Will electric vehicles ever get popular

Why do people love golf carts and hate electric cars? I believe by now all of the major automobile manufacturers have developed an electric vehicle of some kind. The question seems to be why they are so unpopular with the general car buying public and will car-makers be able to turn this around and make them popular.

Some people argue that the EV’s still use fossil fuels, as in the power that recharges the batteries comes from power plants that consumes some type of fossil fuel or maybe if you’re lucky electricity that is produced from nuclear.

Just my personal opinion on the prior statement, I think that there is some truth to it but it would seem like a lot less fossil fuel is used to charge a battery then let’s say putting 20 gallons of unleaded regular or even diesel in your car or truck. You also get to send this electricity to your vehicle straight from the power plant.

In liquid fuel terms this is like an individual pipeline directly to your house from the oil refinery. And to be fair once the battery is charged electricity is able to directly produce mechanical energy. Other alternative fuels release stored chemical energy through combustion that creates a whole new set of problems.

On the downside the driving range for most electric vehicles is somewhere between 60 and 80 miles per charge range. If those numbers weren’t bad enough temperature such as a cold winter day, vehicle load such as a car loaded up for a camping trip and the high desired speed (above 55mph) will drastically reduce this range.

So even though there may be a list of drawbacks some of the primary advantages to an electric car would be the drastic reduction in emission levels and noise. Although the EV are far from the perfect solution it would be nice to see them become popular enough to push the technology further along. I think the current technology could be used in many families as an around the town form of transportation and more would take advantage of it if affordable.

Old technology electric vehicles

I’m stuck in the past using old technology on an electric vehicle project I may never finish. Meanwhile TV and newspaper articles are in my face about cool new stuff like lithium ion batteries or series hybrid technology. I started converting a pickup truck to an electric vehicle using old NiCad batteries from forklifts and construction equipment.

heavy comercial batteries — Heavy Comercial Batteries

The weight of the individual battery is impressive. Start putting these together to provide enough power to move the vehicle forward for about 25 miles between charging and you are talking about carrying an earth shattering amount of weight. Thankfully I picked a small pickup truck to haul the load.

So for me I’m jealous of people who start talking about how lame the Chevrolet volt is or all the problems they are having with a Toyota prius. These two vehicles use computer controls to push the envelope of efficiency. When I look at the dashboard of a Chevy volt my thoughts wonder back to the pickup truck I work on.

My electrical vehicle conversion closely resembles golf cart technology with speed controllers similar to radio controlled model cars. The Volt looks like it could launch space shuttle missions. I think electric vehicles are interesting and the more popular they become the more efficient technology will develop and of course the prices will come down.