Sunday, February 10, 2013

Netherlands' Electric Cars


                The Netherlands is leading the way in electric vehicles.  Being a relatively small country makes using electric cars more practical.  However, when the cars first made their way to the public, charging stations were not as easily available as they are today.  The public also had to get used to using their battery powered vehicles.  The cars were supposed to be able to travel 100 miles on a full charge but cold temperatures and faster than normal driving caused the batteries to not last as long.  More and more companies and small businesses are making charge stations available to employees and customers today.  The Netherlands is a model for how to use electric vehicles on a country wide scale.  Even though electric vehicles are still not as popular as gasoline powered vehicles, the availability of charging stations is the main reason for their unpopularity. 

                Electric vehicles being used by a large percentage of the population could easily help lower the amount of air pollution being produced and captured by our atmosphere.  Increase population has caused more and more pollution to be created each year.  Cars are a major producer of this pollution and electric cars create little or no air pollution. 

                Gas powered cars are what people are used to and change is hard to create for a large group of the population.  Tax breaks are offered now on hybrid cars and in the future tax breaks should continued to be offered.  This would allow the lower class to still be able to afford these cars and the upper class should have no problem switching to electric.  But, the lack of charging stations is a problem and with such a large nation rapid charge stations would have to be all along major interstates and other highways.  An improvement in technology to reduce rapid charge time to fit to people’s needs would also make more of the population feel electric cars are an easier choice.    
Russell Remy
2/10/13 8:58 pm

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