Who Is Driving Electric Cars?

Do you remember watching the news 20 years or so ago when they showed that first electric concept car revealed at one of the auto shows?  It was a funny looking spaceship like vehicle that very few people would be caught actually driving around town where somebody might recognize them.

Times have changes over the years and electric cars are looking hot!  Electric cars are not being made in the form of sports cars, luxury sedans, and even family coupes and station wagons.  There is even an electric pick up truck waiting for release.  So where are all of these great zero emissions, Earth saving vehicles?  Why don’t more people have them?

There is still some work that needs to be done on electric cars.  The battery charges don’t last long enough to really leave town and most don’t drive fast enough for highway use.  Now there are the $100,000 plus electric cars that will go a couple hundred miles between charges, but where would you charge it if you happen to be out in the middle of nowhere when your battery dies?  AAA probably couldn’t help you much more than offering a tow.

A comparison of the costs to run an electric car and a gasoline powered car is quite shocking.  Independent studies have shown that where it costs a gasoline powered car about $8 per 100km traveled (this is based on gasoline prices at the time of the study), it costs an electric car under $2 per 100km traveled (again, based on current electricity costs at the time of the study).  Even if someone were to pay a few thousand dollars more for an electric car, the savings would reimburse them in no time.  Electric cars cost less to maintenance as well, except for the batteries, of course.

Electric cars have come to be fine looking cars that anybody would be proud to own, and work is being done on them to make them more efficient, more practical, and more affordable for the general public.  Perhaps once the electric cars have come a little further in technology more people will be willing to give them a try.  Until then we’ll have to leave saving the atmosphere to the tree huggers of the world, and they deserve a thank you from the rest of us.

The Trouble With Electric Cars

Electric transportation has been around since the early 1800’s, but of course not in the form that we consider a car today.  Electric cars, also called electric vehicles, are zero emissions vehicles that produce none of the greenhouse gasses and emissions that a gasoline powered vehicle produces.  They are so good for the environment that the state of California actually tried to pass a bill which would set consumer quotas for owning and driving electric cars.  This bill was shot down by lobbyists for the motor companies and oil companies.

Today electric cars are being sold, but at a price that makes them unattainable to most people.  An affordable electric car can be had in the United States, but their range between battery charges top out at 110 miles, which is double the range of most of the affordable electric cars sold in America.  The more expensive electric cars being sold for $100,000 to $400,000 will take you about 200 miles between charges.

The problem with the popularity and sales of electric cars could be that there are few public places in which to charge the battery.  Very few states have strived to make accommodations for drivers of electric and hybrid cars.  For example, in California many shopping mall and grocery store parking lots have outlets on light posts in the parking lots so that people can plug their cars in while they shop.

Maybe if more states would make these kinds of accommodations, more people would opt for electric cars.  At this point it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for a family to travel across the country by car on vacation if they have an electric car unless they tow a generator along behind them.  Of course, even at the maximum of 200 miles between charges, it still wouldn’t be feasible even with a generator.

While electric cars do save on greenhouse emissions, how much do they actually save on the total carbon footprint?  How much electricity needs to be generated in order to charge an electric car?  Could the increasing costs of electricity be another reason why electric cars haven’t caught on?  Perhaps someone is working on a solar powered electric car.

What Are The Electric Cars?

Electric cars are exactly what they sound like – cars that run on electricity.  Electric cars actually run on a battery that is charged by electricity, but they don’t run on gasoline at all.  These are different from the hybrid cars that are so popular on the vehicle market today, and more affordable.  Hybrid cars use both electricity and gasoline, sometimes simultaneously and sometimes independent.  Both cars are more environmentally friendly than a gasoline car, but electric cars are much more so.

Electric cars haven’t quite hit the market running yet.  They have been developed and tested, and apparently the batteries have been improved since the first electric car to allow for up to 200 miles between charges.  Unfortunately, according to an award winning documentary, the government and oil companies decided that the electric car would not be beneficial to their bottom line and killed the whole idea.  This, of course, is speculation, or some would call it a conspiracy theory, but it doesn’t make sense that the car companies would spend so much time and money to produce such a car only to shelve the idea without ever allowing consumers the chance to purchase them.

One company did put a limited number of electric cars up for sale, but they are not really a car in the traditional sense and certainly don’t make sense for families to own.  This car is more like a framed in motorcycle with four wheels.  It is a two seater, but with the second seat behind the driver.  It’s an odd looking car, but who cares?  If it helps the carbon footprint then it will sell.  It has sold, in fact.  George Clooney was so impressed he bought one of the first to roll out.  Way to go, George, for setting a great example!

Until the government and oil companies (if you believe this theory) allow true electric cars to be purchased by the general public, it looks like we are stuck with hybrids.  Hybrids are most certainly a better choice than full gasoline cars.  They give off much less greenhouse gas emissions and they’re not much more expensive than a gasoline car.  It is argued that the extra you pay for a hybrid car will be returned before the car is paid off in gasoline savings.