Why not go all electric?

Photo courtesy of flickr.com member
There is so much talk about the negative side of auto emissions towards the environment. Hybrid cars were created to reduce the amount of auto emission which goes into our environment and to also help save some money on gas...

However, a hybrid car still burns gas.. Our natural resource, oil, is still being used up... So, why not switch to an electric car?

Electric cars have no tailpipe emissions, which means that they do not put extra carbon dioxide into our environment.. However, one of the reasons that we have not switched to electric cars is because they also burn natural resources...

Electric cars have to be charged at night. Which means that when the electric car is being charged over night it burns a significant amount of fossil fuels like coal.

According to a statistic from Evworld.com, an electric/hybrid car site, "For every gallon of gasoline burned, approximately 22 pounds of C02, an important global warming gas, are created. If a car gets 25 miles a gallon it will emit 22 pounds of carbon dioxide over that distance, as well as other pollutants. By comparison, an electric car may travel the same distance consuming 5 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electric power at a rate of 200 watt hours/mile. Assuming the local grid is 100% coal-fired, roughly 5 lbs of coal would be consumed to create that 5kWh. Depending on the grade and carbon content of the coal, one kilowatt hour creates approximately 1.4 pounds of CO2. That's 7 pounds of CO2 vs. 22 pounds to travel the same 25 miles. But recall that the power grid isn't entirely coal-fired; it includes hydroelectric, natural gas, nuclear and a small, but growing segment of renewables."

Furthermore, electric cars may not cause pollution from auto emissions, but they do cause "battery pollution." Batteries contain nickel. When an electric car runs it puts nickel into our environment, which is also harmful...

So what to do? It seems like no matter what, our environment is doomed... There is no solution right now.. If we use regular cars we use up oil and put a lot of CO2 into the air; Hybrid cars put a little less CO2 in the air; And electric cars burn fossil fuels (coal) and put nickel into our atmosphere... So is there a solution somewhere?

The answer is: sort of... According to Treehugger.com, "The Podcars Are Coming." Podcars were created from a Korea-based Vectus. They will be tested in Uppsala, Sweden, a college town. The cars are very small, and they will run on tracks built by Vectus.

I personally think the idea to have podcars is amazing. It reminds me of the show "The Jetsons".

According to Treehugger.com, the podcars are to run at "about a three second 'headway' between pods which would run at around 45 kilometers per hour in the inner city, making it possible to move at large numbers of people during rush hour, the company said."

This is exciting!!! There is a photo you can check out here.