Why are all electric cars "hybrids"? Why can't a car be all electric?

Question

Just curious.

Answer 1

There are all electric cars our there....for instance...the Tesla.

Problem is, it only costs $100,000. Another problem is that other than perhaps rechargeable lead acid batteries, there hasn't been much change in battery technology for decades that can  compete with its capacity. Most of the smaller batteries used today in electronics have a tendency of building up a "memory' and you don't want a car running out into the desert with a reading of a full charge and end up stranded because of that.

I've read where people that bought all electric cars ended up being penalized because they weren't paying an "oil tax". I imagine we cling to flex fules and hybrid ideas because deep down inside, and out on the internet, despite the fools that follow after the "green" technology or are enviromental whacko's....the statistics clearly show that nothing compete's with gasoline, nothing is as powerful as gasoline, and with all the technologies and innovations as yet...Nothing has made a dent in gasoline use yet......except for the high prices at the pump.

All green technology so far also gets heavily subsidized by our tax dollar through the Government, so if any technology actually wants to compete, it has to come to the market on its own and carry its own weight.

Answer 2

Toyota built an all electric RAV4 http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/rav4ev/

but following the CARB withdrawl of it's zero emmision mandate, and GM crushinhg all it's ev1s and selling the NiMH battery patents to Texaco, http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com Texaco sued Toyota & their battery maker Panasonic - resulting in Toyota paying lots of $$ and a restriction on the size of ev battery to one giving a range of <10miles & so requiring an infernal combustion engine to give range.

New Li battery technologies not subject to the these restrictions are now appearing giving a range >200 miles & recharge in 10 minutes, http://www.altairnano.com/markets_amps.h... but no major manufacturer has yet risked selling them.

In a free market electric is so far superior to infernal; combustion there would be no competition, Quiet, smooth, smell free, refuel at home or work, fuel security, simple & cheap to mass produce & maintain. Anyone that has a chance to drive electric would not willingly go back to clunky fossil fueld heaps foisted on us.

Answer 3

Because at the current time the technology is not there for electric cars to travel a reasonable distance without being charged (the max right now is 100mi under "ideal" conditions. Therefore they need a gas or diesel engine to act as a generator. If you were to use the car intown and drove less than 50 or so miles the generator would never kick on.

Answer 4

drop by this site and read up on this little car. it kicks the heck out of the gas competition.

Answer 5

Hello Hegewold,

The two answers that you have have are both good.  I will add a little bit.  There is a club in Seattle that builds electric cars out of old VW bugs or VW rabbits.  I talked to one who had used a bug chassis with a custom body.  It looked a lot like Speed  Buggy from the old cartoon show.  With four batteries he could travel thirty miles, and with eight, he could go fifty!.  It cost about six thousand dollars to make the change, but everything came off of the shelf.  Hope it helps.

Answer 6

No, there are thousands of pure electric cars. Check out EValbum.com

Any electric car can be made into a hybrid (to do longer distances) by simply adding an 40 lb. 2300-watt electric generator [cost $600] on a trailer or on the back of an electric pickup.

Answer 7

What is really sad is that modern-day hybrids are not really electric at all.  All of their power is derived from gasoline.

An electric car would be filled with electricity and would run on that electricity.

And that's why at this time there aren't any electric cars; the storage of electrical power is not developed well enough to compete with the power found in gasoline.

Batteries are at this time the only way to store on-board electricity and they are either too large, too heavy, too inefficient, or too expensive to be used realistically.

A car can be all-electric.  It's just not a mainstream technology at this time.

Answer 8

There are.  The best EV currently available is the ZAP Xebra.

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

However, in a year or two there will be many much improved EVs becoming available.

Available in California in October 2008, the Aptera typ-1e will cost about $27,000 with a top speed of 95 mph and range of 120 miles per charge.

http://www.aptera.com/details.php

Soon thereafter Aptera will introduce the typ-1h, a plug-in hybrid version of the typ-1e with a 40-60 mile range on purely electrical energy, and a range of over 600 miles total when in electric/gas hybrid mode, for around $30,000.  On a 120 mile trip, the typ-1h will get 300 miles per gallon.  The shorter the trip, the higher the efficiency.

http://www.aptera.com/details.php

Available in late 2009, the ZAP Alias will cost $30,000, have a top speed of 100 mph, and a range of 100 miles per charge.

http://zapworld.com/electric-vehicles/el...

Soon thereafter the ZAP-X will be available at a cost of $60,000 with a top speed of 155 mph and a range of 350 miles per charge.

http://zapworld.com/electric-vehicles/el...

Available in 2009, the Miles Javlon will cost $30-35,000 with a top speed of 80 mph and a range of 120 miles per charge.

http://www.milesev.com/index.asp#hsv.swf

Phoenix Motorcars will start selling their SUT to individuals in late 2008 or early 2009.  It will cost $45,000 and have a top speed of 100 mph with a range of 100+ miles per charge.

http://phoenixmotorcars.com/

Available in Fall 2009, the cityZenn will have a top speed of 80 mph and range of 250 miles per charge.  No price has yet been established.

http://www.zenncars.com/  

http://www.zenncars.com/media/documents/...

Answer 9

Where do your power come from????