Why haven't electric cars replaced gas-powered ones?

Question

Is the battery technology not there yet? Is it an oil company conspiracy? Really, what gives?

Answer 1

They should! By the way Electric cars are proven faster than gasoline powered vehicles. The torque alone from the new electric engines have 50X more powerful. It is also an Oil Business profit reality, they don't want new Technology to take money away from their pockets. They want to suck every last drop of crude oil  from every square inch of land on this Earth and ruin the environment in the process. They don't care about future consequences! Hydrogen will become the future energy source if  Americans lead the world into it.

Answer 2

You got it. Battery technology is not there yet. That is why gasoline cars replace electric cars in about 1910. Electric cars were quite popular back then. Battery technology has hardly advanced at all in the last 100 years while gasoline engine technology has gotten MUCH better. Sure, we have fuel cells and lithium ion batteries and such now, but these are WAY to expensive, and lead acid batteries are just too heavy for mobile applications requiring lots of power.

Answer 3

The technology isn't quite there yet, but it's close.  There are some good electric cars out there with some minor issues.  For example, the Tesla Roadster is an awesome electric car

http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php

But costs $92,000.  The ZAP Xebra is a more affordable $10,000

http://zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=188

But only goes 25 miles per charge and up to 40 mph.  Next year ZAP will be coming out with two ZAP-X Crossover models

http://zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=456...

which will be able to go 100 miles per charge and 100 mph for $30,000 and 350 miles/charge and 155 mph for $60,000, respectively.  I think this will be the start of an increase in electric vehicle popularity.

By the way, Chad and Darth above are exactly wrong.  Electric engines have extremely good acceleration.  The Tesla Roadster goes 0 to 60 in 4 seconds.  The ZAP-X can do it in 4.8 seconds.  The only thing holding up electric vehicle production is battery technology (getting sufficient range and speed), but the technology is almost there, as you can see in the ZAP-X.  If GM had kept improving on the EV1 instead of scrapping the whole program, we would have had the technology by now.

Answer 4

Republicans.  

And idiots who think their family is safer in a huge SUV.

Answer 5

1. that would be a life long project, trying to get rid of all gas stations and making electric ones.

2. cost, electric powered cars cost more.

3. they don't have that many made.

Answer 6

It is a combination of all and then some more.

1. The battery technology is not completely there, but we are close.

2. Existing car manufacturers do not want to make the shift quickly as that will mean rebuilding most of their production facility and re-train their staff.

3. Oil companies did their conspiracy part by buying and blocking the patent for NiMH bateries.

4. Even if the battery problem gets solved, it still will take time to create a new product that is reliable enough that most people will like to buy them.

5. The electric grid cannot increase capacity overnight to charge all those electric car.

6. And do not forget, the auto and oil industry employ a lot of people. If we switch to electric tomorrow a lot of people will lose their jobs.

It will happen eventually, but don't hold your breath.

Answer 7

LOL Lost OC boy.  I'm a die hard Democrat and I have no desire to buy an electric car.  I just don't like them.  It is not an oil conspiracy.  The reasons stated above such as lack of long range use are the main reasons.

Answer 8

Well lines of electric cars were rolled out by several major manufacturers, but there was almost zero demand so they ended up having to scrap them. A part of it is that the technology is still ineffeciant. The batteries don't last very long, and can cost up to tens of thousands to replace in some models. They're also not well suited for long distance travel. If you're interersted in learning more look up the wikipedia article on "Who Killed the Electric Car"

Answer 9

Because the technology isn't as effecient yet as people want.  Americans like to hurry, and taking 15-20 seconds to reach 60mph is too long to most people.  Just like any new technology, the longer it is out there, the better and cheaper it will be.

Answer 10

ok... lets say you own a very rich oil company and now people are not using it anymore because they are using electric poweres ones. you would do somthing wouldnt you.

or  

they are WAY overpriced.

Answer 11

rent who killed the electric car to find out

Answer 12

The issue here is that electric cars have to be charged. The charge does not last that long, so the cars only drive for about one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles before needing a charge.

Hybrid cars on the other hand, help increase gas mileage by using the power created by the car to reduce the amount of gas used when the car is idling or going slow.

There is an inventor who has created a battery powered car that accelerates quickly and lasts for about three hundred miles. The problem is that the batteries take up a lot of space and recharging them is still an issue.

Take care,

Troy

Answer 13

the reason electric cars have not replaced gas-powered cars is because it would be a huge step for America. Most people wouldn't want to because they don't like change even thought it would be for the best. Also, it will take a long time for all gas-powered cars to be completely replaced by electric cars.

Answer 14

mmm..... big oil?

Answer 15

Electric cars can run just as fast as others. They are great around the city. Not too good for long hauls because as you add distance, you need to recharge more often, or add More batteries (weight).

