TV News: Electric Cars (The Angle)

TV News: Electric Cars (The Angle)

For this project as I have previously established, we are hoping to look at electric cars. However we haven't properly established the angel we want to go for. So in this post I hope to gather some information on electric cars as well as look at potential questions we can ask.

Cars We want to look at
Bellow are a list of car makes that we could potentially look at during this project

Nissan Leaf

A well known and reliable company that have had high sales in their electric range. Their models are also some of the most affordable for our audience.

Tesla

The biggest exclusively electric car company on the market. They are very big right now in a lot of countries and are just starting to break through in the UK. They have worked with press before and we have the address of thier press office who'm we will contact.

Ford I Range

A reliable brand who will hopefully be up for some promotion. They have local dealerships and they will be high on our list of people to contact. Their models are within our target audiences price range as well.

Renault Zoe/Twizzy

This company offers more than one model of electric car that are specifically designed to support the needs of the every day commuter. A good one for our target audience.

VW-E


Although quite new to the scene VW have big plans for their electric models, and may be up for some promotion so could be useful to collaborate with.

Questions
Some of the questions we want to ask in are broadcast on electric cars are listed bellow along with some brief notes: 

How do they work?
-What is the engine like, do they make noise, how do I charge them etc.

(the engine is powered off of batteries and is automatic with no need for gears, they are charged through a port wired in to your home mains electricity, or at designated free charging ports)



Are they really pollution free?
What about noise pollution, they don't put out carbon emissions do they?, where is this electricity coming from etc.

(they do not emit any carbon emissions or have engine noise so in that respect yes they are pollution free. However currently the majority of Britain's electricity is still generated through fossil fuels, so in that respect they do still contribute, but less than petrol/diesel cars  and it is something we have little control over).

How efficient are they?
Will they get me to work and back, what about longer journies, how long do they last on one charge, how are the batteries effected over time etc.

(when they first came out admittedly electric cars weren't very efficient at all, but over time this has improved drastically. They can now travel 100's of miles on a single charge rivaling fossil fueled cars. They will easily handle your commute since they were designed with this in mind, and companies are working on longer journies, with the improvement of batteries the length of the journey should't effect the rate of battery depletion. They don't take anywhere near as long to charge as you would think and can be road ready in under 30 min, the same length of time it takes to charge your phone. If in doubt you could always leave it to charge overnight).



Are they a viable and affordable option to replace current cars?
Isn't range still an issue, are they really affordable, how do they perform compared to current cars, are there any dangers.

(Although the range isn't fantastic on electric cars this isn't there primary focus. They are currently being aimed at commuters in western countries. But since batteries and technology improve every year this is soon set to change, and be more widely appealing to everyone. 

They can be a little pricey, usually set in the high 1000's but this is slimier to a lot of current high performance cars. There are also a lot of advantages to consider. First of all, currently if you buy an electric car you do not have to pay road tax, meaning you already make an annual saving. Secondly the majority of charging points are free to use, meaning you save money on petrol. Also electric cars are designed to run for long periods requiring very little servicing/maintenance, so you make another saving there. As more and more brands branch out in to electric cars they will only continue to get more affordable. 

With the implementation of more advanced technology/computers electric cars are already considered safer than petrol/diesel. They have a greater performance than other cars reaching 0-60 much faster than most other standard cars. One of the only dangers being that the lack of noise may mean people wont know when they are coming, but this does help reduce noise pollution, so companies are working on a compromise. 

Finally many governments have already put in place plans for electric cars to fully replace fossil fueled ones, some time between 2030 and 2050, as even world leaders believe that they are becoming a more and more viable replacement by the day).