Hi All,
I'm currently taking ENG102 and had to write a research paper. It has been a few years since I wrote one and needed help proofreading the rough draft. Thank you in advanced.
Now that we are nearly a quarter in 2024, the automotive industry is still on pace for the goal of zero emission cars by 2035 with the number of models from current manufactures and all electric ones like Rivian or the established Tesla. While it is surprising that electric cars have been around since the early 2000's when GM came out with a model, it wasn't until Tesla rose and made electric cars popular and to some degree, affordable, the general public saw a clean alternative to the combustion engine. Manufactures saw this but knew it was not going to be an easy task, so they met half way and produced hybrids, cars that have electric batteries while still being powered by a combustion engine. This was only meant to be stepping stone, it has become more popular than ever during a point in which auto manufactures should be investing and producing more into full-electric, not the other way around. While range is the most common reason why consumers will not buy a Tesla, but there has got to be more to that on why hybrids are having rising sales and that is what this paper is going to find out.
Even though President Biden wants only full-electric only for new cars by the end of the next decade or so, sales are showing that consumers are not ready yet and hybrid sales are rising more than ever before, showing full-electric may not be ready for the world just yet. From the articles I have read, it is true that sales have been climbing more for hybrids that full-electric, even though sales for full-electric should be higher than they are. Like how in Michael Wayland's article that hybrid model sales in America have accounted for 8.3 percent, or about 1.2 million models sold, while full-electric only accounted for 6.9 percent, or about over 900k models sold through November of 2023 (Wayland). While these numbers are not at the point that most people, like Biden, are happy about, it still does show that hybrids have a 1.4 percent advantage over full-electric, even with the government rebates and tax right-offs for purchasing them. Wayland is not the only writer that I found that has the same conclusions that hybrids are more popular than full-electric. Tom Krisher at PBS that according to Edmunds, the total hybrids sold through November 2023 is up 76 percent from at the same period in 2022, showing a steep climb in sales (Krisher). This is the kind of spike that is a concern since, this being good for auto manufactures, is not good towards the plan for only full-electric sales in the next decade. While that is good for companies on making revenue and profits, it is not good for full-electric since Krisher also wrote that while full-electric models made record sales for 2023, unlike what is happening with hybrid models, their year-by-by has slowed almost to a stall (Krisher). It is good news that both are on the rise, however the issue is that hybrid models are rising each year while full-electric is stalling, which is not good since, at this point, full-electric should be competing with hybrid, not slowing down. This also is a red flag for car manufactures since they aim their cars on what is selling, which is not good for full-electric. Sean Tucker at Kelly Blue Book saw the same and in his article that the CEO's at Ford saw that and are planning on boosting production of their hybrid truck line since sales have risen instead of flatlining (Tucker). This is a concern since Ford had come out with the F-150 Lightning, it may sway Ford to focus more on their hybrid line while focusing less on the Lightning to the point of possibly phasing it out before it has a chance to grow. Tucker also wrote that GlobalData predicts Toyota, leading manufacture for hybrid vehicle sales, hybrid vehicle sales will grow another 7.5 percent for 2023 (Tucker). These sales points are not helping full-electric models if manufactures do not see a point into investing in them if hybrid models are bringing in the revenue at higher rates.
Sales do play a role since manufactures will focus their production line at what is selling over what is not, but it is not the on reason. Range has been the achilles heel and major reason why consumers choose hybrid over full-electric since hybrids can get the same range or more than their combustion counter-parts while full-electric gets about half the distance, making them more for city-only rather than all-around. Krisher has the same concern that while consumers want to switch to full-electric, the travel distance is a major concern, along with those that haul trailers, which that would drag the range down as well (Krisher). While there are not many full-electric vehicles that tow on the market right now, that whether towing a boat to the lake or lumber for a construction yard, this an important piece to know since it is mainly cars that are being electrified right now. Eventually trucks, SUVs, and commercial vehicles will have to be as well, and having a very low range to tow will hinder sales. Krisher also has a story in his article about Angie Rodesky that after moving to Missouri, she was encouraged by her children to buy a Tesla, but she was fearful about how a long road trip would go to Florida and Delaware to visit them, so she decided on a RAV4 hybrid model since "I needed to make sure I had a vehicle that was comfortable to ride in and had good gas mileage" she quoted (Krisher). While full-electric has made strides into increasing its range, it is hard to compete with combustion and/or hybrid models. It also does not help that combustion/hybrid models have an edge to help with their range, and that there is an established gasoline infrastructure set up so drivers do not have to worry driving between cities, while full-electric do not have that set up. Russ Heaps noted that while public stations are being built, there is still a long way to go for charging infrastructure to catch up (Heaps). Even if there are enough public charging stations, or homeowners have them installed in their garages, there is the issue like a laptop or cell phone, and that is charging times. Heaps talked about that even if the charger is a level 3, it will still take more time to charge than a combustion or hybrid will to fill a tank at a pump (Heaps). While it be on a long trip or just to the supermarket, time is a factor for some; and if people having to wait longer than they should, then this could be a point on why customers are buying hybrids. Mike Monticello also has a section written about this and that depending on the level the charger, it can take anywhere between thirty minutes to hours (Monticello). This means for those who will just them in the city will not have much issues, but for those who will go cross county it will. This will make trips longer since owners will have to add charging stops to their journey, having to plan the wait times at those stops while watching combustion/hybrid vehicles pull up, pump, and leave in fraction of the time.
