Electric Vehicles During the Twentieth Century, Article Critique Example

Summary

One of the challenges with electrical vehicles has been their over estimation with regards to performance. There had been a number of companies which were at the forefront of electric vehicle production at the beginning of the twentieth century. The factor that proved to be a hindrance to the development of the electric vehicle was the creation of a storage energy cell that would be able to store enough energy in order to make the electric vehicle practical. The electrical vehicles had been developed as early as 1902. Notwithstanding, there had been a number of fallacies which caused the electrical vehicles to slow down with regards to development.

These fallacies were very important in the early decade of the twentieth century. The lack of development of the electrically powered vehicles between the first years of the first decade of the twentieth century caused the internal combustion engine automobile to gain a competitive advantage with regards to viability and market share. As a result of the ten year head start that the internal combustion vehicles maintained with regards to the electrically engine vehicles, the electrical vehicles  had not been able to recuperate. As a result, the automobile sales of engines which were powered by the internal combustion engine soared and enabled the development of more efficient internal combustion automobiles (Kirsch 199). The research that had been required in order to produce a battery which was sufficiently effective in order to power an electrical vehicle had not been efficiently developed until the Information era.

The internal combustion engine made progress that surpassed all anticipations during the same era. The early twentieth century was a time of invention. Many debated that if there had been a need why was not the more effective battery invented in order to supply power to the electrical vehicles. The innovations that occurred in the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century varied from the production of radio and the telephone to the creation of the first airplanes(Kirsch 197).

Many had been waiting for the lifecycle of the electrical automobile to run its path. This inferred that the consumers had become accustomed to the presentation and development of new products in the first decade of the twentieth century.  In addition, many potential consumers were waiting for the electric vehicles to become more cost avoidant or for the electrical vehicles to increase in operating efficiency. The limiting factor in the efficiency of the electrical automobile was the lead acid battery. Thomas Edison anticipated designing a novel battery and touted the new design as a ¨miracle battery¨ (Kirsch 197).

The lag time of five years in the development of a suitable battery cell for the electrical vehicles caused erosion in consumer confidence. Edison promised a battery that would be able to maintain its charge for two hundred miles. In 1914, a partnership between Henry Ford and Thomas Edison had been able to produce an electrical vehicle which would render one hundred miles on a solitary charge and have a cost to the consumer of an average eight hundred dollars (Kirsch 197).

Henry Ford foresaw that there would be a variety of problems with regards to the production of an electric vehicle in the second decade of the twentieth century. The challenges that had been foreseen by Henry Ford were attributed to the premise that the internal combustion powered vehicle of the second decade of the twentieth century had become more refined and dependable than its predecessors (Kirsch 207). At the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, there had been apologies with regards to the anticipations that were held with regards to performance. During the same time, there had been substantial progress which had been made with regards to the technologies of the automobiles that were powered by internal combustion engines (Kirsch 199).

It was debated that anticipations had a substantial participation in the production of the electrical vehicles. The electrical vehicle manufacturer was required to persuade the potential buyers that there was no new technology forthcoming, when in fact there was continuous research and development. This was required in order to assure the potential buyers that the products that they would be purchasing would not become obsolete (Kirsch 207). The issues with the battery cells continued unresolved. As a result, Henry Ford recruited Thomas Edison’s expertise in order to design an electrical starter for his vehicles. The electrical starter for the Ford vehicles was produced in 1919 (Kirsch 200).

The miracle battery received its moniker for the new applications that would rely on the energy source for power. The battery that Edison claimed to have invented was an alkaline battery which had been fabricated from nickel and iron. This type of battery had been relatively inexpensive to produce. The invention that was forecasted by Edison was attributed to the public outcry for a more effective category of energy storage battery.  Years later in 1917, as a result of hindsight, it had been written that ¨The electric vehicle started off on the wrong foot as a competitor of the gas car for all purposes. As a result, it is still walking through with blackened eyes¨ (qtd. in Kirsch 199).

Thomas Edison released the initial Edison category E cells on 1903. These batteries had been recalled due to ta defect in their design. Almost seven years later, in 1909, a newly designed category A battery cell was released to the market. The delay of more than five years in the production of an appropriate energy storage battery caused many of the potential automobile purchasers to select a vehicle that had been operated by an internal combustion engine. Many of the potential purchasers did not buy any vehicle (Kirsch 201).

