In the past five years, a revolution (革命) has gathered pace in the transport sector. Electric cars have hit the mainstream.
The latest figures released on 26 April by the International Energy Agency (IEA) suggest almost one-in-five new cars sold worldwide this year will be either a full-battery or plug-in hybrid (插电式混合动力) models. In total, 14 million of these kinds of vehicles are expected to be sold this year, up from around a million in 2017.
This explosive growth is a testament to industry innovation and government interventions (干预). Falling battery costs have delivered longer-range cars, boosting their consumer appeal. Meanwhile, government policies, including upcoming restrictions on the sale of new petrol and diesel (柴油) cars in some countries, have caused people to choose zero-emission driving.
But although electrification of the global vehicle fleet brings climate benefits, there is also cause for concern. SUVs have been growing in popularity in recent years, accounting for 42% of all car sales in 2020. At the same time, electric SUVs have also gained ground, representing roughly 35% of electric passenger car sales in 2022.
Electric SUVs are still greener than their petrol and diesel counterparts, but their size and weight erase some of the climate gains from moving to electric vehicles. Their larger batteries also require more raw minerals, putting extra pressure on already stretched global supplies. “The trend towards larger cars is definitely not desirable at all,” says Christian Brand from the University of Oxford.
Air pollution is another worry. “The benefit of moving to an electric vehicle, from an exhaust (废气) emission point of view is pretty small,” says Frank Kelly from Imperial College London. And since electric vehicles still produce pollution from their tyres, brakes and road wear, air pollution won’t fully go away. “We’re still going to have a pretty big problem in our cities,” says Kelly.
As such, governments must do more to reduce car dependency, particularly in urban areas, says Kelly. “Clean public transport is the solution to our air pollution problem in urban areas.” he says.
8. What does Paragraph 3 mainly talk about?
A.How the car industry transformed. |
B.Why people turn to electric vehicles. |
C.A prediction of the car industry’s future. |
D.A comparison between electric vehicles and traditional ones. |
9. Which of the following can best replace the underlined part “gained ground” in paragraph 4?
A.Met with opposition. | B.Control the market. |
C.Made significant progress. | D.Gone into gradual decline (下降). |
10. What does Kelly suggest people do?
A.Use public transport. | B.Share cars with others. |
C.Stop using petrol vehicles. | D.Choose smaller electric vehicles. |
11. What can be a suitable title for the text?
A.Electric vehicles are rapidly taking off — but is that a good thing? |
B.The future of electric vehicles and material resources? |
C.How green are electric vehicles? Well, that depends. |
D.Did SUVs just win the electric vehicle market? |