Electric cars in Japan

We examined the electric car. Because we think Japan is famous for cars all over the world and there is a lot of interest in electric cars.

An electric car has many strong points. That car is kind to environments, and living.

There are three big advantages of electric cars. The first is that electric cars are able to cut down the amount of green house effect gas. According to a numerical data, compared to previous cars, an electric car has made possible 68% reduction of greenhouse gas emission. The second is, they ensure a comfortable ride. (Because of the reduction of the effect of shift transmission and no low acoustic noise in moving).It reduced the discomfort by 31%. The last is being able to decrease the noise on the surroundings. Vehicle interior noise has been reduced by 15%, compared to previous cars. And the vehicle exterior noise has also been reduced by 18%.

But an electric car now has two big weak points. One point is the battery. The car moves using a battery for an engine. But batteries now are big, heavy, expensive, and have a short life. These points are a hindrance to spread electric cars. Another point is charging. The way of charging now uses a heavy plug. This is a trouble for the user. And it takes about an hour to charge the battery from empty to full.

Solving those weak points is very important. Our school is connected to Waseda university, which is developing an electric bus. This is called “WEB-2”.

This is the abbreviation of “Waseda advanced Electric micro Bus”.

Next, I will speak to you about the nice points of this “WEB-2”. There are roughly two points, one is the smaller battery, the other is the style of charging.

First, the bus could decrease the battery`s size. The battery`s “size, weight and high cost” had been big problems for electric cars. But though the bus is large, the battery`s size is as small as a minicar`s. It is good to adopt this system so that it becomes a bus` feature in towns or cities. This bus cannot run a long way, but it needs not to do so.

Second, for charging, it uses a new system: “Non-contact Rapid Charging Type Inductive Power Supply System”. A lithium battery is used, since it can charge to 98% in 10 minutes. The point of this system is that electric system of the bus doesn`t malfunction even when in contact with water.

Conclusion

Although it is crucial to popularize vehicles like (WEB-2), there needs to be a innovation in technology (e.g. Lighter batteries).Electric vehicles are still not operational. What’s more, Japanese has a passion in private cars, so only the popularization of this type of buses will not lead to a solution. We think there are many ways to popularize them. For example the government should advertise more about these cars or give subsidies to the consumers. Overall, as mentioned above, the number one priority is to make a progress in technology.