Gasoline prices seem to be one of the most looked after index in recent months. People seem to be wary of the rising gas prices and have become more concerned on how this will affect the other aspects of every day life. Of course, with such an essential necessity as gasoline, there would be many things that would in fact be affected in the worse sense.
As the sudden rise in gasoline prices have made people become more concerned, it would also be very important to know about the different factors that give rise to such increases in the first place. There are four main elements that affect the pricing of gasoline in the retail market, primary of which is the price of crude oil in the world market.
Crude oil is the initial raw material from where gasoline is refined and derived from. Crude oil, a majority of it, is sourced and supplied from Middle East countries. It is these countries that have control over the price of crude oil in the world market. Countries that get their crude oil supply from these oil producing countries are the most affected by the sudden increase in crude oil prices. Overall, crude oil pricing affects about 75 percent of the price tag for gasoline in the retail market.
Refining costs also can affect gasoline pricing. Different countries as well as areas have certain regulations when it comes to the gasoline products that they acquire fro the retailers. Some places require less polluting gasoline than others. Some have higher standards than others. This usually means that the refining process for gasoline may be different from those following less stringent standards. Although this may prove to be helpful in some sense, added refining requirements can also be considered as additional costs for gasoline. The costs are eventually passed on to the consumers in the guise of higher gasoline prices.
Aside from the price of crude oil and refining costs, distribution costs also account for a great deal of the retail price of gasoline in the market. Aside from shipping and overseas transport costs, distributing gasoline to the different gasoline stations in the area may also account for the retail price of the gasoline. Some areas may have some difficulties obtaining their gasoline supply due to distance as well as accessibility while some have it easy because of being in close proximity to major gas depots. It is through this that gas prices may also differ from one area to another. Distribution also affects the gasoline retail price.
Taxes on gasoline also may affect how the product may be priced on the retail market. Different countries follow different sets of taxation for crude oil as well as gasoline. There are national as well as local taxes to contend with when it comes to gasoline. Some places have lower taxes put on gasoline as compared to others. But these places have something in common in that these taxes affect gasoline prices a great deal. The higher the taxes placed on crude oils products and byproducts such as gasoline, the higher the price tag would be when it finally arrives in the retail market. Controlling the taxes put on gasoline may be a way to bring gasoline prices down to some extent. But they are not the only answer to an eventual reduction in gas prices.
Rising gasoline prices may just make other forms of alternative means of transportation become more attractive. One of the ways not to be affected by the rising prices of gas is to have an alternative means of travel. Of course, saving up on gasoline use may help in some way, but such actions may still leave one affected with the rising prices of gas. A better way would be trying to use a mode of transportation aside from one that makes use of fuel aside from gasoline. One such example is the use of an electric car.
An electric car is one type of an alternative vehicle. It makes use of electricity as its primary power source. Instead of an internal combustion engine, the electric car, also commonly called as an EV or electric vehicle, has an electric motor to make the vehicle move. It is an alternative fuel vehicle that does not use refined fossil oil for fuel.
Electric cars get electricity for power by means of electric battery packs built on board. One of the advantages of using electric vehicles or EV's is that they are environmentally friendly. Unlike fossil fuel that emits a number of pollutants into the air when being used, the use of electricity for power does not do so, except that the power plants that may produce them do. But with using electric cars, the emission of harmful pollutants may be reduced substantially. Less cars using fossils fuel and gasoline would help make this possible. And someday, when more electric power is sourced from nuclear, solar, wind and hydro-electric power plants, pollutant emissions will even be reduced more.
Performance-wise, electric cars offer smoother and noiseless operation that cars relying on gasoline. Electric cars provide stronger acceleration and the electric motor requires lesser maintenance than the internal combustion engines of cars using gasoline and other fossil fuels. By using electricity through batteries, energy conversion is more efficient. Electric motors makes use of 75 percent of the chemical energy converted into electricity to run the car. Internal combustion engines or ICE's only are able to make use about 20 percent of the energy stored in gasoline to power the vehicle.
If most think that the electric car is a recent invention, then they are mistaken. The electric vehicle is in fact one of the earliest vehicles known to exist. Small electric powered vehicles even predate the development of the diesel and gasoline engines. The earliest electric carriage was built between 1832 and 1839. The development of other electric cars also increased for some time during the 1860's along with the improvement of the storage battery. It was even the electric cars that held many of the speed and distance records during this time. But unfortunately, the advent of the internal combustion engines came during the early 1900's, which led to the decrease in the use of electric cars.
With the appearance of the more powerful and affordable diesel and gasoline powered cars starting in the early 1900's, the market for electric cars slowly disappeared. Although there were still electric cars being made, those that do exist were being produced for specialized applications. One of the most common use for the electric vehicle today may be found in the golf carts as a primary mode of compact transport in golf courses. But because of the rising gasoline prices as well as the worsening pollution, there has been an renewed demand for the less polluting alternative electric vehicles in recent years.
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