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STANDARDS

CCSS: 6.SP.B.4, 6.SP.B.5, 7.SP.B.3, 8.SP.A.1, MP1, MP5, MP6

TEKS: 6.12A, 6.12B, 6.12C, 6.12D, 6.13A, 7.6G, 7.12A, 8.5C, 8.11A

 

Charging Ahead

From cars to buses to trucks, vehicles are becoming electric. Instead of burning gasoline, they run on batteries. To fuel up an electric car, you plug it into a special electrical outlet. Mass production of electric cars began in 2010. Since then, new models have taken the U.S. by storm—and are offering a more environmentally friendly alternative to gas-burning cars.

Despite their growing popularity, electric cars are still a relatively small portion of the vehicles you’ll see on U.S. roads. One reason is that they’re more expensive than gas-burning cars. But this is beginning to change. “The cost of the batteries going into electric vehicles has fallen drastically, by about 80 percent,” says Christopher Knittel, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Falling battery costs means lower price tags on new electric cars.

More electric cars on the road is good news for the environment. But exactly how good depends on where the electricity from their home outlet comes from: About 63 percent of the electricity in the U.S. is generated by burning fossil fuels. If electric cars are powered by this energy, they’re still contributing to fossil fuel emissions. But some states, like California and Massachusetts, get more of their electricity from renewable sources, such as wind and solar.

Still, gas-powered cars are one of the major sources of greenhouse gases, so, according to Knittel, “every year that we miss moving toward a more sustainable car market is another year wasted for the climate.”

Google Quiz

Click the Google Quiz button below to share an interactive version of the questions with your class. Click Download PDF for the non-interactive blank answer sheet.

Download PDF

Shutterstock.com (background); Universal Images Group via Getty Images (car); iStockPhoto/Getty Images (symbol); Gabe Souza/Portland Press Herald/Getty Images (plug); Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images (charging)

Answer the following questions using the information in the charts and graphs above. Record your work and answers on our answer sheet.

Which electric car can travel the farthest per charge?

A. Tesla Model S 100D

B. BMW i3

C. Chevrolet Bolt EV

D. Volkswagen e-Golf

About how many electric cars were there in 2015?

A. 225,000

B. 410,000

C. 740,000

D. 1,200,000

How many more electric charging stations were there in Colorado in 2020 than in 2014?

A. 527

B. 744

C. 1,008

D. 5,112

About how many more miles can the Chevrolet Bolt EV travel in one charge than the BMW i3?

A. 65

B. 85

C. 105

D. 125

What percent of the total U.S. charging stations in 2020 are in California?

A. 10%

B. 15%

C. 20%

D. 25%

In which year was the number of electric cars worldwide about 2,000,000?

A. 2014

B. 2015

C. 2016

D. 2017

What was the percent change in charging stations in Texas from 2014 to 2020, rounded to the nearest percent?

 What percent of the total charging stations in the U.S. in 2020 do the states in the map represent, rounded to the nearest percent?

About how many times would you have to charge a Nissan Leaf Plus on a 1,285-mile road trip from New York City to Miami, Florida?

Poll your class on their favorite type of electric car. Customize your own poll using the Google form below. Then make a bar graph of the results.

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