Electric vehicles – good, bad and green cars

The electric car is quickly incorporating changes to transform the way we think about conservation of energy and preserving the environment in particular and transportation in general. This new technology if proven successful may drastically reduce our dependence on oil, enable adoption of renewable energy and change the way in which we go about our transportation activities. Cities across the globe are pushing for development of electric vehicles but how far their efforts will prove to be successful is yet to be ascertained.

Cars running on pure electricity have not proved their worth as on date. Sales are not encouraging as compared to hybrid cars which are seen in the case of Toyota with Prius profits at around the one million mark in yearly sales. Ford Fusion is also being offered in conventional, hybrid and pure electric options with technology that can save up to 40% in cost, volume and weight while at the same time increasing the reliability factor to higher limits.

However, on the other side of the coin is the fact that all is not hunky dory in the Electric car kingdom. On the downside, as amazing as electric cars can be for the environment they do pose a problem for users who cannot go as far on a single charge as they could on a tank full of gasoline. The Nissan Leaf one can go 120 miles if you drive at 38 mph while if one is driving on the highway, this distance is cut by half. Lack of efficient charging stations is also a constraint. A home charging station would require a 120 volt outlet but the Leaf would take about 12 hours to charge as compared to a 6 hour charge from a 240 volt charging unit.