Greetings dear readers, on this occasion I will socialize some points of view related to the environmental functionality of electric vehicles, basically the thematic approaches to be developed arose from the following concerns; Why has automotive ecological engineering not been successful, if the development of electric vehicles is based on environmental strategies, why have they not been so receptive?.

Historically, the automotive sector has been classified as one of the most polluting sectors of the environment worldwide. This is due to the fact that vehicles represent a major source of air pollution, essentially because they emit high levels of toxic gas discharges into the urban ecosystems of the world's major cities. For this reason, the automotive industry has developed ecological alternatives over the last two decades, with the firm purpose of confronting this environmental problem.

However, it is important to note that among the ecological alternatives presented so far, the most relevant are the electric vehicles, whose models according to the manufacturers have been designed under environmentalist principles, this because, do not use fuel burning as an energy resource, and on the contrary work by using electrical sources.

However, even though the incorporation of electric vehicles is seen as an acceptable alternative, which seeks to counteract the emission of greenhouse gases, to date there is much uncertainty about whether this type of ecological automotive engineering is really the best environmental option, because, according to the arguments of experts in ecological matters, in order to mass produce electric vehicles, a lot of energy is required for their manufacturing processes, and in addition their batteries are recharged with electricity that has been partially generated from fossil fuels.

In this sense, the two unfavorable elements described in the previous paragraph, put in doubt the ecological functionality of these automotive devices, however, the expert Anders Nordelöf, researcher at Chalmers University of Technology, considers that "it is time to stop discussing whether electric vehicles, are good or bad", because according to his point of view, both the industry, authorities, politicians and environmental experts, should start working together to make these vehicles as ecological as possible.

To conclude, faced with this somewhat dissonant situation, which has prevented the success of ecological automotive engineering, and understanding that electric vehicles have great potential for environmental protection, it is necessary to rethink new methods of reliable mass production, in addition to creating strategies for recharging batteries from clean sources such as solar or wind, this in the quest to generate the lowest possible emissions of carbon dioxide during manufacture, and also in its subsequent use as alternative vehicles.

[1] Nordelöf A., Messagie M., Tillman A., Söderman M., and Van J. Environmental impacts of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric vehicles—what can we learn from life cycle assessment?. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 2014; 19: 1866–1890. Article: Online access

[2] Held M., and Baumann M. Assessment of the Environmental Impacts of Electric Vehicle Concepts. 2011. Article: Online access

[3] Buekers J., Holderbeke M., Bierkens J., and Panis L. Health and environmental benefits related to electric vehicle introduction in EU countries. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment. 2014: 33: 26-38. Article: Online access