With the enormous amount of resources available, why is there no electric car market?

Question

With the enormous amount of resources available, why is there no electric car market?

Answer 1

Electric cars have been around for a long time.

The first official attempt at setting a land speed record was attempted in the 1870's with a battery powered electric car. Officially it went about 75 MPH.

The big problem has laws been batteries. Poor life, poor capacity, low efficiency, short range. Today, most of those problems have been overcome.

NOW we need several hundreds of nuclear power plants installed IMMEDIATELY to charge all those batteries.

Remove all the crazy  barriers to building them and you'll have electric cars. We MUST build the power pants FIRST or the entire effort will amount to nothing more than a national BLACK-OUT.

Answer 2

There is a market for them, just not worth getting into yet. If you really want an electric car, wait for Lithium battery ones. Currently the batteries are too heavy and have low charge and power. If you really like the idea of electric cars, look into Hydrogen cars. Once you read about them, you'll learn they do run off electricity, just they're more efficient and convenient. Its hard to explain, so research it. I recomend looking into the Skateboard Hydrogen car. If you still want me to explain, email me. Peace.

Answer 3

Electric cars are catching on.  GM's Volt has already been mentioned and the Tesla Roadster should be out next year.  Granted it will be a high end sports car, but their second generation car is planned to be a family sedan at half of the price.

Answer 4

With present technology it is a lot less efficient to generate electricity to charge an electric car battery than it is to burn gasoline directly in a combustion engine . While there are no emissions from the tailpipe , the load put on powerstations would cause much more pollution into the atmosphere . Maybe when there is more emphasis on renewable energy sources , things might change . Even growing crops to produce alternative fuel puts more hydrocarbons into the air than well maintained gasoline vehicles .

Answer 5

you should watch 'who killed the electric car'

it is a very good documentary on electric cars.

Answer 6

There IS an electric car market.

YOU represent part of the market.  There ARE electric cars available.  You can buy one.

Answer 7

Yep, lots of false information on this thread.  While it's true you have to create pollution to make electricity, electricity is far more efficiently produced than by today's gasoline engine.  Thus, it is far cleaner.

The problem with the electric car market is two-fold.  First, the American auto industry and the oil industry are doing their damnedest to keep the electric car off the market.  Example, when the EV1 was produced, Exxon purchased the small company that made the battery for the EV1, shut it down, and told the inventor not to talk to the press about his invention.

Second, the electric car does not have the range or the size of the gasoline car, and it's still more expensive than a similarly-performing gasoline car.

Answer 8

because the big money oil industry won't allow it. i have had a car that will run on it's own for over fifty years, but the govt. says that it can't be patented because it is a perpetual motion machine. it isn't, but follow the money and you can see whats happenin. why do you think we are at war?

Answer 9

The public today is unaware of a 30-cent-a-day electric vehicle that they can get for less than $10,000 because the corporate media (largely) won't cover it. Here's a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (government media) TV news of an EV that anybody can afford:

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-...

Related to this is Free Energy from UFO's -- sounds wacky, huh? Well, check out this video, and watch the last  15 minutes, where we learn that the info is being suppressed allegedly because UFO technology will mean that we won't need to buy petroleum:

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-...

Answer 10

Not one answer here contains correct information.

The Grid can support EV's.

http://newswire.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/beho...

Even the worst coal plants are better than cars, but new coal plants, renewables and nuclear all are much much better.

The truth is simple. Electrics weren't good enough to create a market. Up until the Tesla Electric vehicles were slow, ugly, inconvenient and expensive. They required a lot of battery maintenance, at least the lead-acid ones that were affordable and there was some small danger involved.

Even today there's only a small sector that makes electric cars. None makes a car that makes sense yet.

I believe the GM Volt will be the first car that is smart, and electric. It carries around a generator, but the car has batteries and runs on pure electric all the time. It's got a huge range, will cost under $30k, looks great, seats 5 and is convenient.

Answer 11

because it still pollutes just as much as a traditional car. Instead of emissions out of your exhaust, its extra emissions from the power plants. Also the batteries on electric cars are not developed enough. The only way an electric car would be feasibile would be more technological advancement and a switch to renewable energy producers...hydro, geo, thermal, or nuclear energy.