It seems every day some company is announcing an Electric Vehicle. The Tesla roadster has been out a while but is a very special purpose vehicle. I've driven it and it's nice but you're not taking a trip in it any time soon. Maybe you'd commute in it but probably not. More practical EVs are coming out from many companies including Tesla's own Model S sedan. The problem I see with ALL plugin EVs is the recharge time makes them impractical. I see this problem going away in the future but currently charging your EV off your home electrical plug is going to take 2 days! Drive for 3 hrs, charge for 2 days. I don't think that's realistic. By using a 240v line you can get the charging down to one day. That means if you want to go anywhere very far away you drive for 200 miles and then you rent a motel - repeat as necessary. It would take you two weeks to get across the country. Renault of France announced a new EV and they have the advantage of being from a country that takes these things serious with some of the best mass transit (electric) in the world. The press release for the Renault Kango be Bop Z.E. shows that recharge times are about 30 minutes and range is 100 miles. So range is a bit short but I'd not drive this little car across the country anyway so maybe it's fine. The recharge times are so fast (@ 400V) that if you depleted your battery you could stop at a cafe and enjoy your cafe au lait while your car recharges.
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EVs are coming!
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