Thomas Edison and an electric car. Courtesy of the Smithsonian
On this day, I finally experienced one hundred twenty one year old technology first hand. I drove a fully electric vehicle, the Nissan Leaf. Bitter sweet really. See the first fully electric car built in the US was by William Morrison in 1891. The sweet was quiet smooth acceleration knowing I had all the bells and whistles without needing a drop of gasoline. Oh and the regenerative braking portion is a real clever system that uses the drive motor to generate more energy while braking. The bitter part was mainly the cost. $37K for a car that doesn’t even have leather seats! But worse is the fact that in over one hundred years we don’t have more electric vehicles on the road. Really, there should be $8K to $20K electric cars everywhere. I think William, Thomas Edison (with whom I share the same birthday 🙂 ) and Henry Ford, turn every time a gas car drives by their tombstone. I get that gas is cheap considering the amount of energy produced but, an electric car that can move five adults comfortably, with a range of 200 miles for $10K should be on the road today.
How about number 11 from the Fool’s “100 Mind-Blowing Facts About the Economy” ~ 2012
A Honda Civic hybrid starts at $24,200 and gets 44 miles per gallon. A Civic with a normal gas engine starts at $16,000 and gets 39 MPG. If you drive 15,000 miles a year and gas averages $4 a gallon, it will take 47 years for the hybrid to justify its cost over the traditional model.
Read the rest of the facts from The Fool here…
Some interesting information on the history of electric vehicles can be found here…
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