Who Killed The Electric Car

This not a rant about that movie at all.

The reason the EV-1 wasn't going to sell in the quantities required to make it viable has a lot to do with its 75 mile range. For everyday commuting, 75 miles isn't too bad. Plugging it in at night works just fine if you live within 37.5 miles of work. If work has a place for you plug in, then you can live 75 miles from work!

The problem, of course, surfaces when you want to go farther than 75 miles.

Just giving some local examples from where I live. If I want to spend a fun filled day at Disney World, it's 109 miles one way. EV-1 can't do that in one hop. So I'd have to find a hotel or someplace to sit for 8 hours while the car charges. Think about that for a sec. Drive for an hour, sit for eight, drive another half hour to get there.

Most gas powered cars have a safe 400 mile range. It takes only a few minutes to replenish that range.

I am sure the hotel industry would love everyone driving an EV-1.

Batteries are better than they used to be. A modern EV-1 would get about 225 miles to a charge. Enough to get from here to Disney and back! But a charge is still a one day deal realistically. The 1500 mile trip to Iowa would take a week (6 2/3 charges). My gas guzzling Vette does that same trip in two days at the speed limit (and uses 4 tanks of gas).

Now, all of the above does not kill the gas-electric or diesel-electric car at all. A Prius can do the trip to Iowa at the speed limit just as fast as I can in the Corvette. Even considering they don't get their full rated economy with continuous highway use, they get great mileage.

My principle objection to hybrids (and electrics) are the pollution to make the batteries is never mentioned; the materials to make the advanced batteries require petroleum; no hybrid advocate has a plan for what to do about those batteries when they finally do wear out.