Oil is a big part of the economy in the United States. Americans love to drive and some even have made a career out of it. But some people may say that oil is old and we need a change. Some will say that extracting oil (fracking) is bad for the environment. Some will even say that electric cars are the new, energy-efficient alternative to gasoline cars. The people who say this may sound like they know that we need a change in the world. Honestly, I would disagree with them. There are so many people who would say that I am wrong, but there are a few reasons that I would argue with them. The cost of oil and electric cars. Gas and electricity prices. The cost of batteries. Energy to make gas and electric cars. The energy to make the batteries.

According to CNBC, the cost of gas and electric cars vary widely. electric cars cost about $10,000 more to buy than gas cars, on average the price for a car is $46,329 including gas and electric. Electric cars on average cost about $56,437 while gas cars cost about $36,221. That is a big difference when looking at a new car. Used cars upfront can vary even wider depending on the condition and the mileage on the car. It is also easier to find a used car due to all the cars that have been made over the course of 100 years. Overall the less expensive option is the gas car by almost $20,000 and could be even more if you find a used gas car.

Gas prices are going up for reasons the mainstream media is not reporting on. One of the big factors is the sanctions on Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine. The United States will no longer buy oil from Russia until the conflict ends and Russia withdraws from Ukraine. The thing that the mainstream media does not report on is the cutting of fracking. Fracking is slowly being cut off by the United States even though there is a lot of oil in Texas. Texas is the largest oil-producing state in the United States. According to STASTICA, Texas produced 1.78 billion barrels of oil in 2020. To show how much that is, NASDAQ estimates that the average American uses about 22 barrels of oil in one year. That totals to about 80,909,091 people using oil for one year. It costs the average American about 17 cents to drive one mile in a gas-powered car.

Electric cars run on electricity and usually stay at a consistent price. According to ADFCENERGY instead of measuring in gallons, these cars run on kilowatts per hour. The average amount of kilowatts an electric car can hold is 66. The cost of one kilowatt per hour is about 13 cents making it 4 cents cheaper than a gallon of gas. The average gas car can hold about 13 gallons of gas and totals $55.96 to fill the gas car completely while the electric car costs about $8.58 to charge. This may sound like a bargain but once you weigh the cost of the car at the dealership, the average life expectancy of the car totals another $26,000 in spending for kilowatts and another $34,000 on gas cars. After totaling those costs with the cost of the car, the gas car totals $70,221 and the electric car costs $82,437. After the prices of the vehicle and gas combined, gas is still the better alternative.

The energy to make gas and electric cars also vary just based on what's under the hood. The electric car uses a lithium-ion battery while the gas-powered car uses a lead-acid battery. The electric battery in a Tesla costs about 5-7 thousand dollars and the Tesla uses 4-5 batteries at one time. That does not even include installation. Installation could cost you up to another 10 thousand dollars. To make a full replacement of the battery, it would cost 20-85 thousand dollars and that could get you a new car with a working battery and everything else running smoothly. Lucky for lithium-ion batteries though, you only need to change them only once. According to MORORWORKSMINI gas cars the lead-acid battery costs about $50-200 and should be replaced every 4-5 years ((about 48,000-60,000 miles) about ⅓ of the car's lifespan). That ranges from $150-600 and another $130 to install each time. Totaling $280-730 over the car's life. After adding up the price of the car, the cost of gas and electricity, and now the cost of battery replacement, the average cost for gas cars is the minimum price of $70,501 and electric at the minimum price of $102,437. So far gas cars are still significantly cheaper than electric cars by $31,936. That is a lot of money. With an extra 5 grand, you could buy yourself an entirely new gas-powered car.

According to MOTORIST, it takes about 474 gallons of gas to make a gas-powered car with electric-powered cars using about 25% more or 592.5 gallons of gas to make these cars. Other than that, the cars are designed mostly the same. Even though electric cars have 0 carbon emissions when driving. They still produce more being built. After building the car and driving the car over the car's entire lifespan, the carbon emissions are less in the electric car by a very slim amount. A rough estimate would still conclude that gas-powered cars are still significantly cheaper than electric cars and slightly worse for the environment. Even so, plants need carbon dioxide to create a chemical reaction called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is when a plant takes in carbon dioxide and releases oxygen. If we preserved enough land spread out throughout the world we wouldn't have to worry about carbon emissions.

My opinion stands as gas-powered cars are humans' early past, present, and future. In the future, I see gas-powered cars still being used more than electric cars. The facts show that gas-powered cars are a lot cheaper to make and sell. Some people may argue that gas-powered cars are something in 2035 that would be shown at the fair that kids would go up to parents and say, “what is that dad/mom”, and we can tell them our past of driving the hand-me-down gas-powered car that we got when we passed our drivers test and how we fell in love with the open road.