We Want Electric Cars

So I was looking around the net reading some articles and came across this 17 year old that turned his gas truck into an electric truck.  Reading through his blog it is obvious that he has been around fixing up gas cars most of his life.  But this seemed to only help him understand what he needed to do to achieve his goal.

It is pretty amazing, at 55MPH he is getting a range of 45 miles with this home built electric truck.  Here is the link so that you can read the details: Greenflight EV

In the time of high gas prices and the need for change big companies are still trying to stay away from Electric Cars.  In this example Ford Motor Company pulled out of their stake in TH!NK a Norwegian Electric Car Company.

During their time with the company they actually brought over to the states 400 cars for testing.  Of course they would only lease these environmentally friendly cars to the public for three years.  The more astonishing thing or maybe not so astonishing is the fact that the three years was set by U.S. federal authorities.  Once the lease was up the cars could no longer be used in the US.

So what was Ford going to do with the cars after the lease was over?  They were going to crush them.  I find it sad with the gas issue at hand that the federal government would let this occur.  If they were truly interested in helping change for the American people they should have allowed these people to extend their lease or buy the vehicles.  Instead Norway stepped up and fought for the cars back to sell to Norwegians.  That is just sad and possibly another example of how big oil is keeping us from moving forward.  I am sure lobbyist are paid big bucks to manipulate what happens.

The good news is even with Ford out of the picture TH!NK is coming back after a Norwegian Investment Group helped pull it back on its feet.  What does this mean for the US?  They are hoping to be selling the cars in the US by 2009.

About the car:

First of all it is an updated version of the car developed by Ford.  Way to go Ford…

It is a small two passenger car called the TH!NK City with a range of about 110 miles per charge (MPC).  With a top speed of 65 miles per hour it should be fine for most highways in the US.  With my daily mileage at 80 miles per day 110 MPC would work but although the car is cute it is just to small to drive a family of four around.  The size would make it pretty hard to drop the kids off anywhere before work.  With that said I hope they have great success in the US.

With success they could hopefully bring the TH!INK Ox to us that is a five passenger electric car.  Now that is a car I would more then likely purchase.  I have no idea on the specs like MPC or top speed but it fits the looks and size that I would be looking for.  Here is a picture:

So I have been gauging my mileage per day.  I wanted to see what I would need to have a commuter electric car.  Lets face it the damn thing has to at least make it to work and back.  The icing on the cake would betting me to vacation points.

On average I would need 80 miles per day.  That means most of the electric cars they are looking at building or are building would be fine if they are at 150 miles per charge.  That is pretty exciting to me because I could live with it.  I could do it.  Granted we would need a gas car to get to other states for vacations but hey it is a start and I would be willing to do

I am so sick of these politicians running our lives while their investments are in big oil.  These higher up polititions have no idea how the average person lives.  Why do I say that?  What makes me think that?  Lets see.

1. They do not have to pay health insurance out of their paychecks.  Their health insurance coverage is much different then ours.  They have no concept of reality here.  How can you think they are going to help you when they have no idea how it is to PAY for the coverage.
2. Do you really think the politicians you know about, read about, or love actually PAY for their gas?  Do you think these people PAY for their car they drive to work in or drive to the fundraiser in actually PAY for it?  How about they give the tax money to those that they are visiting??

I do not see how an important out spoken politician could every understand the place Americans are in at this time.  Why go to bat for the American people when they can make so much money not doing that?

You need to ask yourself what can I do to change these things and avoid them, the politicians, getting in my way of what I know is the better choice.

It looks like the electric cars magic year is 2010.  Why do I say that?  Because when you look at manufactures this is the release year.  Is it suspicious that most have this year?  To me currently hell yes but this is what we have to go on right now.

Why can’t they invest is the batteries to run the electric cars and make money that way?  Why can’t they invest in the opportunities that exist in charging stations?

Come on people on capital hill lets mix it up and give the future a chance.   You know we almost had it back in 1996. Wink.  You know what I am talking about…. EV1 anyone?  Or better yet Zero Emission Vehicle (”ZEV”) mandate anyone??

I keep going over in my head what would it take for me to purchase an electric car?  What is that sweet spot where I pull the trigger and ditch my gas cars or at least one of them?

What would make me purchase an Electric Car list:

1. If the money I spend monthly for gas starts to cost the same as a monthly payment for an Electric Car.
2. It would have to cost below $25,000.00
3. On a single charge it would have to go 200+ miles.
4. The electric car would have to look like the gas cars currently being sold.  You know NORMAL looking.  I do not want to drive a three wheeled bubble.  Nor do I want to drive a four wheel bubble that I look like some abnormal hunched over giant inside of.
5. It would need to be reliable.
6. Maintenance cost would need to be on par with its big evil brother.
7. This is a stretch but I would like there to be charging stations between cities that get frequent vacationers.  For example if I live in Alabama and want to travel to Florida’s Disney World it would be great to have charging stations with food places around it to charge for the next 200+ miles.
8. Number seven brings me to the next thing.  I understand that charging a battery will take some time but a nice to have would be a 1HR 30MIN charge time at these charging stations.  As long as it was a stopping point with food, movie theater, or something to do while charging I am good.  I see this as an opportunity for many businesses actually.