Another point, that was mentioned above, was that homeowners can have charging units installed in their garage so they can charge at home, which is a plus for homeowners, but not everyone owns a home. This does bring up that everyone owns a home, that renting is their only choice for the moment and can bring up issues if they want to buy a full-electric car since they may not have access to an outlet or be allowed to have a charger installed. Progressive, the insurance company, wrote an informative article on the differences of hybrid vs full-electric cars and under their pros and cons section, they mentioned about how homeowners can purchase and install a charger to charger their car overnight while most renters do not that luxury and either hope their community has a public charger installed or will have to get permission to (Progressive). This means homeowners will be the better candidates to buy a full-electric vehicle since they can charge at home while renters either must be lucky and have a community charger or ask the landlord to install a charger, which could raise the rent because of it. Monticello also mentioned a similar issue in his piece and that those who do not own a garage and live in an apartment or having to park in the street will find it a challenge to charge unless the complex or city will install chargers for them (Monticello). Whether having the luxury of having a charger in the garage or not, it does tie into the previous paragraph on why owners will like to charge at home. Heaps mentioned about the three levels of charging, that Level 3 charges in about an hour, Level 2 will take a few hours while Level 1 is at least a day (Heaps). For people who rent, they may be turned away from buying a full-electric vehicle since, for some, could be enough of a reason for some not to buy, especially if it takes overnight to charge and hoping a random person does not walk by and unplug it.
Whether being a homeowner, renter, or not knowing what level of charging is a turn off for some to purchase a full-electric vehicle, the battery bank underneath the vehicle could be a turn away from potential buyers. While battery technology has come a long way from when RC cars would last 20 minutes from hours of charging to full vehicles driving a few hundred miles off a single charge, a question is that how are these batteries made and are full-electric vehicles clean as people say they are. Both owners and potential owners say how clean full-electric vehicles are since they do not burn fossil fuels and pollute the air, but the query is what is both inside those batteries and how clean is it to produce. Chris Tonn of Reader's Digest wrote that mining for the rare-earth metals use more energy that people think, all the diesel fuel that is used from the bulldozers and other equipment that is used to dig, not to mention the high-temperature refining process that goes into it (Tonn). Tonn also goes on that China, the biggest producer of these types of batteries, produces up to 1.6 billion cubic meters of gaseous waste each year, though Tonn does go on to say that hopefully China's refining techniques improve to bring down the waste they produce (Tonn). Though the article Tonn wrote was fully about that full-electric cars are the future, he wanted to inform that the vehicles themselves are clean and pollutant free, the manufacturing process is not and can be more impactful that a city of combustion vehicles. While the way the batteries are produced is not a big topic, another right now that could become one is how the batteries act under certain weather conditions. Monticello did note that either very cold or very hot temperatures have affects on the battery, hindering the range the vehicle can get (Monticello). Range in general is bad right now, but unless the owner lives in a region with perfect temperature year-round, losing range during the cold winters and hot summers does not bode well for full-electric since hybrid, still will be affected to some degree, has its combustion engine to negate the effect. Krisher also has a piece on this in his article, stating that "Tests conducted in Norway, where nearly 80 percent of new vehicles are electric, found that EV's lose between 10 percent to 36 percent of their range during winter." (Krisher). While either the battery or auto manufactures will eventually overcome this shortfall, it is a concern since not all owners or potential owners live in warm climates, whether most or all the year; especially since combustion engines do not have that issue and still wok under extreme conditions for years.
