Car Tech A to Z - Z is for zero emissions vehicles

The technology contained within the modern motor car can be both fascinating and slightly baffling. Most such technology exists to make our cars safer, more efficient and just better than ever to drive but some of it can be quite confusing for the average motorist. In this A to Z series we will attempt to unravel the mystery of technology that is the modern motor car. In our final week, we’re visiting the letter Z…

Z is for… zero emissions vehicles. Whether all-electric vehicles can ever genuinely be classed as zero emissions is, of course, a subject for much debate nowadays. The key questions being – where does the electricity to power them come from in the first place? And what exactly are the emissions given off by these source providers?

Because wherever it comes from – normally power stations that burn either fossil fuels or produce nuclear energy – the very production of such electricity means, ultimately, that all-electric vehicles can never be classed as being fully zero emissions.

Having said that, there can be no doubt that electric vehicles are a whole lot better for us than their combustion-engined equivalents.

Plus, renewable energy is clearly making a big difference these days as well. By harvesting the natural energy brought to us by the wind, the sun and the waters all around us – the sources to power all-electric vehicles are becoming cleaner every day.

Either way, the progress of the electric vehicle has become relentless in 2017.

Even though hydrogen-powered cars are unquestionably cleaner than their electric equivalents, for whatever reason the technology hasn’t caught on like it has, finally, in the electric segment.

Electric vehicles are now the recent past, the present and very much the future of our motoring lives, and the technology they contain will get better and become more affordable – and more appealing to use – as it continues to develop.

So maybe we’re not all doomed in the automotive industry, as some of the naysayers would have us all believe. The truth, in fact, is the exact opposite – because right now the future of motoring looks brighter than ever – thanks to the astonishing development of the extraordinary technologies that all of our cars now contain, none more so than electric cars…