Reason of the death of electric car?

Question

A. Oil companies

How -
Why -

B. Car companies

How -
Why -

C. California Air Resources Board

How -
Why -

D. Government

How -
Why -

Answer 1

As others in the know will state, the main reason is batteries have a hard time competing with the energy density of a gallon of gasoline.

I do believe there was some "big business" pressure (oil companies) to the big three to shelve the technology, but it was only a small part.

Main reason a pure electric car (like the EV1 and RAV 4) wasn't practical:

1 - Range: Either 40 miles at 80 mph or 80 miles at 40 mph. Neither made anyone happy.

2 - Weight: Batteries alone weighed 1000 pounds

3 - Cost: Batteries ALONE on the Tesla cost $45,000.

4 - Longevity: If you cycled the batteries fully (ran the car until almost empty) the life cycle of the batteries was less than 2 years.

5 - Replacement cost of the batteries

6- If you needed a charge your "fill up" took 8-10 hours

7 - Again...cost.

8 - Also the electric car wasn't really a "zero pollution vehicle", it was a "pollution elsewhere vehicle" (Coal fired power plants/Oil buring power plants)

Now with advances in Lithium-ion batteries and ultracapacitors over the next few years, I believe you will see a comeback.

The A, B, C, D questions you asked came mostly from the movie W.K.T.E.C.? And I really enjoyed the movie and there was a lot of truth behind it. But the batteries were 95% of the problem, and all the rest added up to the extra 5%. Believe me, if GM really thought they could make money selling the EV1 they would have done it, despite what the oil companies did. And I believe the guy on the board at GM even stated that in the movie. That's why they started making the Hummer, because there was a bigger market for it. They could have sold 5,000 EV1's at a $6,000 loss each year or sold 15,000 Hummers at an $8,000 profit. Purely a business decision.

In the movie, they didn't focus enough about specifics about the battery technology, but I still think it was well done and would recommend it to others to "get their feet wet" about electric cars. But now you know the real answer.

I hope that helps. For now do the best thing you can do is get a hybrid. There are sites to show you how rewire it to get a small eletric only range, and plug ins are coming in 2009, so it will happen.

Answer 2

Electric vehicles are not dead - they are just a little hard to find. But this is an exciting time for electric cars. Don't listen to the naysayers here - most peoples' impressions of this technology is based on 30-year-old electric cars. Technology does not stand still! Take a look at what a modern electric car looks like:
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http://zapworld.com/zapworld.aspx?id=4560
http://phoenixmotorcars.com/models/fleet.html
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The ZAP-X has a 350-mile range, a top speed of 155 mph, puts out 644 horsepower, charges in 10 minutes, and has a battery pack that should last the life of the car (better than 250,000 miles.) The Phoenix uses the same Altairnano Nanosafe li-ion batteries, and is a real car - being built right now for fleet use. Prices for hand-built cars are $60,000 for the ZAP-X, $45,000 for the Phoenix. These prices could fall a lot when mass-production becomes feasible.
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But you don't even have to spend lots of money if you want to try out an electric car. Freeway-capable EV conversions (normal cars converted to electric) can be found for as little as $5000. Link:
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http://squidoo.com/cheap-electric-car
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This is the kind of electric car I drive. Electricity to drive it only costs me about a penny per mile! More info in that above link. And EVs do not pollute very much at all. See the references below.
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Answer 3

None of the above. It died because it was impractical then. It is being resurrected now because they are more practical. How practical? None of the big car companies sell them.
The big difference is in the batteries, they store a lot, a whole lot, more electricity now.
Next, new materials make the car a lot lighter.
The Prius Hybrid has been modified to run only with Hi-tech rechargeable batteries, but it is too expensive.
The Tesla company (San Carlos, CA?) has 500 deposits for an sports electric car. It should be in the news by Christmas.
It goes from 0 to 60 mph in less than 9 seconds (6?).
With oil prices going up and solar panel power cells increasing in efficiency by 50 percent, you may by next year be able to recharge your electric car for free.
Yes, I know, when the sun is high your car is not home. But, in California, the electricity is sold to PG&E power utility and at night they sell electricity at a lower rate. You could actually make money and recharge your car! And, no gasoline! And, less Global Warming. Not bad, right?