While the way the batteries are produced may not be a big concern to the consumers, but it is to those on the other side of the table: the auto manufactures. This does shine a light onto them since, in the end, they do have the final say on what they produce, but mainly is their revenue goals and making the CEOs happy. Since cost efficiency is a top goal for auto manufactures, they see the numbers and choose building more for hybrid than full-electric. A piece in Heap's article, that according to Green Car Reports, on average a single battery for a full-electric vehicle has the equivalence of 17 hybrid batteries (Heaps). Those numbers there give hints unless there is a big spike in demand for full-electric vehicles, then they will most definitely stick to building hybrids since they get more product out of the same materials. Tucker mentioned in his Toyota section of the article that from a leaked document that was leaked to the public, mentioned that the minerals and material needed for one EV battery, Toyota can produce 90 batteries for hybrid vehicles or six batteries for plug-in hybrids (Tucker). It does not a genius to see that manufactures get more bang for their buck building hybrid vehicles over building a single full-electric vehicle, which then reflects in the prices for the vehicles when consumers are looking to buy. Krisher noted that the average price through November 2023, full-electric vehicles were at $60,500 (dropping from $63,000 last year), but the average price for a hybrid was around $42,000, a difference of $18,500 (Krisher). That much difference in price will easily sway away potential customers than are on a budget since it is not a small difference in price. That amount of money could go towards fixing their home, a medical emergency, or the family vacation. Wayland broke the pricing down more in his article with his graph he used from Edmunds. That graph shows from 2015 through November 2023, that the pricing rose for all three types of vehicles, but full-electric shot up the most quickly. Through November 2023, full-electric average sales were $59.4K, hybrids averaged $42.4K while combustion was a bit higher at $44.8K (Wayland). Those kinds of numbers can dictate how the potential customer will buy since the difference of $17K, will be just too much for some and will decide on buying a hybrid over a full-electric.
While it be hybrid has better range, shorter refuel time, or better pricing, full-electric will eventually overtake hybrids, it may take more time than planned. Since the current infrastructure has been around for decades for combustion engines, hybrids were an easy addition since they take gasoline like combustion and can take long trips while using the battery to give better range while being in the city or for stop-and-go traffic. Until America builds the same infrastructure as that for combustion/hybrids vehicles, battery technology improves so it becomes cheaper to produce and get better range, and the overall price for full-electric comes down, hybrids will be to go-to pick for customers for their driving needs.
Works Cited
My Three Weaknesses/Area's
-Have always had writers block which takes me longer to write than it should.
-Focus issues where I will be writing then something distracts me and lose train of thought.
-Time/planning has also been an issue since I feel I have enough of it then I struggle closer to the due date.
I'm currently taking ENG102 and had to write a research paper. It has been a few years since I wrote one and needed help proofreading the rough draft. Thank you in advanced.
Now that we are nearly a quarter in 2024, the automotive industry is still on pace for the goal of zero emission cars by 2035 with the number of models from current manufactures and all electric ones like Rivian or the established Tesla. While it is surprising that electric cars have been around since the early 2000's when GM came out with a model, it wasn't until Tesla rose and made electric cars popular and to some degree, affordable, the general public saw a clean alternative to the combustion engine. Manufactures saw this but knew it was not going to be an easy task, so they met half way and produced hybrids, cars that have electric batteries while still being powered by a combustion engine. This was only meant to be stepping stone, it has become more popular than ever during a point in which auto manufactures should be investing and producing more into full-electric, not the other way around. While range is the most common reason why consumers will not buy a Tesla, but there has got to be more to that on why hybrids are having rising sales and that is what this paper is going to find out.
Even though President Biden wants only full-electric only for new cars by the end of the next decade or so, sales are showing that consumers are not ready yet and hybrid sales are rising more than ever before, showing full-electric may not be ready for the world just yet. From the articles I have read, it is true that sales have been climbing more for hybrids that full-electric, even though sales for full-electric should be higher than they are. Like how in Michael Wayland's article that hybrid model sales in America have accounted for 8.3 percent, or about 1.2 million models sold, while full-electric only accounted for 6.9 percent, or about over 900k models sold through November of 2023 (Wayland). While these numbers are not at the point that most people, like Biden, are happy about, it still does show that hybrids have a 1.4 percent advantage over full-electric, even with the government rebates and tax right-offs for purchasing them. Wayland is not the only writer that I found that has the same conclusions that hybrids are more popular than full-electric. Tom Krisher at PBS that according to Edmunds, the total hybrids sold through November 2023 is up 76 percent from at the same period in 2022, showing a steep climb in sales (Krisher). This is the kind of spike that is a concern since, this being good for auto manufactures, is not good towards the plan for only full-electric sales in the next decade. While that is good for companies on making revenue and profits, it is not good for full-electric since Krisher also wrote that while full-electric models made record sales for 2023, unlike what is happening with hybrid models, their year-by-by has slowed almost to a stall (Krisher). It is good news that both are on the rise, however the issue is that hybrid models are rising each year while full-electric is stalling, which is not good since, at this point, full-electric should be competing with hybrid, not slowing down. This also is a red flag for car manufactures since they aim their cars on what is selling, which is not good for full-electric. Sean Tucker at Kelly Blue Book saw the same and in his article that the CEO's at Ford saw that and are planning on boosting production of their hybrid truck line since sales have risen instead of flatlining (Tucker). This is a concern since Ford had come out with the F-150 Lightning, it may sway Ford to focus more on their hybrid line while focusing less on the Lightning to the point of possibly phasing it out before it has a chance to grow. Tucker also wrote that GlobalData predicts Toyota, leading manufacture for hybrid vehicle sales, hybrid vehicle sales will grow another 7.5 percent for 2023 (Tucker). These sales points are not helping full-electric models if manufactures do not see a point into investing in them if hybrid models are bringing in the revenue at higher rates.
