Luke Bailey

Professor Dean Leonard

English 1201

8 September 2019

Research Proposal: Are Electric Cars Really Better for the Environment?

As an engineer major, I am required to think like one. This means I am actively looking

for solutions to problems or thinking of ways to improve already made solutions. This is why I

think the push for electric cars as a way to reduce pollution from gasoline is so interesting. With

the growing market of electric cars, it won’t be long before more and more people are driving

them. Which on paper is a good thing, because it will reduce the number of cars burning gasoline

into the environment, but it brings up the question of whether it is creating less pollution overall.

After discussing with some buddies one day about it, I was told that creating the battery required

to operate an electric car creates just as much if not more pollution that just your average

conventional car. So, after that I went home and looked into it a little and found that creating the

batter actually produces very high amounts of pollution, but I still don’t know enough about the

subject to determine if it is more beneficial to use an electric car or conventional car.

This topic is very interesting to me, and ties very close into my major, computer science

and engineering. A dream job of mine would be to work for Tesla and help program their cars,

and their ability to drive themselves. But with Tesla’s being electric cars with the desire to

reduce pollution, I am interested in if that is effectively being done, or if there is any other way

to reduce it even more. I think that as I research this topic more, I will determine how well

electric cars are reducing pollution, and if the steps are being taken to improve this even more.
Using cars that run on batteries instead of just gasoline is a great idea, and I think that later down

the line it will be a standard way of transportation for a lot of people. But I also think that right

now we haven’t found the best way of producing these cars to make it safer than the

conventional car. What I know about electric cars now, is that the number of electric cars sold in

the year of 2018 is almost double what was sold in 2017. Also, that almost all well known car

manufacturers are already producing and selling several different electric cars. All these cars are

being sold, and most people who buy them are thinking they are doing their part by helping

reduce pollution, but how much do they really know about it.

As I do more research on this topic, I hope to find out if as the number of electric cars

sold increases, is the amount of pollution emitted from cars overall decreasing. Also, if as the

trend of electric cars continues, if the research in reducing pollution even more increases. I think

I will find my answers in journals, news articles, and other sources on the internet. A question I

hope to find the answer to is, are electric cars really better for the environment than other cars? I

look forward to revealing any hidden truths behind electric cars, and if these cars really will help

save the environment.