehicle
Electric Vehicles: There are only a few electric car models available in the automotive market. The manufacturers who had already declared their plans to manufacture electric vehicles. You may check a few electric car models available in the market.
Gasoline Vehicles: There are many options for the selection of a gasoline car. Each automobile manufacturer has multiple models of vehicles. Gasoline vehicles Color, Style, Shape, etc.
#6 Price and Incentives
Electric Vehicles: Electric cars are about 20-40% (even after incentive) costlier than gasoline cars. To promote electric vehicles, incentives and tax rebate is available based on the locality.
Gasoline Vehicles: The gasoline cars with matured technology are cheaper than that of electric cars.
#7 Vehicle Range
Electric Vehicles: The distance traveled by a fully charged electric car battery would be in the range of 100 miles. There are only a few electric cars whose range is comparable with that of gasoline vehicles.
For example, Tesla Model S has a range of more than 250 miles before another charge of the battery.
Gasoline Vehicles: Gasoline Vehicles have a range of around 250 to 300 miles before a refill. And the gas stations are widely available in any location. But the fact is that the average distance traveled by a driver in a day is around 30 miles.
Refill is necessary only once in a week for a gasoline car. Since gas stations availability all over the cities, people don’t care about range anxiety
#8 Fuel economy
Electric Vehicles: Let’s assume that the cost of electricity is 0.11$ per unit, an electric car consumes 15kWh to travel 100 km, and the efficiency of the charging circuit is 88%. Then the expense to travel 100 km in an EV would be 1.875 $ (This is an approximated value and it will depend on the driving pattern, terrain, and other factors).
You can check the details here: How much does it cost to charge an EV?
Gasoline Vehicles: Let’s assume an IC engine vehicle consumes about 6 liter/100km and fuel price is 0.742$ per liter. To travel 100 km, it costs 4.452$.
#9 Maintenance
Electric Vehicles: The overall maintenance cost of an electric car is far less than that of a gasoline car. Electric Vehicle does not have an exhaust system, complex gear, engine cooling, IC engine, etc. So the maintenance cost is less for EVs.
The use of regenerative braking reduces the wear and tear of the mechanical braking system in an electric vehicle.
Gasoline Vehicles: The total number of mechanical parts in a gasoline vehicle is more than that of an electric vehicle.
Frequent maintenance is mandatory for an internal combustion engine vehicle. Engine oil change, exhaust system maintenance, etc. are some of the important areas to consider while doing maintenance.
#10 Pollution
Electric Vehicles: The chemical energy stored in the battery of an electric vehicle is converted to the mechanical energy to propel the vehicle. The process does not involve any environmental polluting steps.
An electric vehicle does not have a tailpipe. So, from the vehicle, there is no air pollution. You may read: Are electric cars good for environment?
Gasoline Vehicle: An internal combustion engine burns the fuel and results from smoke that pollutes the environment. The energy conversion from chemical to mechanical by combustion causes noise and air pollution.
#11 Noise
Electric Vehicles: Since there is no combustion in an electric vehicle, the noise from EV is much lesser than that from gasoline cars.
Institute of Transport Economics Norwegian Centre for Transport Research had conducted a study and found that the electric vehicles are 4 to 5 decibels less noisy than IC engine vehicles at low speed.
It considerably reduces noise pollution in city traffic.
It’s interesting that the EVs are now equipped with warning sounds at low speed to alert the pedestrians.
Electric vehicle warning sounds are sounds designed to alert pedestrians to the presence of electric drive vehicles such as hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and all-electric vehicles (EVs) traveling at low speeds.
Gasoline Vehicles: Internal combustion engine vehicles produces noise when the combustion happens for energy conversion.
#12 Battery Replacement
Electric Vehicles: The life of an electric car battery is around 8 years. The high voltage batteries store energy to propel the vehicle has to be replaced once the capacity reduces after a few years of operation.
The cost to replace battery ranges between 1000$-6000$. It’s a major expense when we are using an electric car.
Gasoline Vehicles: There is no high voltage battery in a gasoline vehicle. Hence battery replacement is also not required!
#13 Refill/ Recharge
Another important point in electric cars vs gas cars is the fuel filling.
Electric Vehicles: The battery has to be recharged when it runs out of charge. Public charging stations, Private Charging Stations, and Home charging facilities are available to recharge the battery.
Gasoline Vehicles: A gasoline car fills the fuel from a gas station
Conclusion
We performed a detailed comparison of electric cars and gasoline cars. The major differences between electric cars and gasoline cars were noted down. The electric cars vs gasoline cars post would help you out to know more about electric vehicles.
Do you have more questions about electric cars?
Read: The top 11 questions about electric cars
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Key points
- A comparison is performed – electric cars vs gas cars
- Initial cost, fuel cost, weight, pollution, selection, etc. were compared
- The year of invention, battery replacement was also mentioned