Sales do play a role since manufactures will focus their production line at what is selling over what is not, but it is not the on reason. Range has been the achilles heel and major reason why consumers choose hybrid over full-electric since hybrids can get the same range or more than their combustion counter-parts while full-electric gets about half the distance, making them more for city-only rather than all-around. Krisher has the same concern that while consumers want to switch to full-electric, the travel distance is a major concern, along with those that haul trailers, which that would drag the range down as well (Krisher). While there are not many full-electric vehicles that tow on the market right now, that whether towing a boat to the lake or lumber for a construction yard, this an important piece to know since it is mainly cars that are being electrified right now. Eventually trucks, SUVs, and commercial vehicles will have to be as well, and having a very low range to tow will hinder sales. Krisher also has a story in his article about Angie Rodesky that after moving to Missouri, she was encouraged by her children to buy a Tesla, but she was fearful about how a long road trip would go to Florida and Delaware to visit them, so she decided on a RAV4 hybrid model since "I needed to make sure I had a vehicle that was comfortable to ride in and had good gas mileage" she quoted (Krisher). While full-electric has made strides into increasing its range, it is hard to compete with combustion and/or hybrid models. It also does not help that combustion/hybrid models have an edge to help with their range, and that there is an established gasoline infrastructure set up so drivers do not have to worry driving between cities, while full-electric do not have that set up. Russ Heaps noted that while public stations are being built, there is still a long way to go for charging infrastructure to catch up (Heaps). Even if there are enough public charging stations, or homeowners have them installed in their garages, there is the issue like a laptop or cell phone, and that is charging times. Heaps talked about that even if the charger is a level 3, it will still take more time to charge than a combustion or hybrid will to fill a tank at a pump (Heaps). While it be on a long trip or just to the supermarket, time is a factor for some; and if people having to wait longer than they should, then this could be a point on why customers are buying hybrids. Mike Monticello also has a section written about this and that depending on the level the charger, it can take anywhere between thirty minutes to hours (Monticello). This means for those who will just them in the city will not have much issues, but for those who will go cross county it will. This will make trips longer since owners will have to add charging stops to their journey, having to plan the wait times at those stops while watching combustion/hybrid vehicles pull up, pump, and leave in fraction of the time.
Another point, that was mentioned above, was that homeowners can have charging units installed in their garage so they can charge at home, which is a plus for homeowners, but not everyone owns a home. This does bring up that everyone owns a home, that renting is their only choice for the moment and can bring up issues if they want to buy a full-electric car since they may not have access to an outlet or be allowed to have a charger installed. Progressive, the insurance company, wrote an informative article on the differences of hybrid vs full-electric cars and under their pros and cons section, they mentioned about how homeowners can purchase and install a charger to charger their car overnight while most renters do not that luxury and either hope their community has a public charger installed or will have to get permission to (Progressive). This means homeowners will be the better candidates to buy a full-electric vehicle since they can charge at home while renters either must be lucky and have a community charger or ask the landlord to install a charger, which could raise the rent because of it. Monticello also mentioned a similar issue in his piece and that those who do not own a garage and live in an apartment or having to park in the street will find it a challenge to charge unless the complex or city will install chargers for them (Monticello). Whether having the luxury of having a charger in the garage or not, it does tie into the previous paragraph on why owners will like to charge at home. Heaps mentioned about the three levels of charging, that Level 3 charges in about an hour, Level 2 will take a few hours while Level 1 is at least a day (Heaps). For people who rent, they may be turned away from buying a full-electric vehicle since, for some, could be enough of a reason for some not to buy, especially if it takes overnight to charge and hoping a random person does not walk by and unplug it.
