Electric Vehicles Drive a Sustainable Future
By Xavier Johnson
Worldwide transportation vehicles use an abundant amount of greenhouse gases which are then released into the atmosphere. The problem with the large consumption of nonrenewable resources, other than pollution is that the Earth takes a long time to produce more of that energy resource. With the shift from gasoline powered vehicles to electricity fueling vehicles, half of fossil fuel emissions can be cut. Electric vehicles fight climate change by powering transportation with electricity, not fossil fuels. Driving an electrical vehicle can cut the amount of fossil fuels released into the air by half or completely get rid of them with the use of renewable energy sources.
A company named Charge Point controls the world`s leading electrical vehicle charging network. The purpose of this company is to help their customers get rid of huge amounts of harmful greenhouse gas emissions. An interesting fact about the use of electrical charging is that the purchasing of electoral vehicles has increased 50 percent each year. In the article about Charge Point, it says, “The U.S. Department of Energy has found that drivers with access to charging at work are 6X more likely to switch to electric. Extending the EV charging network encourages sustainable choices.” In this day and age, nothing is more important than saving our planets ecosystem. If just one person drives an electrical vehicle, 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide can be saved from being emitted into the atmosphere. Car charging stations lower the discharge of gas because they run on renewable energy. Millersville residents can find the “PlugShare” app to be very useful in finding the nearest car charging stations. Electrical vehicles only discharge pollution at power plants rather than gasoline powered vehicles that aren’t released in one centralized area.
According to Charge Point President and CEO of Charge Point, the company plans on opening up 2.5 million ports by 2025. Lancaster, Pa has five public parking garages where owners of electric vehicles can charge their cars for free. In a press release made by the Lancaster Parker Authority, it states “The LPA has installed seven EV charging stations. Each station can accommodate two vehicles. “
Lancaster Car Charging locations
- Three stations accommodating six vehicles are in the Prince Street Garage, 111 N. Prince Street.
- One station accommodating two vehicles is available in each of the other four garages:
- Penn Square Garage, 25 E. Vine St.
- East King Street Garage, 150 E. King St.
- Duke Street Garage, 150 N. Duke St.
- Water Street Garage, 220 N. Water St.
Information from Lancaster Parking Authority
Authority executive director Larry Cohen stated that these are the first public charging stations in the city of Lancaster. One should know what level of car charging they are looking for before they charge their car.
There are different levels of charging that people can use on their electric vehicles. These methods of charging include Level 1, DC Fast, and Level 2 charging.
Level 1 charging is when a person charges their electric vehicle charger into an outlet in your home. This means level 1 charging uses your 120-volt power supply to charge your electric vehicle. Level 1 charging is the slowest, and cheapest form of charging for electric vehicles. A vehicle can get up 40 miles of charge overnight. With one hour of charging, a vehicle could cover about 4.5 miles.
Level 2 charging is between Level 1 and DC fast charging. 240-volts of high-powered electricity are used to charge one`s electrical vehicle quicker. These Level 2 chargers can cover up to 70 miles of range per hour. Must people choose to use Level 2 charging stations at home so they can fully charge their vehicle. One must have access to the Charge Point app in order to charger their car at the stations.
DC charging stands for “direct current” charging. The average public electric car charging stations use DC fast charging. This is the most useful form of charging because these stations can pump 40 miles of charge into an electric vehicle every 10 minutes. The city of Lancaster has Level 2 and DC fast charging stations within 15km of each other. Millersville University has a car charging station located next to McNairy Library. The address in 9 North George Street Millersville, Pa, 17551.
Electric Car Timeline
- 1832: Robert Anderson developed the first crude electric vehicle. However, electric cars did not become efficient until the 1870s.
- 1889: The first successful electric vehicle in the U.S. was built by William Morrison.
- By the beginning of the 1900, electrical cars have accounted for a third of the vehicles on the road
- 1901: The Lohner-Porsche Mixte, built by Ferdinand Porsche, becomes the worlds first hybrid electric car powered by an electrical battery and a gas engine.
- 1912: Along with the new affordability of gas-powered cars by Model T, sales also increased due to the invention of the electric starter.
- 1920–1935: there is a decline in electric vehicles due to the discovery of cheap Texas crude oil.
- 1973: Due to the soaring increase in gas prices, General Motors creates a prototype for an urban electric car.
