Are electric cars more efficient?

As residents of Los Angeles, we notice the shift from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles approaching rapidly. It is evident that LA is really making an effort to go green as Teslas, Panamera Porsches, Volts and Priuses fill our streets. Is your family considering an electric car? The benefits, according to my father, highly outweigh the costs: “Right now, I’m paying half the money in electricity bills than I would have been paying for gas. This is because the car charger in our house is slow — only about 6 miles per hour.  Once we get the super charger in our house, I will be paying $600 for electricity for my car per year, whereas beforehand I was spending $3000-$4000 on gas per year.”  

Looking for a cheaper way to save the environment? Think about getting a Prius hybrid. If you’re considering an electric car but you’re hesitant about the problems you might face going fully electric, a hybrid is the perfect balance. It starts at about $24,000, and it gets about 50 miles to the gallon. According to the Toyota website, a Prius “combines the benefits of an efficient gasoline engine and a clean, quiet electric motor.” There are special modes on the Prius that can drive the car about one mile on battery power alone. A hybrid is the perfect balance between saving the environment without the problems of an electric car because you can use less gas when you implement the driving on battery power feature, but when you drive far and you can’t find a charging station, you’ll be able to make it through to a gas station to get gas.

If you’re considering something a little more on the luxurious side, think about the Panamera Porsche. Starting at $99,000, the Panamera shows that “even high-performance sports cars can achieve comparatively moderate exhaust emission values in their respective category,” according to Porsche’s website. You can still get the 0-60 mph acceleration of 5.2 seconds without releasing the unnecessary CO2 emissions, which was Porsche’s original intention . Not only are these vehicles environmentally friendly in saving tons of gas, but these Porsches are 95% recyclable. Because of the “intelligent lightweight construction” used to build these vehicles, they are made of entirely “environmentally friendly components,” which helps to ensure that recycling is more efficient, but lets face it … who would ever want to recycle a Porsche?!

If you want to be a part of the vanguard and hop on the electric vehicle bandwagon of Los Angeles, a Tesla is probably the best choice for you. The Tesla Model S starts at $60,000; while the upfront cost of a Tesla may at first seems daunting, you may want to consider the benefits of the savings in federal tax credits and gas. If you’re unsure about how much it really might cost, just go onto Tesla’s website: it will calculate it for you! Input how many miles a year you drive, the average price of gas, average sedan fuel, and the average price of electricity, and it will let you know how much you save on going with electricity vs. gas. But we all know what the most important part of a Tesla is — its speed: the 0-60 mph acceleration on the fastest version is an astonishing 3.9 seconds.

If you’re looking for the fully electric, non-Tesla, luxurious sports car, you could go Justin Bieber-style and purchase a Fisker Karma. Priced at $116, 000 for the best model, you really go all out when you buy this car. It combines the fully electric driving, a 300 mile range of driving per charge, with a 0-60 of 5.9 seconds. However, I would suggest investing your money somewhere else because Fisker has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

In short, we all know that fossil fuels and the gasoline we use for our cars right now are limited resources, and those are soon coming to an end. We need to do something about it, and if saving our environment means switching from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles, then I believe we should all get a head start on it.