I hope to get an electric car and so should you.

The age of Electrification is upon the auto industry and like most change it has its sceptics and its optimists. Personally, I fall somewhere in the middle but when I get my driver's license, I plan on getting one and I think you should too.

The obvious benefit is that it is better for the environment to drive an electric vehicle. As they don't have any combustion taking place as there is no engine, there is no harmful pollutants such as Nitrogen oxide and Sulphur oxide being thrown out the exhaust. Sceptics may say that the making of electricity that is used the charge these vehicles are still polluting, which is true to an extent but the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland found that even taking that into account, electric vehicles were still less polluting. The cleanest petrol-powered cars made CO2 130g/km while the electric vehicle made CO2 60g/km even when counting the pollution of the energy production. Other pollutants such as carbon monoxide can cause heart disease as the carbon monoxide affects the body's ability to transport blood.

There are less talked about benefits to electric vehicles such as a reduction in noise pollution. Noise pollution has been found to cause “Respiratory agitation, racing pulse, high blood pressure, headaches and, in case of extremely loud, constant noise, gastritis, colitis and even heart attacks.” Vehicles are the main source of this pollution. Using electric vehicles would mean that the days of the loud Internal combustion engine would be over and that cities would become quieter. It also has mental health benefits. Study done by LEVC (London EV Company) found that London taxi drivers in their new electric taxi were “More focused than when driving the diesel vehicle”, “Calmer than when driving the diesel vehicle” and were “Happier than when driving the diesel vehicle.”

Another less mentioned way that electric vehicles stop pollution is that they use less consumables such as engine oil. “By 2040, electric vehicles could displace much as 6.4 MMbpd of oil demand, while fuel efficiency improvements will erase another 7.5 MMbpd, according to BloombergNEF’s May 2018 long-term EV outlook.”

I hope all these points persuade you to make the switch. When it comes to electric vehicles, especially from the likes of Tesla, the benefits far out weight the negatives.