What happen to the electric car?

Question

There are many obstacles that keep electric cars from being part of our main stream. Do you think the U.S. will finally put more development in making electric cars?

Answer 1

There currently are some electric cars on the market. The Tesla Roadster is a very fast electric sports car which can go up to 200 miles per charge. Unfortunately it costs $92,000.

http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php

ZAP also makes the Xebra, which can go up to 40 mph and 40 miles per charge for under $10,000.

http://www.zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=188

They've teamed up with Lotus Engineering to make the ZAP-X crossover, which will have 2 models. The first will be able to go 100 mph and 100 miles per charge and cost around $30,000. The second will be able to go 155 mph, 350 miles per charge, and cost around $60,000. Both will be able to recharge in 10 minutes and be available in 2008.

http://www.zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=4560

The Chevy Volt will be able to go 40 miles purely on electric power, after which it will work the same as a gas-electric hybrid. Not sure when it will be available though.

http://www.chevrolet.com/electriccar/

There are also some electric cars which are basically upgraded golf carts and can go up to 25 mph.

So there will be a number of electric car options available soon, especially with lithium-ion battery technology becoming feasible. Hopefully as they become more popular, more resources will be put into electric vehicle development.

Answer 2

There are many issues to be dealt with with an electric car. First is the batteries. Lead/acid batteries are too heavy to be efficient, a lighter weight dry cell battery doesnt produce enough power, so then the logical choice would be liion, its lightweight, it produces alot of continuous power, but the cost is very high. For a typical liion battery for a car, the cost is around $20,000. Telsa motors (as listed by a previous poster), has gotten the cost down to $10,000 per car. But still, you have completely design everything on the car from the ground up, and a $10,000 part completely balloons the cost to build. Your next problem is maintenance. If you know anything about cars, you know not to take your car to the dealer once the warranty has expired. The cost of dealer service is twice the cost of any other mechanic. So what do you do with an electric car? There are very few mechanics that would even bother looking at it. Gasoline engine mechanics are a dime a dozen. Non dealer mechanics specializing in german cars will work on your ford mustang, and vice verse. Finally, back to the batteries. What do you do with dead li/ion batteries? They reak havoc on the enviroment, and no parts can be reused. The cost needs to come down and the support needs to come up. **EDIT** to the poster who said; "don't go fast enough", are you nuts? Where have you been in the last 5 years? Tesla makes an electric car that does 0-60 in 4.0 sec and 1/4 mile in 13.6... The 1992 dodge viper did 0-60 in 4.3 and the 1/4 in 13.7 Mini cooper made an electric prototype that did 0-60 in 4.1 sec and 1/4 m in 14.0

Answer 3

Electric cars will not become widely used until they can compete with the equivelent gasoline or diesel powered vehicle. For example, to equal the performance of my current car, an electric car will need to:

1) Have a range of at least 200 miles between charges while maintaining the performance criteria below.

2) Be rechargable in 10 minutes or less at conveniently located stations around town and on the highways.

3) Comfortably seat at least two adults.

4) Maintain a comforatable cabin temperature when the outside temperature is as high as 100F or as low as 0F.

5) Be capable of multiple accelertions from 0-60 in 10 seconds or less

6) Be able to cruise at a highway speed of at least 100 mph

7) Carry sufficient luggage for two adults for one week each.

8) Recharge for a cost of no more than 20 cents/mile

9) Meet all current government crash and safety standards

10) Have major components with a life of at least 150,000 miles.

11) Cost no more than US$50,000.

Answer 4

The main obstacle is the size and weight of batteries. I keep seeing new attempts at electric cars but all they do is make everything from plastic and so light that a regular gas engine in the same vehicle would do 200 mile to the gallon anyway.

My answer would be hydrogen, its clean and simple and standard gas engines can be converted to run on it without loss of power. The problem is developing a safe method of storing it but this could be overcome if they'd leave the stupid electric car alone including hydrogen fuel cells. Why convert the energy to electric when the car runs on hydrogen anyway? duh!

Answer 5

The Only thing that killed the electric car was the battery. And the ignorance of the consumer. Not a short extension cord. I worked at GM on the design of the EV1 and it was never meant to be a car that we drive across country. It was always a commuter car. Two passengers and just enough storage for two sets of golf clubs. The first generation EV1 was powered by lead acid batteries because that is what we had to work with, and the recycling infrastructure was already existing. The second generation battery pack was more evolved but still not as efficient as necessary.

Further development is ongoing and, with demand, will continue to evolve.