So that is the list so far.  I may come back and add to it as I do more research.  The big ones really are price, looks, and miles per charge.  Currently it looks like the normal looking electric cars cost to damn much and the cheaper ones just look ridiculous.  Many of them are getting really close to the miles per charge though which is fantastic.

What would you add or change to this list?  I would really like to hear what would make you buy an electric car.

Lets take a look at the the Phoenix Motor Cars.  When looking at all the Electric Cars out there this company is one of the few on the right track.  Their cars look like normal everyday cars that people would actually enjoy driving and being seen in.

The Phoenix SUT:

This sport utility truck looks fantastic.  It has room for up to four passengers plus it can carry a payload of 1,000lbs.  The revolutionary lithium-titinate battery will travel 100+ miles in the city and highway per charge.

According to their website the battery charges in 5 to 6 hours with the on-board vehicle 6.6KW charger and in under 10min to 95% with the Off-Board High-Power 250KW Charger.  That is pretty amazing.   The only draw back is that the batteries they selected to use are expensive but they are fast charging.  That is one of the concerns people have when asked about electric cars is the charging times.  It looks like Phoenix Motor decided to listen and went with the more expensive.

Talking about charging batteries, when you really think about it the electric car will be like the cell phone is today.  When you get home from work most people plug their cell phones in to get it charged for the next day.  With electric cars we will grow accustom to pulling into our garage or parking area and plugging in the car as we do with the cell phones today.  It will become so natural we probably will start wondering how we got by having to stop and get gas so damn much.

This car really is great to look at.  Currently the colors to choose from are Red, Blue, White, Silver, Black, and Gray.  With packages ranging from Premium, Luxury, and the Darkside.  All the packages look promising the Premium has all the basic features of today’s gas cars like AC, cloth seats, power windows and locks, keyless entry, steering wheel audio controls and so on.  The Luxury package adds things like auto tenting rear view mirror, premium wheels, NAV system and leather seats to name a few.  I am sure you are wondering about the Darkside package.  It adds many custom items, 20″ wheels, audio upgrades, and two tone red/black paint to name a few things.

The word around the web is that pricing will be around $40,000 once it is available.  No idea which package that would be but I would guess it to be the Premium version since that is their low package to consumers.

They also have an SUV version with the same features but no Darkside package.  This car look great as well.

I give this company a big thumbs up for making their electric cars actually look normal and appealing.  They do look like your everyday car on the road which is exactly the right thing to do.

Having said that it is still out of the price range for most Americans which I consider a big problem.  For Electric Cars to be our future they must be in the price range that most people can afford.  Take a look at their website at Phoenix Motor Cars.

It is pretty amazing when you think about it.  The first cars made in the late 1800’s where all electric.  To think that the world had it right back then is really something.  Take a look at this 1920’s ad for an electric car.  Something to note is that it looks just like the gas cars of the time.  Imagine that, even back then they realized it needed to be like all the other cars made for people to buy them!

Sadly the gasoline powered cars had become easier to use, drove longer distances, and cheaper to buy.  The fight had been won and the loser was the electric car.  Only years later do we see that we all actually lost and big oil companies and oil investors are the winners.

When will we start to see these electric cars again?

Would you buy an electric car if it was affordable and not just for the wealthy?

What miles per charge would be your breaking point? 150, 200, 300 or more miles per charge?

I will eventually have some surveys to see what people think.  It is fascinating to see what would change people over.

With gas prices where they are these days now is an excellent time for companies to step up and introduce electric car choices.  The question is will it be one of the big car companies or will we see a new company emerge and become a top car maker?

Whoever it is they will need to make the electric car as much like we currently drive as possible.  It is hard to understand why when they make a prototype they feel like they need to make it futuristic looking or as small and round as possible.  I am sorry but it does not take a rocket scientist to understand that people are not going to buy these bubble cars on three wheels.  Come on.

Now I know what you geeks out there are going to say.  I understand that they are trying to make them aerodynamic to get more miles out of the batteries and they are making them small for the same reason… blah blah blah.  I am sorry, for the American people to move from Gasoline to Electric cars they have to be as close as possible to looking NORMAL.

In this blog we are going to talk about all types of Electric Cars that are availible or going to be availible to the public.  Not only will we be talking about the cars but also everything that surronds it.  My hope is that people will through in their thoughts and opinons.