Why The Electric Car Still Sucks
The media seems to think that the electric car market is heating up. I actually started to get excited when I started reading about the new electric cars that are being designed and marketed lately.
Unfortunately, they still suck. I don’t need much in a car. It doesn’t need to be really cool or go super fast. I need a car to run around town and get me out of town when I’m sick of it here. In short, I need a car that can get me to Vegas in a single day. According to Google Maps, that’s 419 miles. EVERY new electric car on the market and being conceived falls short of that simple criteria. Oh yeah, I refuse to pay more for a car than a house.
Of the cars listed in the USA Today article above, here is how they compete:
Top Speed: 130 mph
Acceleration: 0 to 60 in 4.0 seconds
Range: 250 miles
Cost: $100,000
Energy Consumption: 177 WHr/mile in urban use, equivalent to 150 mpg
Top Speed: 112 mph (electronically limited)
Acceleration: 0 to 60 in 3.0 seconds
Range: 200 miles
Cost: $100,000
Energy Consumption: 200 WHr/mile in urban use, equivalent to 170 mpg
Top Speed: 40 mph
Acceleration: not stated
Range: 40 miles
Cost: Under $10,000
Energy Consumption: not stated
Top Speed: 120 mph
Acceleration: 0 – 60 in 4.5 seconds
Range: 240 miles
Cost: $49,000
Energy Consumption: not stated
Top Speed: 25 mph (electronically limited)
Acceleration: not stated
Range: 30 miles
Cost: $9,695
Energy Consumption: not stated
Some of these cars seem to be merely glorified golf carts. Others clearly don’t even exist yet. So far, my favorite is the Obvio 828E, but it’s not available. By the time it is, it may be that a better company will have developed an electric car that can get me to Vegas on one charge. Until then, I’m still waiting until electric cars stop sucking.
If you’re not a homeowner, ALL electric cars are useless until you buy a welding generator to charge it. (you’d put it in the trunk) And if you are a homeowner and drive one, when you get foreclosed on, your car dies too! How are you supposed to find a job with a dead car and no way to charge it? Oh, yeah, if cell phones taught us anything, each car and charger will be different, preventing an infrastructure.
Comment by Anonymous — June 3, 2010 @ 8:34 pm