Electric cars are good for the city because they reduce emissions locally, but they are terrible for overall conservation. They use electric power from the grid which is not as energy efficient as burning the fuel directly. They just move the pollution from the city to the power plant location.

Bottom line is they are great for the electric company and reducing emissions locally. They are not good for global warming.

Answer 16

mostly because people like to drive fast. electric cars go zero to sixty in like twenty seconds. the engines just don't have the pickup.

Answer 17

An electric vehicle, or EV, is a vehicle with one or more electric motors for propulsion. The motion may be provided either by wheels or propellers driven by rotary motors, or in the case of tracked vehicles, by linear motors.

The energy used to propel the vehicle may be obtained from several sources, some of them more ecological than others:

from an on-board rechargeable energy storage system(RESS)

from chemical energy stored on the vehicle in on-board batteries: Battery electric vehicle (BEV)

from static energy stored on the vehicle in on-board supercapacitors

from rotational storage: flywheels

from both an on-board rechargeable energy storage system (RESS) and a fueled propulsion power source (internal combustion engine): hybrid vehicle (as in a diesel-electric locomotive ), including plug-in hybrid

generated on-board using a fuel cell: fuel cell vehicle

generated on-board using nuclear energy, on nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers

from renewable sources such as wind and solar

from a direct connection to land-based generation plants, as is common in electric trains and trolley buses (See also : third rail and conduit current collection)

from both an on-board rechargeable energy storage system and a direct continuous connection to land-based generation plants for purposes of on-highway recharging with unrestricted highway range.

Despite the higher efficiency, electro-chemical vehicles have been beset by a technical issue which has prevented them from replacing the more cumbersome heat engines: energy storage. Fuel cells are fragile, sensitive to contamination, and require external reactants such as hydrogen. Batteries currently used are either not mass-produced, leading to high per-unit prices, or end up being a significant (25%-50%) portion of the final vehicle mass, in the case of conventional lead-acid technology. Both have lower energy and power density than petroleum fuels. However, recent advances in battery efficiency, capacity, materials, safety, toxicity and durability are likely to allow their superior characteristics to be widely applied in car-sized EVs.

For especially large electric vehicles, such as submarines and aircraft carriers, the chemical energy of the diesel-electric can be replaced by a nuclear reactor. The nuclear reactor usually provides heat, which drives a steam turbine, which drives a generator, which is then fed to the propulsion. This energy produces nuclear waste.(even if the device can produce electricity ... it produces a deadlier nuclear waste)

The Future is Here:

Several start-up companies, like Tesla Motors and Phoenix Motorcars, will have powerful battery-electric vehicles available to the public in 2008. Battery and energy storage technology is advancing rapidly. Electric cars are perfectly useful as second household vehicle for usual short and medium distance trips of 100 to 250 miles per charge. The range issue will be improved by technologies such as Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles which are capable of using traditional fuels for unlimited range.

Improved long term energy storage and nano batteries

There have been several developments which could bring back electric vehicles outside of their current fields of application, as scooters, golf cars, neighborhood vehicles, in industrial operational yards and indoor operation. First, advances in lithium-based battery technology, in large part driven by the consumer electronics industry, allow full-sized, highway-capable electric vehicles to be propelled as far on a single charge as conventional cars go on a single tank of gasoline. Lithium batteries have been made safe, can be recharged in minutes instead of hours, and now last longer than the typical vehicle. The production cost of these lighter, higher-capacity lithium batteries is gradually decreasing as the technology matures and production volumes increase.

Introduction of Battery Management and Intermediate Storage

Another improvement was to decouple the electric motor from the battery through electronic control while employing ultra-capacitors to buffer large but short power demands and regenerative braking energy. The development of new cell types combined with intelligent cell management improved both weak points mentioned above. The cell management involves not only monitoring the health of the cells but also a redundant cell configuration (one more cell than needed). With sophisticated switched wiring it is possible to condition one cell while the rest are on duty.

THINGS ARE LOOKING UP FOR THE DECEASED NIKOLA TESLA ... BUT YES THERE IS A PRESSURE FROM THE Oil Companies etc... on the other hand you should look at the Shell and British Petroleum sites they are into Research for sustainable energy. As the Fossil fuels are going to last us only for another 75 - 100 years. These companies want to keep us provided with energy and hence are far-sighted and have a mature outlook. Also look at Suzlon... Afterall we humans are not that suicidal :)

Cheers

Ritu

Answer 18

see the movie "WHo Killed the Electric Car?"

Answer 19

It's mostly battery tech. We need batteries that store more energy, and more imporantly, recharge faster.

If you run out of charge on the interstate, it sucks to sit around for 3 hours while your car recharges.