Tuesday 5 August 2014

going electric

As far as we can think back the car has always run on gasoline or diesel but due to the ever rising cost of fossil fuel this will eventually come to an end. Electric cars seems to be making big in roads into the automotive world. Initially many people were skeptical about electric cars with many commenting about the possibility of electromagnetic radiation, short driving range and long charging times and the possible dangers of the car being stuck in a flood. Toyota's hybrid cars were a good in between solution that offered the best of both worlds but the problems came with the recycling of the batteries and the diminishing battery life.
Some car companies took it one step further by developing sporty electric cars to make it more appealing since the regular electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf was boring to say the least. Tesla Motors took the concept and made it much better by introducing better driving range, luxurious interiors and more efficient use of the power. BMW on the other hand turned their attention to the i3 and i8 both of which are revolutionary to some degree. Keeping true to their motto of making "ultimate driving machine", BMW made the i3 as the city car with an optional gasoline range extender motor and the i8 as the first electric sports car.
Despite earlier criticisms by motoring journalists, BMW managed to prove that their electric cars are worthy of the BMW badge and made the car enjoyable to drive.
The number of pure electric cars sold worldwide is less than 1% of the total volume of cars sold but the number is growing steadily, more so in developed countries where the charging infrastructure is better. Countries like Japan hybrid and electric cars are common as many car parks have charging facility for electric cars.
Once car companies are able to squeeze out a range of 500km on a single charge I believe will be a big impact on the sales of electric cars. The range anxiety problem is still common until now since many of the current electric cars only offer up to 250km range but in reality most of them run out of power by 180km. this basically restricts the owners of driving long distance with the electric car.

The introduction of the induction charging system will help with the sales of electric cars to some degree but someone has to bear the cost of installing the system in public places to allow the electric cars to be charged while stationary.

More evolution of the electric car is yet to come. It will get seriously interesting when the electric cars are self driven and is capable of driving ranges in excess of 500km on a single charge.

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