Electric Vehicles: A Summary

When you think of electric cars, do you think of a toy remote control car or a high end Tesla? As far as transportation goes, the first practical electric car was made in 1884 London. They would go on to make up approximately a third of vehicles on the road in the early 1900s. They quickly faded from roadways however, due to advances in the internal combustion engine. These Electric vehicles would not begin to return to prominence until the 1990s. The first widely successful electric vehicle in the era of modern automobiles would be the Tesla Roadster, which began development in 2004 and was first seen on the road in 2008. A plethora of other electric vehicles would soon follow along with many advances in the technologies that these vehicles …show more content…
He claims that Electric cars “face uncertain depreciation” and “May bring higher electricity rates” (Healey, 2013). Healey also provides several examples of cost difference both on repairs and parts.

Pathos, or emotional appeals, seems to be Healey’s argument 's strength. He uses one’s sense of quilt when he refers to the environmental impacts of electric vehicles. Healy additionally makes the reader feel a sense of frustration by bringing up the changes required to own an electric vehicle and the costs of repairs. the author’s overall goal, however, is to make the reader question their decision to purchase an electric …show more content…
However as someone much better acquainted with both automobiles and energy sources than him and as someone who disagrees with him, i found his argument rather deficient in many areas. He makes a hasty generalization that all alternative energy comes from coal or natural gas and he completely ignores the fact that solar, wind, and hydroelectric power are very environmentally friendly, growing rapidly, and in the case of solar are less likely to break down than other methods of energy production. An equivocation made by Healey was that Electric cars are expensive but prices are declining steadily due to advancements in battery technologies. He additionally uses incorrect data about the range of an electric vehicle, saying it is only 100 miles when in reality many electric cars have 400-500 mile ranges, in an attempt to make a straw man argument. he also references depreciation as being unclear, but this is expected as this technology has only been recently modernized. Healey also fails to cite any of his sources of data other than the small amount of data he got from the government website. With this provided data he attempts to make it appear as though electricity prices vary greatly by comparing prices in Hawaii and Illinois, but he fails to mention that the electricity in Hawaii is expensive due to the lack of available area to produce energy