Would you buy an electric car?

Question

chevrolet is designing an electric car called the volt. you can go to chevy's website and vote for them to build it. do you think the volt will have the same fate as previous electric cars, or do you think it has a shot of being mass produced?

Answer 1

naw i rather stick with my bicycle

Answer 2

The Volt will be a great car. It will go approximately 40 miles purely on battery power and then switch to a gas-electric hybrid. I'd absolutely buy one if I could afford one, but unfortunately they will probably be very expensive. At some point there will be a mass-produced electric car which will be able to go sufficiently far and fast and be affordable enough to become popular and take over a significant fraction of the transportation sector. The Volt will be a step in the right direction.

Answer 3

I drive an electric car right now. Big carmakers don't want to make them simply because they are less profitable than gas vehicles - electric motors can last for decades with no maintenance at all. 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 some modern electric cars look 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, even if powerplants burn dirty fuel. See the references below.
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Answer 4

I had a friend who bought an electric Toyota RAV. It's a wonderful car. Politics is what is killing the electric car. In the state of California, there was a mandate that a certain percentage of all cars sold would be electric by the end of the decade. But the car manufacturers but pressure on the state legislature to let them make hybrids. There is a great documentary out that tells the story called "Who Killed the Electric Car?".

The only downside I can see is that you have to own your home, because electric cars require installation of a charger in a garage. If the technology ever gets adopted on a wide scale, I'm sure there will be more charging stations around.

There are usually quite a few rebates and financial incentives if you purchase an electric car.

Answer 5

I have never researched electric cars, but if it got me everywhere I needed to go, at the same speed I go now, then I would so buy it. It would be cool to have an alternate eco friendly fuel source as back up. But I don't know how that stuff works. I would buy anything that didn't require me to spend a fortune on gas each week.

And I do think now with all the global warming hype going around, that it's the best time ever to put something like this on the market. It won't be a hit, but it will slowly and surely make it's way into people's driveways.

Answer 6

Before going any further I would like to know where all the extra electricity to power these things is going to come from. Whatever you believe about AGW of which option for power is best/worst we are facing - at least here in the UK - a serious shortfall in production as our coal/gas/nuclear stations are being phased out. Take that with an increasing population and it seems to me that somewhere along the line an essential calculation is missing. However, assuming the magic wand arrives from ebay on time, I would buy one IF the price comes down to just below utterly unaffordable, IF I can get the sort of mileage out of it that I need travelling the long distances I have to for my job, and IF just as soon as I switch the government doesn't make the cost of that form of motoring as bloody expensive as petrol/diesel is now, and IF I can find one large enough to accommodate the musical instruments which I need for my job. I somehow can't help thinking that an estate version will be considered anathema to the 'green' cause.

Answer 7

From what I saw on this it's basically a hybrid concept.Much like what some have done with the prius by changing the battery. Most likely it would be too expensive for most people unless they build one cheaper in the first place.You know third world countries will be building most of these parts and these companies will still make most of the money. I'm more interested in conversions. Just think of all of those SUVs and trucks that could be retrofitted/converted. Oil companies and auto manufacturers etc. Have been screwing the general public too long anyway. I'm sick of being their slave. It appears that they realize their days are numbered so they aren't building anymore refineries. I wonder if they made up global warming as a distraction?

Answer 8

I don't think the electric car is going to make it very far at this particular time. Most of what I've seen from the dealership is a push for the flex fuel option on your cars. Chevrolet has one and I know Dodge brought back the Avenger with this special engine as well. If more gas stations offered the E85 from the pumps, I would go out and trade mine in today.

Answer 9

Certainly a car powered by electricity is a good choice for city folks. It can be charged at night while you sleep. It is important, however, that the electricity be generated by wind, solar, or other renewable power. A hybrid that uses electricity part of the time is also a good choice- especially one that can be plugged in to an electrical source like the full electric cars.

Answer 10

We must change from gasoline to electric powered vehicles. I remember small electric trucks delivering laundry for the "Q Laundry" in 1938 Chicago. They were silent and smooth. I was really dumbfounded when they took them out of service. I remember Chicago had the world's biggest streetcar system which lasted longer than New York City's system. It was and is a crime against life to use poisonous fossil fuels.

Yes I would buy an electric car, not hybrid. Go Electric!!!

Answer 11

Sure sounds like a good idea... but not for our household.

We have one sedan (pretty fuel efficient), one bicycle, and three buslines within 2 blocks of our house. We use 12 gallons of gas per month. Seriously.

However, our families live in another state, so when we leave town... we LEAVE town. There is no mass transit option out of our town - no long distance bus routes, no Greyhound, no Amtrak, no airport. Hubby's family lives on a farm, so you have to drive - and a trip to either his family or my family is longer than the range of the electric car battery.

As long as people continue to live farther and farther from where they work, we will have an energy problem - and I doubt that the Volt will make a substantial dent. It's market will be to those who live relatively close to their offices, and they are not the most pressing problem in energy consumption.