We as a people are getting more and more conscious about how we affect the environment. This has led to at least in the automobile industry finding ways to reduce emissions as much as possible. We currently have two clean fuel options available in the market the cheap and reliable CNG or no emission electricity. Which one is the better choice and will one devour the other? Let’s try to find out in the comparison of CNG vs Electric Cars!
Decade Of CNG Vs Newly Established Electric Cars
In India, CNG has been around for a while. It offers a cheaper alternative to petrol and diesel at the cost of power. This con doesn’t matter for most of the vehicles it comes with as they are not supposed to be driven like a race car. Electric vehicles on the other hand are just starting out and lack a lot of infrastructures needed to make them convenient.
However, even though it has been over a decade since CNG was introduced in India, it’s still not available all over the country. Setting up a CNG station is not easy or cheap. Electricity on the other hand is already present in almost all of India and setting up a power charging plant is exponentially easy. This gives EV a plus point over the CNG vs electric cars debate.
CNGs Reduced Emission Vs Absolute Zero Emission Of EV
The natural gas alternative might have a low emission number compared to its petrol and diesel counterpart but it still has emissions. EV on the other hand produces zero emissions. One can debate it pollutes the environment when electricity is generated but there are methods to harness electricity that also produce 0 emissions.
Importing CNG vs Home Produced Electricity
India has a 45.3% import dependence for CNG and LPG. As you might have guessed it’s not cheap for the government to import gas.CNG will eventually start getting costly. Electricity on the other hand is completely home produced. Setting up more nuclear power plants will make electricity even cheaper.
Costly CNG Cars Vs Subsidised EV
Compared to a petrol car the CNG variant of that same vehicle will cost you more. The extra money does pay itself due to CNG being cheaper than petrol. EVs on the other hand are getting multiple subsidies to make them more lucrative to the general public. The more EV on the road the more profitable it will be for companies to set up charging stations.
CNG vs electric cars usually states that EVs are costlier than CNG cars. While this is true there is another point here, which is that Electricity is cheaper than CNG. This will allow EVs to become cheaper over time.
Dual Fuel CNG options Vs Only Electricity
CNG as most people know can be used in tandem with petrol or LPG. This gives CNG a more effective range as you have two different fuel sources that do not share the same storage. EV on the other hand use battery packs that currently over a decent range but lack when compared with dual CNG.
Accept it or not, EV is here to stay. It will eventually take over CNG and other fuel options due to being cheaper and more environmentally friendly than other fuel options.