Whether being a homeowner, renter, or not knowing what level of charging is a turn off for some to purchase a full-electric vehicle, the battery bank underneath the vehicle could be a turn away from potential buyers. While battery technology has come a long way from when RC cars would last 20 minutes from hours of charging to full vehicles driving a few hundred miles off a single charge, a question is that how are these batteries made and are full-electric vehicles clean as people say they are. Both owners and potential owners say how clean full-electric vehicles are since they do not burn fossil fuels and pollute the air, but the query is what is both inside those batteries and how clean is it to produce. Chris Tonn of Reader's Digest wrote that mining for the rare-earth metals use more energy that people think, all the diesel fuel that is used from the bulldozers and other equipment that is used to dig, not to mention the high-temperature refining process that goes into it (Tonn). Tonn also goes on that China, the biggest producer of these types of batteries, produces up to 1.6 billion cubic meters of gaseous waste each year, though Tonn does go on to say that hopefully China's refining techniques improve to bring down the waste they produce (Tonn). Though the article Tonn wrote was fully about that full-electric cars are the future, he wanted to inform that the vehicles themselves are clean and pollutant free, the manufacturing process is not and can be more impactful that a city of combustion vehicles. While the way the batteries are produced is not a big topic, another right now that could become one is how the batteries act under certain weather conditions. Monticello did note that either very cold or very hot temperatures have affects on the battery, hindering the range the vehicle can get (Monticello). Range in general is bad right now, but unless the owner lives in a region with perfect temperature year-round, losing range during the cold winters and hot summers does not bode well for full-electric since hybrid, still will be affected to some degree, has its combustion engine to negate the effect. Krisher also has a piece on this in his article, stating that "Tests conducted in Norway, where nearly 80 percent of new vehicles are electric, found that EV's lose between 10 percent to 36 percent of their range during winter." (Krisher). While either the battery or auto manufactures will eventually overcome this shortfall, it is a concern since not all owners or potential owners live in warm climates, whether most or all the year; especially since combustion engines do not have that issue and still wok under extreme conditions for years.
While the way the batteries are produced may not be a big concern to the consumers, but it is to those on the other side of the table: the auto manufactures. This does shine a light onto them since, in the end, they do have the final say on what they produce, but mainly is their revenue goals and making the CEOs happy. Since cost efficiency is a top goal for auto manufactures, they see the numbers and choose building more for hybrid than full-electric. A piece in Heap's article, that according to Green Car Reports, on average a single battery for a full-electric vehicle has the equivalence of 17 hybrid batteries (Heaps). Those numbers there give hints unless there is a big spike in demand for full-electric vehicles, then they will most definitely stick to building hybrids since they get more product out of the same materials. Tucker mentioned in his Toyota section of the article that from a leaked document that was leaked to the public, mentioned that the minerals and material needed for one EV battery, Toyota can produce 90 batteries for hybrid vehicles or six batteries for plug-in hybrids (Tucker). It does not a genius to see that manufactures get more bang for their buck building hybrid vehicles over building a single full-electric vehicle, which then reflects in the prices for the vehicles when consumers are looking to buy. Krisher noted that the average price through November 2023, full-electric vehicles were at $60,500 (dropping from $63,000 last year), but the average price for a hybrid was around $42,000, a difference of $18,500 (Krisher). That much difference in price will easily sway away potential customers than are on a budget since it is not a small difference in price. That amount of money could go towards fixing their home, a medical emergency, or the family vacation. Wayland broke the pricing down more in his article with his graph he used from Edmunds. That graph shows from 2015 through November 2023, that the pricing rose for all three types of vehicles, but full-electric shot up the most quickly. Through November 2023, full-electric average sales were $59.4K, hybrids averaged $42.4K while combustion was a bit higher at $44.8K (Wayland). Those kinds of numbers can dictate how the potential customer will buy since the difference of $17K, will be just too much for some and will decide on buying a hybrid over a full-electric.
While it be hybrid has better range, shorter refuel time, or better pricing, full-electric will eventually overtake hybrids, it may take more time than planned. Since the current infrastructure has been around for decades for combustion engines, hybrids were an easy addition since they take gasoline like combustion and can take long trips while using the battery to give better range while being in the city or for stop-and-go traffic. Until America builds the same infrastructure as that for combustion/hybrids vehicles, battery technology improves so it becomes cheaper to produce and get better range, and the overall price for full-electric comes down, hybrids will be to go-to pick for customers for their driving needs.
Works Cited
My Three Weaknesses/Area's
-Have always had writers block which takes me longer to write than it should.
-Focus issues where I will be writing then something distracts me and lose train of thought.
-Time/planning has also been an issue since I feel I have enough of it then I struggle closer to the due date.
