As many producers announce their hybrid or electric cars, it’s more and more obvious that the future is of electric car’s.
There is a competition to be the first one to produce electric cars and have them on the road.
China is trying to get on the track for this and they will try to produce 500,000 electric cars in the next two years. It might not sound much, but compared to the 2100 produced last year, it’s a great evolution.
One example of electric car made in China is the BYD Auto’s E6 electric vehicle shown at 2008 Beijing International Auto Show.
Voices say three things:
1. The safety and quality of Chinese cars’ is not enough for US market
2. Chinese batteries fail
3. The price is too high for domestic use
This is just a personal opinion, but I think that it’s only a temporary situation. Chinese are already working to improve their technology.
Ford wants to settle an agreement with Changan, a major Chinese automaker to develop electric cars for the US market.
There is even an official agreement between the US Department of Energy and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology to promote the deployment of next generation car technologies in both countries.
I see this as a way to produce cheaper but good performing electric cars for the US market. I guess it’s just a matter of time until we can see the results on the streets.
The major Japanese companies are already on the way to largely produce hybrids, as an intermediary step before electric cars.
For us, the people waiting for no-emission cars on large scale production, these are good news.
How long can a chinese electric car run on a single recharge? One of the biggest problems are the batteries, and thats why we see all the hybrids.
The Chinese cars still have a ways to go but they’re getting close 🙂
You know all we need is a small, super efficient gas or diesel generator built into these cars to switch to fully electric vehicles with a generator backup! Why is no one talking about this? We should be able to easily convert to electric by starting with this premise. Electric vehicles last forever! I bet that the auto manufacturers know this and they are resisting the change, and all of the green sites are fomenting this ridiculous omission.
Mike, There’s one thing you haven’t considered. It takes electricity to refine gasoline. The electricity to refine one gallon of gasoline will power an electric car 40 miles. If all the cars on the road were electric, we would need to make LESS electricity than we do now. Stan
Well Ovidiu, there is no technical quick-fix.
Te problem is that there isn’t currently any alternative even on the horizon that will enable us all to carry on driving our own cars……….in an environmentally less damaging way.
Hydrogen, the “fuel of the future”, is generally produced from hydrocarbons, or by electrolysis (which means electricty, which means inefficiencies and pollution)…….either way emitting large amounts of Carbon Dioxide.
Bio-fuels are ridiculous. We can’t afford to turn over huge swathes of our food-producing land to grow fuel crops at the time when the planet’s population is exploding. Nor can we keep on hacking down forests to grow the crops in their place.
So, I’m afraid that the old-fashioned answer……..travel less, and travel on public transport where ver possible, is the only thing we can do immediately whilst the scientists and engineers seek a commercially viable source of hydrogen that doesn’t involve hydro-carbons anywhere in its production.
Mike
Why on earth should we welcome the arrival of electric cars?
The electric car does no more than move the pollution and CO2 from thousands of individual exhaust pipes to the chimney stacks of our power stations. Whilst we are still generating most of our electricity from coal, oil and gas such a move could actually increase the total amount of CO2 emitted.
There are huge inefficiencies in power stations, and great losses from the distribution network. Proponents of electric cars want us to simply move from one inefficient and polluting transport system to another…….arguably a worse one.
It is some form of madness to go along this route!
Mike
If not electric, then what kind of greener transportation system do you propose?
Fascinating stuff. The race is on.
I hope electric cars are the only cars on the road one day.
Dave