Electric Cars: How The EV Revolution Creates Better Smart Cities
Sustainability has become one of the hot topics and top priorities for the world we live in today. Over the past decade in particular, we’ve seen countless initiatives that make life better for all, with technology undoubtedly making the biggest strides in this direction. Through all it can do, the tech world has pushed us generations ahead in relative terms to what the world has seen to date. And as anyone reading this would have noticed by now, the motor industry is going through a transformation only comparable to the invention of the car itself. Electric cars are changing the game in terms of usability, pollution, reduction emissions, and more - including how we look to power this and other utilities over the next 10 to 15 years.
Thankfully, this is part of what we know and imagine incorporated into smart communities, which are overstressed with high traffic and the problems that surround that issue. And as much as the sales of new electric (and hybrid) cars are rapidly picking up pace, one of the issues stopping many people from going electric is the lack of present infrastructure (outside people’s own homes, at least) to charge up your car with the same ease as with popping into a petrol station. In order for this to grow and gain more scalability, cities need infrastructures that can accommodate charging these cars - which will result in less polluted streets, as well as reduction of noise levels which highly contribute to improve the overall quality of life of our communities (which isn’t, however, without its own set of challenges).
Forbes recently published an article looking into how Smart Cities can lead this transformation, throwing in key figures such as the fact that while cities account for 55% of the global population, they’re responsible for around three-quarters of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. In the US alone, transportation makes up about 28% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions (going up as high as 47% in California) making it the most significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in that country. While more economically powerful states such as New York and California are taking steps to lead the change away from fossil fuels, it can only really take hold and make a difference if smaller cities and communities are also part of this trend.
If there’s something that we’ve learned from the pandemic, it’s how the lockdown drastically improved air quality and reduced pollution in cities in a short period of time. This only encouraged manufacturers to speed up their promise of more electric vehicles on our roads. But governments and local authorities need to incorporate charging stations into their city planning and smart urban development strategies, while also planning for more fluid traffic and better road infrastructures in the long run. Beyond immediate mobility and sustainability, the EV revolution has the potential to bring about huge improvements to the quality of life in our cities, and no smart city planner should allow themselves to be left behind. And unlike gas stations, EV charging can be incorporated virtually anywhere in the city, so there are really no excuses.
