A recent research reported by Jeremy J. Michalek of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and his co-authors indicates that plug-in type of electric vehicles with smaller sized battery packs and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) that do not use plug-in facility bring down the impact of carbon discharges and improve oil security with low or without any extra cost over the lifetime of the product.
It further reports that the plug in type of vehicles that use large sized battery packs while costing more also generates higher or lower level of discharges than HEVs based on the plugged in power source.
The research report available in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicates that electric vehicles having smaller sized battery packs efficiently bring down social expenditures such as oil consumption, ecological damages and health care.
According to Michalek, an associate professor at CMU, while the large sized battery packs enables the users of plug-in vehicles to run the vehicle for longer distances utilizing electric power instead of fossil fuel power they also remain heavy and costly if the battery is bigger in size and has more power than required to run such distance. Also such batteries require larger infrastructure for the manufacturing process and generate more emissions during their production.
Michalek, stated that though the American Recovery And Reinvestment Act 2009 offers up to $7,500 in tax credits for larger battery packed vehicles only a few of them were able to avail the subsidy because of the higher level of expense. He explained that in the shorter run only plug-in and HEV type of vehicles using smaller sized battery packs will provide more benefits. He suggested for researchers in introducing larger battery packs that can address the climate changes and pollution at a comparatively affordable cost.
Source: http://www.cmu.edu/