The Future of Electric Cars

Believe it or not Electric Cars have been around for over a hundred years. Just ask Jay Leno who it is said owns several. He was on the Planet Green show "Living With Ed"(Begley Jr.) and showed off one of his Early Electric Cars.

There are some advantages to these cars. They can be handy for short trips to the store. They don't pollute and compared to fossil fuel vehicles are far more economical. They can be charged overnight with just a 110v outlet in most cases.The Chevy Volt falls into this category.

The new Nissan Leaf will require a 220v outlet with at least a 20 amp breaker dedicated to the charging system.The MSRP will be around $32,700.

General Motors had the EV1 back in the early 90's . GM claimed there was no demand for the car so they recalled them to be destroyed. A few of them were given to Museums and Universities for display.

Now if you want Really Cool you have to look at either the Tzero or the Tesla.

Tzero

It had the equivalent of 200 horsepower with a single speed motor.

It would go from 0-60 in 4.07 seconds. That is faster than a Porsche.

It had a top speed of 90 MPH .

It had a range of 80-100 miles.

The last model in 2003 used lighter Lithium Ion batteries and could go from 0-60 in 3.6 seconds and had a range of 300 miles.

Plans for mass production stopped in 2003. Probably because of the expected $220,000 price tag

Tesla is one of the few Car Dealers to survive. That is considering GM and Nissan continue their efforts.

The Tesla will go from 0-60 in 3.9 seconds and has a range of 236 miles. It claims that it is twice as efficient as a Hybrid. Their Roadster Sport sells for about $130,000.

The key to producing cars that are affordable will lie in the development of inexpensive longer lasting batteries.

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