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Introduction

Since the mass production of the modern automobile, we rely largely on cars for transportation, not just domestically but also industrially. Cars have worked their way into how we design our city and rural infrastructure. We now rely largely on automobiles to transport goods such as materials, food, and fuel across the country, The latter of which is important because for most of history up until very recently, we relied exclusively on fuel combustion engines for all of our automobile vehicles, The recent exception being electric vehicles. Which raises the question: what are the pros and cons of combustion engine and electric automobiles?

Combustion engines

First and foremost, how does an internal combustion engine work?

Well like the name implies, combustion engines rely on the combustion of fuel. Fuel is compressed by pistons and ignited in a cylinder, the combustion reinstates the cycle of the pistons. The cycle of the pistons transfers energy to the crankshaft, which spins as a result. The transmission, which is what spins the wheels of your car and shifts gears, is connected to the crankshaft. This allows for the wheels to spin, and at higher RPM’s (Rotations Per Minute) the wheels can spin faster. The RPM of your engine is the crankshaft’s speed as a result of the combustion of fuel. (3, 5.)

It can be inferred that combustion engines revolve around this fuel, which begs the question: where does this fuel come from?

Well unlike the names suggests, fossil fuels are not made of dinosaurs, but rather large amounts of smaller life forms like ancient plants and zooplankton that have died and have been covered over by millions if not billions of years worth of silt. The silt encloses and pressurizes the fossils down to a liquid as micro-bacteria strip the fossils down to mostly carbon and hydrogen, along with trace amounts of other elements like phosphorus. (14, 17.)

This fossil liquid is petroleum, which makes our gas and oils. Petroleum is tapped by large drills either by land or sea. Once extracted from kilometers of rock the petroleum is transported and refined. The refined petroleum, now gasoline, is then transported where it may be bought and sold, eventually ending up in an automobile vehicle as fuel, which is inhaled, compressed, ignited, and then exhausted into the air. (3, 7, 18.)

This leads to the biggest problem with fossil fuels and subsequently combustion engines, which is pollution. Fossil fuels aren’t just used in automobile cars, but also planes, ships, and power infrastructure. Petroleum being mostly comprised of carbon and hydrogen, produces a lot of carbon dioxide waste when burnt and exhausted into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which are gasses that can trap heat in the atmosphere generated by our sun. An excess of greenhouse gas emissions can trap an excessive amount of heat, which in other words, heats up our planet, aka: global warming. (6,15, 18.)

Carbon dioxide amounts to 80% of greenhouse gas emissions, with 90% of that coming from the burning of fossil fuels, transportation alone taking up the most at 35% of carbon dioxide admissions.

In 2022 we emitted 6,343 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. (6,15.)

Electric vehicles

Electric cars are relatively simple, especially in comparison to internal combustion engines. An electric car is powered entirely by a series of lithium ion batteries, these batteries are rechargeable at electric charging stations. The batteries power an induction motor, which could be thought of as the “engine”. Induction motors also remove the need for a transmission, as transmissions act as a conversion of the combustion engine's RPM to the wheels (so to speak). An induction motor can be connected directly to the wheels and shift gears.

The upside to an electric car is that no combustion of fossil fuels occurs in order to power it, and subsequently no carbon emissions. This makes electric cars much cleaner and more energy efficient, even if the power comes from the non-green power grid. Electric cars are also cheaper to maintain as they have fewer mechanical parts than internal combustion engines, and cheaper to run for not needing fuel. Though electric cars do have higher upfront costs as they are still in their relative infancy. Electric cars also have fewer vehicle fires than combustion engines. However a serious flaw of the lithium ion batteries is thermal runaway. Though very rare, thermal runaway is a chain reaction that can occur when one or multiple of the ion batteries in an electric car fails. When one battery fails it will start to overheat and subsequently damage the adjacent batteries, causing those batteries to also overheat and fail, etc etc. usually after a period of time the batteries will get so hot they will catch fire and or explode, and because of how hot lithium ion fires can get these fires are extremely grueling to extinguish. Thankfully thermal runaway is extremely rare, with only 25 fires for every 100,000 electric cars sold. (9, 20, 21.)

