With growing concern about the environment and dependency on foreign oil and complimenting the 30% annual growth of the wind turbine and solar power industries, more interest and money is being put into the development of electric cars.
While offerings have been limited to golf cart style vehicles since the inception in 1951, some of the new electric vehicles, EVs, can travel at highway speeds for over 200 miles and recharge in 8 hours. A hundred mile range is now commonplace.Its not as if golf carts haven't been used for basic transportation in addition to making golf more accessible to the elderly or less physically empowered. They have become a standard mode of transportation for many communities and large corporate and college campuses. Some towns have incorporated them into their police patrols.
For an EV to become widely accepted as a replacement for gasoline-powered cars, it must look like, perform, and have the same features. People will not pay the same or more money for less. The best current example of this is Telsa. Telsa is currently offering a two-seat roadster that looks similar to a Ferrari. It will take you from 0 to 60 in under 4 seconds, which beats almost anything else on the road. It will go 125mph and 220 miles between charges. Its $100,000 price tag means that it won't be adopted as the car of the masses.
A hybrid that runs on batteries for 40 miles and then switches to gasoline should not be confused with an EV. An EV runs on electricity and nothing else. Some EVs include solar panels to run the electronics and comfort features when the vehicle is turned off and some may incorporate butane or gasoline powered generators for battery charging purposes, but an EV does not run on fossil fuels.
Besides Telsa, there are a number of EVs in the $20,000 range. Some of the EV manufacturers include Zenn Motor Company, TH!NK, Phoenix Motorcars, ZAP!, Miles Electric Vehicles, Columbia ParCar, and Aptera. Of these offerings, Miles and Phoenix have vehicles that look the most like what we are used to. The sexiest futuristic offering comes from Aptera. Aptera's technology is state-of-the-art and the styling is ahead of its time. ZAP! Also offers and electric scooter for about $3500 that would be good for school transportation and short errands around town.
All of these vehicles offer around 100 mile ranges at highway speeds and overnight charging. They are not all approved for highway use so, before you plunk down $20K to make your work commute green with less green expended, check to make sure that the EV of your choice is certified to sit in highway backups.
These are times when people and the environment are suffering from the high price of gas and pollution, but these are also exciting times as technology gears up and comes to the rescue. The EV industry will not only make our air cleaner and our pocketbooks fuller, most likely, but drive our economy to recovery as well.
Copyright 2008 eWebsmith.com
Web Smith has been writing and developing documentation for technology companies for over 30 years. He has been the founder of 7 technology companies and created the collateral that launched them.
He is an industry consultant and currently owns ewebsmith.com, ewebtelecom.com, and ewebproducts.com. He runs his own copywriting business from http://websmith.com/copywriting
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Web_Smith
No comments:
Post a Comment