- 1979: interest in bringing back electrical cars fade due low performance issues
- 1990–1992: Automakers start upgrading popular car models into electric car due to new federal and state regulations
- 1997: Toyota releases the Prius, which is the first mass-produced hybrid
- 2009-2013: 18,000 car chargers are installed nation-wide by the Energy Department
- 2010: General Motors` new release of the Chevy Volt introduces the world to the first commercially available plug-in hybrid
- 2010: The first all-electric, zero tailpipe emissions car called the LEAF, is released by Nissan
- 2013: Car batteries have dropped by 50% in price with the help of the Energy Department
Related Stories:
EV Connect
A Los Angeles startup called EV Connect finished a $12 million finance process in order to increase their electric vehicle charging brand. This company teams up with mechanical companies and build software controls to run the charging stations. EV Connect reaches the market by setting up charging stations and providing their own software for users to customize under the EV Cloud name. Through its EV Connect Network, around 1,000 sites are being operated with 6,000 charging pugs under the company`s name. The company’s goal is to use the new money they have made to advance to software they have produced over the past nine years to put more electric car chargers into the world.
Tesla Wins Top Prize
Along with winning Car of the year, the new Tesla Model 3 racked up four awards at the Parkers New Car Awards 2020. Not only was thus Tesla`s smallest and cheapest car, it was the first time an electric vehicle made the top 10 best-sellers list. In this past August, this Tesla was the UK`s third best-selling car model. Keith Adams, editor of the UK`s biggest new car buying website, Parkers said, “Not only do attractive leases make it cheaper to run than you would think, it is environmentally-friendly and also very fast and fun to drive. The cheapest Tesla Model 3 is only £400 per month and can get up to 335 miles on one charge. The entry-level Model 3 will be to drive three times as far as a petrol or diesel car per charge.
Key Players
Pasquale Romano
The President and Chief Executive Officer of the electric charging company ChargePoint goes by the name of Pasquale Romano. He began working at ChargePoint in February of 2011 and has brought with him more than 25 years of technology industry leadership and executive management experience to the company. Romano also has a spot in company’s board of directors. He currently sits on the board of Agilone, CALSTART, and the YMCA of Silicon Valley. Before this, he was known for co-founding a tech equipment company called 2Wire, which was acquired by Pace plc for $475M in 2010. Pat Romano and Brian Hinman co founded 2Wire in 1998, with the same idea of giving telecom companies the ability to deliver an integrated triple play of broadband services to compete and move ahead of the competition. Before the term ‘triple play’ had become an industry buzz word, Hinman and Romano were busy pitching the telecom industry with their vision of a consumer-friendly networked home with fully integrated data, voice, and entertainment services, all provided via existing phone lines. Previously, Pasquale held multiple positions in marketing and engineering at Polycom. In 1989, he co-founded Fluent, Inc., a digital video networking company and served as Chief Architect until it was sold to Novell Corporation in 1993. Pasquale has an bachelor`s degree in computer science from Harvard University and received his master`s degree from MIT.
EPA
The name EPA stands for the Environmental Protection Agency. The main purpose of the EPA is to save our environment and protect the health of humans. Things that the agency is responsible for include providing Americans with clean air, land, and water. The EPA uses the best scientific information that they can get in order to prevent environmental hazards. They also make sure that all in chemicals of use are thoroughly cleared, and they polluted land sites are cleaned up by responsible parties. In order for the EPA to achieve these goals, they make and enforce regulations into environmental laws made by the government. An example would be creating the Water Infrastructure Funding Transfer Act. This act reduces lead in drinking water. The EPA ensures that all parts of society have the same information that they did so that they can join the fight to protect people and the environment.
Citations
Brunato, Paul, and 2Wire Inc. “Pasquale Romano Appointed President and CEO of 2Wire, Inc.” WebWire, WEBWIRE, 3 Oct. 2006, https://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=21484.
Ceo. Pat.romano. 2019, https://www.chargepoint.com/profile/pasqualeromano/.
ChargeHub, EV. Charge Your EV in Lancaster. https://chargehub.com/en/countries/united-states/pennsylvania/lancaster.html?city_id=1138.
Duncan, Conrad. Tesla’s Cheapest Electric Vehicle Wins Top Prize at Car Industry Awards. 21 Oct. 2019, https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/tesla-model-3-electric-car-of-year-industry-awards-parkers-elon-musk-a9164486.html.
Electric Vehicles Drive a Sustainable Future. 2019, https://www.chargepoint.com/about/sustainability/. Accessed 11AD.
How Do Electric Car Charging Stations Work? – Maine Home Services, Inc. 16 Jan. 2017, https://mainehomeservices.com/electric-car-charging-stations-work/.
Our Mission and What We Do. 7 Feb. 2018, https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/our-mission-and-what-we-do.
(2018, April 20). Retrieved from https://www.lancasterparkingauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Press-Release-EV-Charge-Stations-in-LPA-garages.pdf
Spector, Julian. EV Connect Raises $12M for Electric Vehicle Charging Software. 22 Oct. 2019, https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/ev-connect-raises-12-million-for-vehicle-charging-software.
Timeline: History of the Electric Car. https://www.energy.gov/timeline/timeline-history-electric-car.