The Pros and Cons

It's important to understand how the production and operation of automotive vehicles has affected ecosystems and communities if we’re to grasp the consequences of relying on them. The oil and electric industry are some of the most economically driven industries in the world, the pursuit of monetary gain more often than not leads to a “culture of negligence” in regard to human life, and our earth.

The production necessary for lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles requires the mining of cobalt and lithium. Both are industries that are linked to slave and child labor. And it's not uncommon for companies who rely on lithium ion batteries to make a profit off of sourcing minerals from these unethical mines. The mining of these minerals also produces a lot of waste which is destructive to ecosystems and emits carbon dioxide which goes into the atmosphere. Subsequently, this makes the production of electric vehicles less eco-friendly than the production of gas cars. However the carbon emissions are made up for in the electric vehicle’s lifetime. (1, 7.)

Not too dissimilar to the local pollution caused by lithium mines, is that of the oil drill. Oil drilling is the culprit of inconceivable devastation upon entire communities and ecosystems, particularly in South Africa, which corporations like Shell have sought to exploit for its large quantities of oil. This devastation on the ecosystem is no better demonstrated than in 2008, where Shell poorly maintained an oil pipe which leaked into nearby water. This wreaked irreparable havoc on the environment. Entire communities, particularly that of the Bodo people, who relied largely on fishing for generations in waters that now glisten with the iridescent shine of oil. These are far from the only examples of negligence on behalf of oil companies. (11, 12.)

An important factor to also consider on the emission cost of combustion engines vehicles is the gas industry itself. The fossil fuel industry is reliant upon its own product in order to operate, everything from the drilling, transportation, refining, and our own power grid are all reliant upon fossil fuels. This is also important when considering the carbon footprint of electric cars. Electric cars require power which is drawn from the power grid, which could be sourced from fossil fuel boilers which account for 30% of all carbon emissions. Despite this an electric car drawing power from a non-green power grid is still astronomically more energy efficient and cleaner than a gas car using fossil fuels. (7, 15, 18.)

Electric pros:

Charges being cheaper and more sustainable than fuel in the long term.
Cheaper maintenance for having fewer mechanical parts.
Significantly smaller carbon footprint than gas powered cars during operation.
Market and public interest making electric cars likely cheaper in the future.
Better energy efficiency than gas

Combustion engine pros:

Cheaper upfront costs
Production of gas powered cars produce less C02 emissions than the production necessary for electric cars
On average cheaper to repair and maintain
More accessible

Electric cons:

Some companies source cobalt and lithium from mines that utilize child labor and or have poor safety conditions.
Electric cars up front prices are more expensive than most gas powered cars making them harder to afford.
electric charging stations are sometimes harder to find than gas stations.
Electric cars run for significantly less time than gas powered cars, making them harder to use on long trips.
Electric car production produces more CO2 than gas car production because of lithium mining being needed for the batteries
Small chance of thermal runaway

Combustion engine cons:

The refining and transportation of oil is extremely pollutive and energy inefficient
A gas car has a larger carbon footprint than electric in its lifespan
Gas cars are more expensive to operate and maintain than electric cars.

Works Cited

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Amnesty International. “Nigeria/UK: “Historic moment” as community devastated by Shell oil spills have final chance for justice.” Amnesty International, 7 May 2025, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/05/nigeria-uk-historic-moment-as-community-devastated-by-shell-oil-spills-have-final-chance-for-justice/. Accessed November 2025.
animagraffs. “How a Car Engine Works.” youtube.com, 13 march 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQvfHyfgBtA&start=136. Accessed november 2025.
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The thumbnail is an edited picture originally taken by Rindert Dalstra, all other pictures were taken by Michael Philip Manheim

All images used are in the public domain.

https://creativecriminals.com/billboard/eskom/use-electricity-wisely

https://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/albums/72157620726678645/

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