Electric cars

Electric cars (also known as electric vehicle or EV) will be the next step after hybrid cars on the road to moving away from the ICE or gasoline engine. There are a number of vehicles available currently but are mostly still on the expensive side compared to ICE cars.

An electric powered car is run using an electric motor instead of a gasoline engine. Rather than petrol the energy is stored in batteries and are usually recharged from a household socket. The electric motor gets energy from a controller, which regulates the amount of power—based on the driver’s use of an accelerator pedal.

Within the US electric powered cars available so far are the Tesla Roadster, ZAP car and many more are planned to be released in 2010 including the GM Volt, Mitsubishi i MiEV, Aptera 2e, ZAP Alias, cityZENN, Th!nk City, Plug-in Toyota Prius, Fisker Karma, Nissan LEAF , Mini E.

The UK has had the G-Wiz for a number of years, other EVs available now are the Fiat e500, Citroën C1 ‘ev’ie’, NICE Mega City. The UK is leading the world in introduction of electric cars, with the Government’s announcement in 2009 to support and subsidise electric use and their commitment to make the UK ‘a world leader’ in producing and exporting electric vehicles. This is further supported by the London Mayor, Boris Johnson, who has announced his plan to introduce 25,000 ‘juice points’ (charging stations), for EVs throughout the city.

Chinese electric vehicles could take the world be storm if the amount of activity coming out of China is anything to go by. Warren Buffet has purchased a 10% stake in one of China's largest car makers BYD.

Toyota electric cars are on their way with the annoucement in 2009 they will release an all electric vehicle in 2012.

The only car available in Australia to date is the Electron made by Blade Electric Vehicles which is a Hyundai Getz converted to electric and uses Lithium batteries. There is talk that Mitsubishi is planning to release the iMiEV in Australia in 2010.

We Love This Article on Electric Vehicles

"I think the biggest challenge is bringing a large number of electric vehicles to market, but that is beginning to happen. For most people it would be a lot easier to have an electric vehicle. Just to give you an example, if you live in a house or live in an apartment complex where you can plug it in, you never have to go to the gas station - it eliminates that one annoyance in your life, so as a result you don’t have to inhale hydrocarbons waiting for your gas tank to fill. On long trips - I’ve made several to Sacramento, 120 miles away - this particular car has a range that’s 240 miles - I can just plug it in at a motel room through the window; I’ve done this at three places. And this is without infrastructure! The first time I had to look at how to do it. But after that it was easy. And the car breaks down less [than an internal combustion engine vehicle] since it has so few moving parts." Taken from: Q&A: Mark Jacobson on 100% renewable energy