Electric Cars - 10 Killer Reasons You’ll Want One

The way things are going battery electric vehicle (BEVs) advocates, who believe batteries represent a 'silver bullet' solution will shortly be responsible for yet another failed attempt at the commercial introduction of EVs. BEVs do not have, nor will not have the range or recharge time desired by consumers. If BEVs are sensibly aimed at commuters with less than 50 miles to travel and all day to recharge they stand a chance of claiming a pretty reasonable chunk of the automotive market. If they are touted as a 'one size fits all' replacement for internal combustion engine powered cars they will fail - again. Hydrogen fuel cell/battery hybrids (fuel cells and batteries are complementary technologies) will give the range and rapid refueling required, and the coming decade will see their gradual implementation and they will ultimately replace the engine in hybrids like the Prius. It would be pretty idiotic to advocate spending a trillion dollars on hydrogen infrastructure presently, to service the few hydrogen vehicles on the roads at the moment. You build the refueling infrastructure to supply the vehicles as and where you introduce them, you cluster the vehicle and refueling points together, and gradualy grow the nertwork, first in fleets then later to consumers. Final thought on this point (before this turns into an essay, and there is a lot more that could be said on how battery only advocates should really start asking more questions on the real performance, cost and particularly lifetimes when subjected to daily deep discharges, of whichever battery chemistry they favour, never mind raw material availability (battery materials are a resource we generally extract out of the ground), ability of the industry to meet projected demand, recyclability and disposal) it is often said that hydrogen refueling infrastructure represents a ‘chicken and egg’ situation, it does not. You develop the vehicles first. To use a for once valid analogy, when the car was invented there were no gasoline stations, when the demand is there the refueling infrastructure will happen.

No, EVs are not a silver bullet solution. But when gas starts costing $5/gallon again, people will learn to adapt to their limitations. Perhaps an EV as a 2nd car used mainly for commuting. Or perhaps the Chevy Volt that has the low cost of an EV for the first 40 miles plus the range of a gas car when needed. Fuel cell vehicles are still WAY too expensive (even more so than EVs). And hydrogen vehicles do not have all that great of a range themselves. The plug-in series hybrids like the Chevy Volt are a much better and more economical solution.

Ahh but.... Fuel cell vehicles cost a lot because they are made in very small numbers. It almost doesn't matter what the technology is that powers the vehicle if it is hand built it will be high cost. Hence the tremendously misleading figures that are banded about and attributed to fuel cell cars. If you look forward to when fuel cell or battery vehicles are being mass produced a different picture emerges. According to recent work by General Motors, for mature technology and regarding a typical vehicle capable of a 500km range (310 miles - enough so that most people don't worry about being not getting home) the fuel cell system is 1/6 the mass, ¼ the volume, 1/10 the cost of the lithium ion battery system and be refuelled in minutes rather than hours. The paper is in the Journal of Power Sources 165, 2007, 833-843 and is by Helmolt, and Eberle and to use a direct quote from it to finish; …there are still major improvements needed for the fuel cell electric vehicle to become auto-competitive. Today, cost, range and refueling figures are inferior compared to ICE-based powertrain concepts. But it should be pointed out that these figures are much better than those of advanced battery electric vehicles; and that projections show that fuel cell drivetrains can become cost competitive to internal combustion engines. Ultimately, the major driver for fuel cell vehicles is their inherent high efficiency on a well-to-wheel basis, especially when renewable energy sources are utilized for the hydrogen production.”

Everything comes down to mass production... parts and labor get cheaper and just the sheer fact of mass production better and more cost effective technology will also be developed... I still hope that EVs will be the future... google has also just started to work on a system that will even out our energy distribution with the help of other industries so that's a great step towards mass EV transportation going forward.

Thought this might be of interest, another MIT discovery. http://www.gizmag.com/lithium-ion-battery-breakthrough-mit/11244/ This would make li-ion batteries on par with ultra capacitors with charging in a matter of seconds. And the good news is that it should be available in only a couple years!

why they dnt want to sell these electric cars to be more efficient.

Don't care. These cars ARE UGLY!!! I would never buy one unless the tree huggers force everyone to. What about people who have to drive long distances?? From say, Atlanta to Dallas. It will take an extremely long time recharging at some remote truck stop on the side of the road. I suppose no one has thought of that. I suppose the new motto will be, "Be American, don't drive across country. Who does that any way."

fossil fueled cars are the major contributor of global warming.minimize global warmig,use electric cars

Great news! Now lets sort out the power stations. I personally don't agree with the hydrogen models. Won't these models remove O2 from the atmosphere? And isn't there only about 4% H available?

My opinion is electric, solar panel cars are a win win deal for every American. I think we as Americans should follow our president suggestions and invest in the American made energy efficient stuff like electric cars, solar power panels, windmills ect.. . Building this stuff will create jobs for Americans. And when most Americans have job's located in America to work at every day they will be able to go to the grocery store and buy food for our family's again, Instead of having to be told by the store keeper everyday that, if I don't have a job and if my family is hungry, and I don't have any money to pay for food, then why don't I go and eat my foreign car! Bob

If Obama wants to create jobs why doesn't he propose to give the 26 billion to a company like Tesla instead of giving it to the same old GM that offers more of the same. Then the price of the Tesla beautiful 4 door would come down in price. There should also be huge tax credits for buying a fully electric car.

Absolutely right! The way to stimulate the economy and get our country moving on a greener path is to provide tax credits for electric cars and solar homes. We cannot just throw our hard-earned tax dollars at problems and hope that helps. It seems to be the same old tax and spend program of the traditional Democratic Party. The twist this time is that Obama is taking the U.S. quickly toward Socialism. BTW, our President needs to refrain from ignorant comments on police matters that he knows little about. Sheesh, talk about reverse racial profiling, Obama needs to examine his own motives and actions. He is not the black president, he is the President.

I cannot wait until the day that most of the car lots that you drive by are ones that have electric or solar powered cars on display. I plan on getting one in the next 10 years as soon as my finances are stable.