Today I watched the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” The movie is fascinating! The filmmaker, of course, interviews some who think the oil companies may have had something to do with the demise of the electric car, but a more reasonable explanation is that there were too many problems with it and (at that point) not an especially high demand (In the the late 90’s gas wasn’t nearly as high priced as it is now).
I googled and found a company that makes electric cars now: Tesla motors. The vehicles start at $62,000. The electric car has a maximum range of about 240 miles before it needs recharging (though there are more expensive models with a range of up to 400 miles). Charge stations exist but are rare, certainly not as common as gas stations. The company plans to have a larger number of charge stations available in 2015, but even then they will scattered such that interstate travel is possible, but not necessarily convenient (imagine having to plan a trip with a route designed to hit a charge station every few hundred miles; it might involve driving 50 miles out of the way instead of taking a more direct route). Click here to see the map of charge stations in America and you’ll see what I mean.
The big plus of an electric car is that you no longer have to buy gas. But how much of a plus is that? If you drive about 25,000 miles per year, then the cost of gas you save (minus the cost of the electricity you will have to use) makes it work out that you will save about $3000 per year. If you owned your electric car for ten years, you’d have saved $30,000 in gas. Sweet! But given the huge pricetag on electric vehicles, you would come out just as well or better financially if you just bought a new gas-using sedan instead. *Sigh*
A lot of research and development work needs to go into the electric car before it will become a reasonable option. Price needs to go down, charging stations need to become more common, and the range needs to be longer. But it could happen. Compare the Ipad to the Apple Lisa if you don’t believe it. I wish the electric car success!
