Electric cars – A part of the city development

The problem of pollution is a huge part of the city development. If we want change, we have to find a solution by doing something different and new. How are we going to decrease the polluting levels?

A big part of the pollution in Bergen comes from vehicles. There are too many private vehicles running on fossil fuel. As many people know, fossil fuel is not renewable energy, and the supply will run out. But the worst problem is the polluting it produces.

A possible solution to the pollution problems is the electric cars. Electric cars are vehicles that are powered by batteries or fuel cells. The motor, in a battery powered car, is powered by electromagnetic energy produced in the batteries. The batteries have to be charged regularly to maintain its power.

The other version of electric cars is the ones who uses fuel cells. Fuel cells produce electricity in a reaction between oxygen and a fuel. The fuel is often hydrogen or nature gas.

The biggest difference between battery and fuel cell cars is the recharging the battery has to do. The fuel cells just have to refill fuel.

If Bergen gets better at rewarding people who uses electric cars, the amount of electric cars will rise drastically. There exist some rewards already. For example: no registration fee, no toll and free parking at parking houses run by the municipality.

Another measure that can be done is facilitating the city parts better for electric cars. We need more charging stations, own driving lane and own parking places. If these things are done, more people will start using electric cars.

I believe, electric cars will have an important part in the urban development in the future. There are so many pro’s about electric cars, it is weird that not more people uses them.

Here is a list of some positive and negative feature’s about electric:

Positive feature’s	Negative feature’s
-      Does not pollute	-      Charging and refilling of fuel
-      Runs quietly	-      Less room for baggage and passengers
-      Small expenses	-      Not as powerful as regular cars
-      Easy to park	-      Expensive batteries and limited life-length
-      Less fees	-      Does not generate heat to warm up the coupe.

Fun facts about electric cars:

-      The oldest electric car is older than 180 years.

-      A large amount of the electric cars can be charged from regular sockets in your house.

-      George Clooney, Cameron Diaz, Will Ferrell, Jay Leno and Tom Hanks uses electric cars.

-      The fastest electric car can drive as fast as 230 km/h.

Sources:

http://www.practicalenvironmentalist.com/automobiles/facts-about-electric-cars.htm

http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenselcelle

http://no.wikipedia.org/Elbil

http://snl.no/brenselcelle

Last used: 23.10.12 11:12

Comenius Project - City Development

Greetings fellow Comenius partners,

This group is going deeper into the city development debate. Since all the participants in the project lives in Bergen, we are going to use Bergen as an example, and especially the different city parts in the city.

Participants:
Leader: Jonathan
Secretary: Madeleine
Scheduler: Vegard
Entertainer/Cheer up-consultant: Peter

The issues we focus on are:
What should be sacrificed and what should be prioritized to make the city centre and the new small city centres in Åsane, Arna, Knarvik and Nesttun more environmentally friendly in the future? How to create a balance between economy, "green" innovations and venerable old places and buildings?