Whatever happened to the ELECTRIC car?

Question

I thought this century would have seen an explosion in electric cars. I know they didn't look very good, but maybe they could have been made more stylish to appeal to more people other than just nerds

Answer 1

the future is now.

Tesla Roadster, 100% electric, 0-60 in about 4 seconds, 250 miles per charge.

Answer 2

There are various problems that have hindered the introduction of the electric car to mainstream motoring.

The battery technology has not matched up to consumer expectations. Batteries are still very large, heavy, very expensive and take a long time to charge. The average motorist is used to spending 5 mins at the fuel pump to give him a 400 mile range.
The size of battery pack necessary to give this sort of range in a family car would leave no room for luggage, or require a larger car. Additionally the consumer is wary of running out of battery power in the middle of nowhere. With petrol or diesel he can carry 5 litres in a can for emergencies, or can purchase a can at a filling station and carry it back to his stranded car. The equivalent means of recharging a stranded electric car is a scary unknown to the average consumer. Until battery and charging technology meets these expectations an electric car will only be considered as a commuter car by those rich enough to afford an extra "normal" car for long-distance driving. Battery life is also an unknown. There have already been complaints about the rechargeable batteries in ipods not lasting long enough - imagine if the same situation arose with a car costing 100 times as much.

The environmental impact is not clear-cut. The batteries require energy and raw materials to construct, and can be difficult to recycle. The cars are not zero-emission in use if the electricity used to recharge the batteries comes from a polluting source such as an oil-fired or coal-fired power station. They can help cut pollution within a city, but this may only be because the pollution has been shifted elsewhere.

There are problems with support infrastructure. California suffered black-outs a couple of years ago due to insufficient generator capacity, and similar problems have also arisen in New York, London and Tokyo in recent years. If all cars were replaced with electric cars, these problems would be exacerbated. Also the fuel distribution system for petrol and diesel is in place in the developed world. Equivalent systems for recharging electric cars away from home are in their infancy.

GM's EV1 was the most successful electric car, but it was a niche product - I suspect every owner had another car for long journeys. The recent film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" suggests there was a conspiracy to remove this car from the streets. Like most conspiracy theories, there may be a small element of truth somewhere within, but there are a multitude of other factors that the theorists have ignored.

Technology is improving all the time, and the electric car may yet become common.
Hybrids, using electric power an a relatively small battery pack to increase the efficiency of an internal combustion engine during transient operations, are currently available in practical cars, although so far they have all used petrol engines and so are yet to match the fuel or cost efficiency of a diesel engine, hence have limited appeal to Europeans used to diesel in cars.
Fuel cell cars (effectively an electric car with a high-tech on-board clean-fuelled generator) were promised by many manufacturers for commercial introduction in 2004, then 2008, now 2010 is the target. Cost is a big problem here - an internal combustion engine is still quite cheap to build despite more stringent emissions legislation. Fuel supply infrastructure is another problem, (although various solutions are proposed, and I expect the service-station operators will support them if demand is there, rather than go out of business), as is the on-board fuel storage.

Remember that fossil fuels will not always be economical to use (I don't think we will ever manage to extract every trace, so don't use the phrase "run out"), and "big business" (the car companies, oil companies, etc.) will want to survive beyond that time. Those with any amount of forward planning will be investigating alternative methods of powering vehicles.

Bear in mind that the situation for air transport is probably more of a problem than that of road transport, and there are probably a much smaller number of engineers working on solutions.

Answer 3

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The next few years should be very interesting. You may have seen the Tesla electric sports car http://www.teslamotors.com
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You may have even seen the T-Zero electric sports car http://www.acpropulsion.com/ACP_FAQs/FAQ_cars.htm
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These two cars show that it is now possible to build electric cars that can out-accelerate a Ferrari, and go 250 - 350 miles on a single charge. But both these cars are very expensive.
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So who else is working on electric cars?
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Would you believe China? They have to work on EVs. There won't be enough oil to support China's future economic growth.
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I drive an old electric vehicle. I also have friends with electric vehicles. Some of them have recently been able to buy some amazing, cutting-edge EV batteries from China - example:
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http://www.everspring.net/product-battery.htm
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These batteries are better, and cheaper than the ones in those $100,000+ sportscars above. If you look at the chart, you'll see they are as cheap as lead-acid batteries, and they hold up for 1100 charges, twice as many charges as the other LI-Ion batteries on the chart.
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Now, look at this car:
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http://www.milesautomotive.com/products_xs200.html
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It's a Chinese electric car, which will be imported into the USA next year. The driving range is almost as good as those sports cars above. But it only costs $28500. And that price could get a lot cheaper.
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Tesla also plans to make a family car in 2008.
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And AC Propulsion is introducing their Electric Scion very soon:
http://www.acpropulsion.com/new.htm
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So the EV world is hopping. Keep your eyes on these cars.
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Answer 4

see the film "who killed the electric car" or visit web site www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com

electric cars will go fast enough for anyone, see tesla mentioned above, based on 10 year old technology.

and a range more than anyone would drive without an hours recharge break. or see the tZero which can tow a small generator.

and if you want looks see the car in Minority report - that was a for real working Lexus.

electric cars are simpler to make and less to break than infernal combustion, they are smooth, quiet, fast, smell free, refuel cheaply at home or work ... so why don't we have electric cars?

we have the technology now, it is a better driving experience, it would improve the noise and fumes in our towns & cities ... so why don't we have electric cars?
Only the heads of GM, toyota etc can tell you what they owe to the oil industry that they don't provide an alternative and chose to crush all their desirable evs rather than sell the parts to diy car builders.

Answer 5

Well, wait for some more time and you will see a lots of them...

Go to the sites below...hybrid cars are already (Toyota Prius being the topper) running soon to be replaced with totally electric cars...wait!

Answer 6

Electric cars have found a compromise in the Hybriid vehicle.
When technology advances we will be able to go all electric, until then we have a gas/electric vehicle that works really well.

Answer 7

Didn't go fast enough to suit the tastes of the culture. Needed to be recharged for a long time rather frequently = not consumer friendly.

Answer 8

they never could make one good enough. Hyberd is close because you dont have to wait 10 hours to recharge.

Answer 9

The battery went flat

Answer 10

Didn't you hear? BP 9British Petroleum) them all took them out to the dessert & burned them all!