The thing to remember is that a plug in EV is meant to be a short range vehicle to be charged at night while you sleep, while the rates are lower. The rates are lower because there is more electrical energy produced than is in demand. The excess is destroyed, but could easily be used to recharge your EV without adding to the GHG's made by the power plants.

Answer 6

Good question, but there is no one single answer; many factors contribute to the fact that we're still using fossil fuel burning cars. I'm pretty sure you remember the Saturn EV1 that came out in the late 90's, they were GM's first line of purely electric cars that came out and as soon as they came, many contributing factors had these cars recalled and not because of safety.

First off, GM fought this car at every step of production because they weren't able to make as much money off of producing the EV1's as they would a Hummer because internal combustion engines need a lot of maintenence like oil filters, oil, injectors, etc.

Second, hydrogen was hyped up as being more effecient than electric. There needs to be practical miracles to happen before hydrogen can even start selling. You'd need the fueling infrastructure, cost reduction (both in production and fueling), and efficient hydrogen production.

Third, battery technology that was used in come electric cars in the late 90's was bought by oil companies, and in turn they destroyed the technology. This really wasn't the first time the oil companies had done this. During the mid 20th century, Los Angeles had an electric trolley system, but Standard Oil bought that out and destroyed them, then they forced gas guzzling busses on the city.

Fourth, consumers don't go for electric cars. Yes most people would be interested, but the car companies didn't use the best battery technology. If you even find an electric car, it'd probably only have a range of 60 miles, which is great for just commuter traffic, but people won't really go for it unless it gets about 300+ miles per charge. The technology exists, but few companies actually utilze them. Tesla motors is one of the few auto companies that have developed an electric car that has a 250 mile per charge battery system.

Fifth, the government also followed along with protecting the oil and automotive industries. Most companies have lobbyists working in high governmental positions or they pay through campaign contributions. Andy Card the Chief of Staff (better known as the guy that told Bush on 9/11 that the country was under attack) was the former CEO of the American Automobile Manufacturers Association.

Furthermore, I don't think that the US will ever consider putting money into the development of electric vehicles because it essentially takes money out of the wrong hands and has the potential for being completely renewable. If you have solar panels on your house, then you'd pretty much be energy independent. In fact, certain cities in the US have mandates against solar panels. The American mindset is so manipulated as to think that we need a corporation to provide every service necessary. We have the ability to be energy independent, but we've become such the bewildered herd, that we can't even consider that energy can be something that we don't need a company to provide.

There's a lot more that contributed into the fact that the US killed the electric car, but if you'd like to know more, I suggest you watch "Who Killed the Electric Car." It's a great documentary, and it's usually on STARZ so if you have that channel, try to catch when it's on.

Answer 7

Blaming oil or Detroit is easy. If people buy them, they will make them. People are already dealing with rolling black/brown outs due to lack of electricity. Without power plants how will you recharge them? It is all just passing the buck. If people do not change their 1 to a car, 3 hours in traffic per day, nothing will change.
First place to look is in your own house. Why are there 2 to 4 cars in every driveway? It is easy to jump on a cause that blames big business, If the consumer did not buy it, it would not be sold. In the USA we are the biggest consumers ever. with more self discipline, and accountability, less gov. regulation. That is the only way any change will happen.

Answer 8

You can't expect to rob a bank with your girlfriend Bonnie, and cross the country on a crime spree with your brother and his family, by driving electric cars.. They take a little more responsibility to operate, whereas the other kind of vehicle offers more Walter Mitty style freedom.... People resist Electric cars in the same way they resist legislation taxing the rich. Even though they may never be fugitives or the elite, they don't want to restrict the possibility or prevent the day either.

Answer 9

The US does not need to put more development in electric cars
the technology is already sufficiently advanced to meet our personal transport needs

high energy density batteries that can be recharged in minutes and last decades http://www.altairnano.com/markets_amps.html

as fitted in this 5 seater pick-up http://wwwphoenixmotors.com.

the obstacles are public perception, shaped by the media funded by advertising from big oil, that it is patriotic/heroic to drive noisey smelly clunky unreliable fossil fuel monsters.
(Don't let the troops think they invaded the middle east for nothing.)

Answer 10

A new car manufacturer, content to make its money on cars instead of replacement parts, will have to develop the first electric car. GM, killed the electric cars they built, mostly for that reason.

They will have the same problem that Cisco has with their routers. Maybe if they only offer them with non-renewable leases. I don't know.

I think some other country will produce the first successful line of electric cars myself.