Answer 4

I wouldn't say that the theory of electric cars has died. If anything with gas prices rising there is a blitz for alternates to using gasoline. Now there are many options other than gas, but they are limited by environmental and governmental limitations. I am in agreement for electric cars.

I would rather for the car companies to come up with a motorized electric engine that does not have to be recharged. Recharging cars could be a consumer problem because more electricity would be used and thee price of kWh (kilowatts per hour) would increase substantially. Electricity is a resource that is available in many different forms, but comes as the same type of power.

Fossil Fuels such as peanuts and sweet potatoes (studied by George Washington Carver). You could use hydoelectricity but that probably wouldn't work with cars. My favorite would be magnetic energy.

You can create electricity (or power) by simply having two magnets. Magnets and friction can cause some type of electrical discharge. Having a magnetic engine probably would work better than charging and recharging cars all of the time. Once you start up the vehicle and have some type of magnetic pistons you could produce power to operate a vehicle. Of course wear and tear is goign to play a factor, but it plays a factor in everything on this planet anyways. The idea of using magnets came from an off-the-wall conversation that I was having with my cousin.

Answer 5

This is a very timely question. I come from NJ and back in the 1990s they created an electric car area at the Morristown train station. They put in charing ports and had sub compact cars. The people that worked near by had the opportunty to use these cars for next to nothing. The county subsidized this somehow. That I do not remember. But it was a way to commute for less money, save energy and cut back on pollution.

I am just amazed that this was halted. But, it could be the oil companies like noted in the original posting.

Answer 6

It is a conspiracy by those in power. Those in power are called, "the consumer." If 250million US citizens wanted electric cars GM, Ford, and the like would be producing electric cars left and right. Thanks to Toyota and other hybrid and electric car manufacturers there are more electric cars on the road today (now that the electric car has been killed) then when it was alive. If the US consumer wanted to switch over to electric the oil companies would simply buy the electric companies, the coal companies, the uranium companies and the natural gas companies and keep on trucking without skipping a beat. Exxon is worth $470Billion. It could buy its way into any industry without loosing money.

Answer 7

Oil companies - plain and simple, search the web for <> and you'll find charts of gasoline prices adjusted for inflation. The cheapest gas in HISTORY was from the early 90s to the early 00s, right when CARB was trying to get electric cars off the ground. An accident? Not hardly - OPEC lowballed the price of oil to make alternatives not cost effective. Worked, too. Now that electrics are off the market, they're sending prices up, up, up. If we get serious with alternatives again, they'll probably lowball gasoline again. Will we be fooled?

Car companies - have a very long history of acting like passive aggressive little boys. Remember, the modern electric was GM's idea originally. They showed it to CARB, who made it law. GM decided they didn't like being told what to do and as much as scuttled the deal.

CARB was unrealistic, and set a schedule that was "Way too much, way too fast". They should have stretched the timetable rather than giving up entirely.

Government - see CARB.

Bottom line, the Battery Electric Car was probably too much for one leap. We're going to get there, just a little more roundabout:

Step 1: Weak hybrids, like the Silverado, Escape and Prius, get people hip to the coolness of electric drive.

Step 2: Plug-in strong hybrids, like GM's Volt, are essentially electric cars, but with an APU for recharging. That solves the consumer worry of "What if I take a long trip and run the battery down?"

Step 3: After some years of experience, consumers notice that, since they plug in their strong-hybrids every day, the thing is functioning as an electric car... "Gee, I haven't bought fuel in six months! Why did I pay $4000 extra for an APU I never use?" And they start buying all-battery electrics.

Answer 8

None of the above. The major problem with electric/battery cars is the batteries we have today are not efficient enough. Most electric cars have a short range and a long recharge time. The public isn't ready for a car that you can only drive for 2 or 3 hours then have to recharge overnight.

Answer 9

Perhaps good old common sense caused the death of a bad idea. Electric cars require electricity, electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels. Everytime morally superior, caring environmentalists self- righteously plug their lttle death-traps into the wall fossil fuels are being burnt.

There is no net savings and no improvement in the quality of anything, except maybe the vehicle owners smug, self congratulatory preening.

Answer 10

Researchers are still working on the electric car. The main problem is the battery, making it so that it will hold a charge for a long time, making it self charging, and small enough that it be efficient to install and run. Check into some of the companies that make car batteries, they usually have a research and development program.