Are electric cars actually fast, cool, and affordable today?

Question

I am seeing news about new car companies popping up selling electric cars. They seem like they're finally getting it right. They're big, fast, look cool, and can drive from A to B without needed to be recharged. So far, what is out there and what is on the horizon?

Answer 1

yes,they were eighty years ago,check out a movie by disney called pollyanna,it has an electric car

Answer 2

Right now no.  The best electric vehicles available are the Tesla Roadster (not affordable at $100,000, but extremely cool and fast), and the ZAP Xebra (affordable at $10,000, but not fast - though I think it's cool).

http://www.zapworld.com/electric-vehicle...

Around 2009 is when the cool, fast, affordable electric vehicles will start to become available.

Someone mentioned the Phoenix SUT, which will at first only be available to fleets next year, then individuals around 2009.  It has a top speed of 95 mph, range of 100+ miles/charge, but as I recall a cost of around $50,000

http://phoenixmotorcars.com/

The ZAP-X and ZAP Alias will hopefully both be coming out in 2009.  The ZAP-X will have a top speed of 155 mph, range of 350 miles/charge, and cost of $60,000.  The Alias will have 100 mph top speed, 100 miles/charge, for $30,000:

http://autos.msn.com/advice/article.aspx...

The Miles Javlon is shooting for the end of 2008, but more likely will come out in 2009 like the Alias.  It will have an 80 mph top speed, range of 120 miles/charge, and also cost $30,000:

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/04/03/...

I think once these cars hit the market, we'll start to see a lot more electric vehicles on the road.

Answer 3

Acceleration comes from torque, not horsepower.  Horsepower gives you top speed. The advantage of electric motors is that the higher the load on them the more torque they produce.  So an electric car is going to have excellent acceleration.

As for cool, that is just plunking a body on the chassis.

Affordable depends on how much money YOU make.

One warning ... top speed and top "fuel" economy will NOT occur at the same time.  Usually the best numbers are quoted for both.

Answer 4

Ok normal to sporty in this order:

SubaruR1e

Mitsubishi MIEV

Zenn cars

Obvio 828e

Astrolab

Eclectic

Tesla Roadster

And the ultimate ....Venturi Fetish with a 0 to 100 in less than 4 seconds

But if you want any regular Vehicle converted to electric, look up Blade Electric Vehicles.

Answer 5

The hype is a bit ahead of the car.

The Tesla Roadster is probably the most exciting car that's actually being produced. It's fast, has a range over 200 miles and looks cool. It's small and costs $99,000, so not really a commuter car.

The Phoenix motorcars truck is very cool, it's $45,000, but due to needing tax credits it's only being sold to fleets. It's got a lower range of around 150 miles, a slightly lower performance level and not as cool, but it's got the huge advantage of being able to recharge in less than 10 minutes, if you have a charging unit.

The rest of the production cars now are more what people used to think of electrics, slow, small and long charging without much range.

What's coming up that's the most exciting to me is the Chevy Volt. It's a series hybrid, which is totally different from the Prius. It has an all electric range of 40 miles, which covers over 80% of the average drivers commute. After that 40 miles a generator kicks in charging the battery. The generator can be of any type, gas, diesel, fuel cell or something crazy that comes out.

The range without consideration to the battery is 600 miles, the mpg is supposed to be 50 after it's purely generator driven, so there is NO convenience issue with this car.

I think this is the car that can change things, under $30k price tag as well. 2010, and production development is underway, so don't let people tell you it's GM hype. The car was in union contract to be built in the U.S. so if you're patriotic that's a bonus as well.

Every big car company is coming out with prototypes now, and some look good, the suburu has the model I like the best as far as looks, but no stats have been released.

Answer 6

OK the Tesla has a fast acceleration decent top end but it's range number is not even close to what is claimed if you use the acceleration. Speed and range are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Electrics are for city, there efficient up to 45mph and at a gentle acceleration. rabbit starts and 90 mph reduce the range to like 20 miles. Batteries carry a limited amount of energy, acceleration requires energy so does moving large amounts of weight. If you need a big fast car an electric is not for you. The cost of cars like the Tesla is due to start up and developmental cost as well as marketing and all the other costs associated with doing business divided by the number of units they expect to sell.