Why are we not driving vehicles that use electric & petrol that can do 240 mpg?

Question

A car has been designed that can revolutionise the whole transport system. Yet we argue about the price of fuel instead of demanding that we can use these better developed vehicles.

The 'Aptera' can do everything we need for travel so why are we still driving around in such outdated technology?

When electric cars are discussed on TV, they just show inadequate models to stop 'change' why is this? Are we so desperate to just have things stay the same?

Answer 1

The problem with all of these vehicles remains the battery.  Even in the Prius it is a big, heavy, expensive battery.  Even at 60mpg (although it really gets less), the Prius still is not as inexpensive to operate at most gasoline powered cars.  As the technology gets better and more composite materials get put into cars, you'll see these types of vehicles become more popular.

Look at this car, the Aptera.  It only seats 3 people and costs about $30,000 (plus it may not have a radio).  That's a lot of coin for a very, very small car.  It's not practical for a typical family of 4.

Answer 2

Because the majority of people realise that fuel is required to generate the electricity used to power the batteries which these cars use, meaning that there is no benefit to the environment (until a higher percentage of electricity is generated from renewable sources).

Not to mention the fact that they cost a lot, can't produce billions of cars in a year, are inconvenient, not to some peoples tastes... etc

All change takes time. A better question would be why do people use light bulbs which aren't energy saving (which clearly benefit the environment without compromising functionality).

Another problem is that a lot of people simply don't care about the environment.

Answer 3

There are deeper issues involved...

Answer 4

cus then they wouldnt be able to tax us all so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 5

Its mainly because we would pay less tax for fuel on those cars, to be honest i had not heard of that car until now.

Answer 6

Look at the maximum speed of that car that you mention and how often the battery needs to be charged.

Now imagine a journey from London to Manchester and that answers your question.

Answer 7

because the world is controlled by big business and oil companies are the biggest business of all.

Answer 8

See the movie "who kill the electric car"

And you will know why.

Good Luck...

Answer 9

I dont think anyone really realizes the amount of R&D that is needed for refining technology on these hybrid vehicles... They cant sell something they just threw together and did no long term testing on. The problem is that the Internal Combustion Engine(gas engine) is tried and true since the 1800's.

Answer 10

I don't wish to seem sexist... but... this question could only be asked by a woman.

Sorry to say. Well lets get real...the average run of the mill family 5 seater will cost around £11,000 in the UK. Cars run solely on electricity or those on petrol that can achieve such huge mpg are massively expensive. How many of the population of any country can actually afford these cars!!! Even the likes of the Lexus Hybrid are around £50,000.

And the technology is being developed, this takes time. Again im not sure women understand the development procces. A prototype does not mean that we will suddenly have millions of these efficient cars on the road.

Answer 11

well if u paid 20grand 4 a car but u was told stop driving it and buy eco frendley at say 30grand, but u cant sell ur old petrol car cos no one will bye it because thy want eco frendley ud be up the s*****r rite. however if the government said "rite all car companies must make a stock pile of eco friendly cars an that all car owners were entitled 1 fre eco for every car in return that wud be fine weed all wnt 1 but then car manufacturers wud go bust so economically it wud fail so there has to be a compremise that all drivers and manufacturers will be able to afford so for instance stop manufacturing petrol and or diesel slowly petrol and diesol cars would die and become obsolete any way then eventualy we all have eco cars....

Answer 12

Well, the buying public will decide: Just checked out the facts & figures - looks OK, really, BUT for the car buying public, there are several problems;

1. It's a concept - the car on Aptera's site is obviously a mock up - the dashboard shows an open road whilst parked in front of a building, the switchgear & trim looks very plastic, etc., there is no technical spec, no images of engine, batteries, etc

They have only built one working model - as per the 'interactive media' section of the site

2. It has 2 seats - very few people buy 2 seaters

3. It's very low - safety would be an issue, I couldn't see it passing European NCAP certification - in the US, this isn't a problem, it's classed as a motorbike.

4. It has 3 wheels - The car buying public would struggle to come to terms with this - remember the fuel saving three wheelers of the 60's?

5. As it's been developed in the US, they've elected to use petrol / electric rather than diesel / electric as they don't have the clean diesel engines that we use here - by their own admission halving the economy whilst running on engine power - See powertrain section on the site

6. Economy: Hmm, the vaguest pile of waffle I've seen - they seem to shy away from giving accurate figures for urban, constant speed, or mixed motoring - probably because they don't have a model that's done enough miles to check accurately - they don't have a road registered, homologated machine yet. They say it can go 40-60 miles on electric power alone, but the site also says that during this mileage, the petrol engine may 'cycle' on & off for a few 'seconds or minutes' - well, that's not electric only then, and one is 60 times more than the other!

I think the concept's good, but I'd need to know more.

Answer 13

It is SO annoying isn't it! I would love a electric / petrol car - I am a driving instructor and a car that did 100 miles per charge would be ideal for me. I don't want 0-60 in 4 seconds, I don't want to go over 70 mph! I want a car that has 4 or 5 seats and is CHEAP to run!

I think that the car manufacturers are probably sleeping with the Oil producers. Lets face it, if all cars built from tomorrow onwards were electric then what the h**l would the likes of BP and Shell do?? How would they make £billion profits each year?? er......they wouldn't and therefore, the longer they continue to build petrol and diesel cars, prolong the change over to green vehicles the better for them!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr it annoys me SO much!

Check out the following though :)

edit - tell me you wouldn't drive one of these if you could: http://www.teslamotors.com/