There are concerns about how gas combustion pollutes the environment with carbon emissions. Electric-powered cars answer these concerns logistically by swapping out the combustion engine for a lithium-powered engine, which in turn lessens carbon emissions and consumption of fossil fuels because a lithium battery does not require such materials. But how much better is this for the environment than an electric car.
Humans heavily rely on effective transportation has taken a huge toll on the planet. Automotive vehicles are responsible for 20% of the earth's greenhouse gas emissions on the entire planet (AnneMagdalene Syré, Pavlo Shyposha, Leonard Freisem, Anton Pollak, & Dietmar Göhlich. (2024). This makes up a great portion of the daily activities we are doing that are negatively impacting the environment. Two vehicle processes are responsible for air pollution, motor running, and material abrasion (Patrick Miner, Barbara M. Smith, Anant Jani, Geraldine McNeill, Alfred Gathorne-Hardy). The most talked about pollutants from cars are the emissions caused by the engine and the burning of
fossil fuels, but there are a lot of other car-related procedures that further increase the negative impacts on Earth.
With the adaptation of electric vehicles, there is also a large market for how many different kinds there are. The most common ones on the market are hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in electric vehicles, extended-range electric vehicles, and battery electric vehicles (M. Mahammad and C. Bethi). All these
variations come with different sets of qualities that are unique for the features accessible. When electric cars were first introduced to consumers, the biggest concern was caused by the lack of supported infrastructure rather than pricing constraints (M. Mahammad and C. Bethi).
The environmental and health problems that are directly related to gas vehicles promoted the switch to innovation of electric vehicles. The issue that lies with this is how accurate is the information given to us about electric vehicles. To address this, it is important to understand where our electricity comes from. Key sources of electricity production in the United States of America are coal, natural gas, nuclear energy, wind energy, hydropower, and solar energy (Kish). Even with our push to be more sustainable we still heavily rely on creating electricity with harmful environmental impacts. The energy used to charge an electric car comes from various sources, but mainly from coal (Kish).
Deconstructed theory of planned behavior is understanding how an attitude towards a behavior subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control influences one's intentions and behaviors. Understanding this theory concludes how beneficial personal and outside behaviors lead to influencing you to perceive something as good or bad for you. Before I explain how the theory applies to my research it is important to understand the terms
1.Attitude - Attitude towards a Behavior
2.subjective norm - influence from societal norm, or support from others close to you. This is broken down into two categories injunctive and descriptive. Injunctive = others encourage behavior Descriptive = others do the behavior as well
3.precieved behavioral control - Level of control like being capable and confident or can overcome barriers and challenges
4.Beliefs - things that make up self-worth and morals
5.Intentions - All things tied together influence how likely to engage in behavior
6.Behaviors - How one thinks and feels about behavior this is broken down into two categories.
1.Affective -Is the behavior enjoyable or not?
2.Instrumental -Is the behavior beneficial or harmful
With my research I have understood that electric cars are a perceived notion of the intent of someone to purchase something because they believe it will boot their esteem and align with their morals. For example, if a friend raves to you about a product that absolutely changes your life, you will first think is this something that applies to me? Or is this something that will benefit me? These are things that influence your behavior towards what others have implied is good. This is the same for electric cars, outside influences lead towards the attitude you have towards electric cars, celebrities have them, they are ranked high in terms of sustainability. You also have friend who tells you how much they love theirs, this ties into encouragement and the fact that they have one themselves