Cannabis and Cars: Everything You Need to Know

Cannabis has been shown to have a plethora of benefits, both medically and industrially. People have found a way to incorporate cannabis in many different ways. Although recreational use and consumption of cannabis using accessories, which you can find here, is the most popular method, the benefits of cannabis are endless and can be used across all industries. 

Cannabis has the potential to impact the auto industry significantly, and if this is the first time you hear of this, keep reading to learn more! From fuel additives to plastics, improving fuel efficiency to reducing emissions, cannabis could play a major role in making cars more environmentally friendly. In this blog post, we will explore five ways that cannabis can help the automotive industry.

This is Not a New Idea

You might have stumbled across this article due to an interest in finding out whether or not hemp can be an effective material to make cars, thinking that this is a revolutionary idea. However, you might be surprised to learn that it is not a recent idea at all, and this was basically done all the way back in 1941 by Henry Ford, the famous founder of the Ford Motor Company. 

When you think of Ford, you probably picture the Ford Mustang. However, Henry Ford actually created the world’s first hemp plastic car. Why was this significant? Because back then, the car he made was lighter than other cars made of steel, by around 300 pounds, and was more resistant to impact by ten times. 

The car itself was designed to run on hemp seed oil and vegetable oil since they are renewable resources. However, the illegalization of hemp and World War 2 made it impossible for these cars to be mass produced. 

Stronger, Lighter Bodies

As mentioned above, one of the most surprising benefits of cars made using hemp plastic is that they are more impact-resistant than regular cars. Of course, it isn’t realistic to compare the car made by Henry Ford to today’s cars. However, there are cars being made today that are already using hemp plastic for their bodies. 

If you were to compare hemp plastic to petroleum-based plastics, you’d learn that it is actually 3.5 times stronger, and what’s more is the fact that it is lighter, by five times the amount. Even more surprising is that hemp plastic is at least 2.5 times stronger than steel. 

To put it simply, you would need to double the weight of steel before hemp was to crack. In real-life scenarios, such as accidents, this could save many lives, especially considering the average number of car accidents per year in the States is around 6 million. 

Better Batteries

Another surprising benefit of using hemp to produce cars is that it helps create better car batteries. If you have had the same vehicle for quite some time, you would probably know that it usually takes between 10 to 24 hours to charge to a full battery if you used the typical number of amperes. And to even start the car, you would need to charge it for around 2 to 4 hours. 

You might be pleasantly surprised to learn that batteries made with hemp charge faster. Hydrothermal synthesis of hemp for nanosheets in lithium-ion batteries was researched by Dr. David Mitlin, Ph.D., back in 2012. The findings state that in high-powered lithium-ion batteries, the nanosheets separated after processing industrial hemp charge faster. 

Environmentally Friendly 

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of using hemp to create cars is that it is environmentally friendly. Did you know that a plastic water bottle or a bottle of Coke would take at least 500 years to decompose? Regular plastic is a popular material for the production of cars since it is much lighter, which increases fuel efficiency, and isn’t prone to rust, which ensures that the bodies last longer. 

However, the plastic made from hemp is way better for the environment and decomposes a lot faster; hemp plastic only needs around 3 to 6 months to decompose and is completely biodegradable. Moreover, hemp can reduce toxicity by absorbing toxins from soils without releasing them again.