Critique

In my opinion, the article discusses too many of the technical problems without looking into the corporate interests that were behind the promotion of the internally combustion powered automobile. One of the most significant obstacles to the production of electric vehicles is the premise that the fuel cell and the battery technology must be developed in order to comply with the demanding requisites of automotive propulsion use. The article discussed the amount of research that had been conducted (Kirsch 199). However, the article only looked at one alternative which had been the nickel and iron battery cells. It did not explore the application of the present technologies which include the lithium ferrous phosphate cells that are widely applied in the modern electronics.

Notwithstanding, even applying the present technologies, the component of the electrical vehicles that possesses the most mass is the battery cell. There should be increased funding provided to research in order to progress the fuel cell technology at the same index that the automotive and digital technology has progressed over the past century. The article failed to mention that it might not have been in Henry Ford´s or Thomas Edison’s interests to produce a viable fuel cell that would be able to endure for up to 200 miles on a single charge. In the article it had been discussed that Thomas Edison attempted to patent and market his E cell in 1903 (Kirsch 199).

Anticipations may be the greatest driving force regarding which of the long term equilibriums becomes established. Anticipations are especially significant when one considers future utility when engaging in the decision making process. In the article written by Kirsch (2000), the starting conditions had an influence on the destiny of the equilibrium (Kirsch 197). The new actors only review the present circumstances and based on their assessment, they decide what should be done. In the anticipation related equilibrium, the significance of future utility is considerable. This is true for the present electrically driven vehicles in the information era, where the environmental factors are important (Young 1).

As a result of the inexpensive cost of gasoline and the advances in automotive technology, there had been no further requests for the development of electrical vehicles until the 1990s. This was attributed to the emissions that had been produced by the millions of cars which had been powered by the internal combustion engine (Anderson 17).Although more than a century has passed, people continue to wonder if electric automobiles are a passing fad. The optimal selection for adopting a new technology is reliant on what the consumer anticipates other consumers will be using in the future. In the circumstance of a particular technology becoming widely adopted, as in the case of the internal combustion driven automobile, the easier the particulars on the new technology can be correlated between consumers, the greater the attraction the technology appears to have (Young 1).

The need for more efficient battery storage cells derived from the increased usage of the computers and associated mobile devices. These mobile devices required energy cells which had been more effective than the Exide cells which had been developed during the pioneering era of electrical research.  If everyone is using petroleum driven car, the most likely option for a consumer is to use petroleum driven car. This is the case unless the consumer is given an external incentive to engage in the risk of adopting the alternate technology. As the number of consumers of the alternate technology increases, the easier it becomes for consumers to make the choice of adopting the new technology. However, in order to reach the point of equilibrium with regards to why consumers should drive electric vehicles when petroleum powered vehicles operate fairly efficiently, they must be given a motivation, an incentive (Young 1).

Conclusion

The outcome had been that the result was that substantial costs were incurred in the development of a suitable power cell. The research and development at the Edison organization was delayed by six years. Research and development of new products is cost intensive and many organizations have the need to realize immediate profits. Corporations are required to respond to stakeholders. The need for immediate profits could be the primary attribute behind the lack of development of the energy cells for electrical batteries.

Works Cited

Anderson, Curtis D. & Judy Anderson. Electric and Hybrid Cars: A History.  Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2005. Print.

Black, Edwin. Internal combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World    to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing, 2007. Print.

Gain, Jeff. ¨The environmental and energy sector and agricultural biotechnology.¨In Agricultural and Biotechnology: Novel Products and New Partnerships. Edited by R.W.F. Hardy and J. B. Segelken. Ithaca, NY: National Agricultural Biotechnology Council, 1996. Print.  87- 92.

Kirsch, David A. The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History. Mahwah, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000. Print.

Young, Angelo. “What motivates someone to buy a plug/ in electric car? Poll shows differences among Nissan Leaf, Toyota Prius, Chevy Volt owners.” International Business Times, 28 February 2014. Web. 5 October 2015<http://www.ibtimes.com/what-motivates-someone-buy-plug-electric-car-poll-shows-differences-among-nissan-leaf-toyota-prius>.