Business Week is reporting:
But beyond the hip music and snazzy displays, electric cars face some sobering realities that make them vehicles of the future rather than of the present. The biggest issues are price and usability. Costly batteries put these cars out of reach for most consumers, and infrastructure isn’t currently in place to allow owners to plug in and charge up cars when they’re away from home. Add to that speed and range limitations with electric technology, and it’s clear the electric future won’t come overnight.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t cause for excitement about electric cars, which offer the possibility of zero-emissions driving for a potentially large number of city dwellers. It does mean, though, that consumers will have to be patient.
Will VW have the answer?
VW has been talking for a long time about their L1 concept, so called because it uses a measly 1 liter of gasoline to go 100 km. For us Americans, that translates to about 230 miles per gallon. Of course, the amazing mileage comes at a price. The car is tiny, more of a tobaggon than a car. The single passenger actually sits behind the driver, like in a small airplane.
The tiny engine will only get the car up to about 75 mph and, as such, VW doesn’t expect to sell a lot of them. Safety concerns might also keep the car from being a best seller. But, since it does have four wheels, it will have to meet all of the normal safety regulations for cars.
Sorry….I digress…..back to electric cars…may I see a show of hands that think electric cars will become the norm in the future? (lengthy pause for thought)
I say there is NO future for electric cars as we are today…..why do I say such a thing? Look around the next time you are driving in traffic…….the answer should be obvious.
The purely electric car as it has so far been proposed has NO future. I don’t mean by that cars with an electric power unit rather than a normal internal combustion one driving the wheels because I think the electric motor WILL be the preferred unit used to transmit the power to the wheels in the future. Where the electric motor gets its electricity from though is a whole different matter. Also, I suspect that a battery of sorts will be a part of a car for a very long time to come, but I rather think it’s function will be much as now – to get things going and to power systems when the vehicle is stationary and sort of “dormant”.
However, the future does look bright for the so called hybrid cars and some have already been proposed that use the normal engine to charge a small bank of bateries that then drive the vehicle through an electric power unit. THAT makes sense and the internal combustion engine could well soon be replaced by fuel cells or hydrogen burning units once the infrastructure is there.
We can only hope…but here, electric cars have little futurew….big oil will see to that….this is why the GOP is proposing domestic drilling and natural gas, etc…….but their would be little cash for research on electric cars and such.
In spite of what most Americans seem to think (and I mean no disrepect to you or your readers), the USA, although big and powerful and (relatively) rich, your country is quite small when compared with the rest of the world and, given the protectionist attitudes of many, you don’t exactly provide the biggest, most reliable market for other countries’ goods.
That being so, look at what Japan and even a lot of Europe is working on and looking to achieve. It’s time for personal transport to take a quantum leap and the internal combustion engine burning oil is just so bloody outdated. If the USA doesn’t see this and grab this opportunity she’ll have less car industry than we have left in the UK (nada, zero, zilch!).
It’s not about price – mass production will in any event take care of that in time. It’s about inventiveness and brilliant design coupled with quality engineering – that’s where the future lies. Ten years ago it cost maybe 100 dollars to make a pretty dodgy and unreliable DVD drive. Now you can pick them up retail for a few dollars and every one is perfect!
Innovation, style, design and quality, those are the keys. If it’s good enough the infrastructure and even the Arab money will follow, because, if you’re right, a few years down the line, the US could be the last place on Earth apart from a few third world countries where petrol is still being used.
I do not think that any of us feel any disrespect……Americans are addicts…they are credit addicts and oil addicts…..and unfortunately, its biggest pusher is the government…..you are right the keys are innovation……but the biggies in the business will go with the cash…..if electric innovations do not produce that then they will get the government to move in their favor.
I still say that if the control of carbon emissions is really important then make the alternatives cheaper….the consumer will go to the savings…..if a company gets a million for innovation then they cannot use the recoup of R&D money as a reason for a hefty price.
I feel this way about the “fat” issue…if you want people to eat healthier then make it cheaper than junk food.
Thanx for the visit…damn I need coffee!