Nissan LEAF

This is the Nissan LEAF.

This is part of the future of cars.  It is a Battery Electric Vehicle, or BEV.  It will give you about 107 horsepower or 80 kW.  With a range of 100 miles and a top speed of 87 mph, this car will satisfy about 90 percent of all trips made in the United States.  It has multiple charging options including the quick charger (currently every expensive) that can substantially charge the battery in 30 minutes.  

As I've mentioned before, the limitation in quick charging BEV's is not the car itself, but rather the incapability of the plug to keep up.  I did the math on one electric car, I don't remember which one, but it had a quick charge time of around 10 minutes.  That means for those ten minutes, it had to be pulling somewhere in the range of 250,000 watts.  As a comparison, my on-demand water heater pulls 28,000 watts at the most.

If you know anything about electric cars, you know that their most important benefit lies in their operation costs.  As far as fuel goes, you should spend less than one fifth on fueling an electric car compared to a gas car of similar size.  There's also no need for oil, fan belts, transmission fluid, air, fuel, oil, or transmission fluid filters, emissions systems, exhaust pipes, mufflers, or power steering fluid.

A few options I'm looking for in an electric car, the ability to accommodate a generator trailer for longer trips, and a minivan.  That said, I'm not in the market for a car, and hopefully, there will be a suitable electric or two mode hybrid minivan when our Corolla wears out.  By then, we plan on owning a few more children and a minivan will be necessary.  

Electric is the only future we can really count on.  Electricity has a multiplicity of sources including home generation.  The technology is here, the feasibility is here, it's just about getting the products here.  Myself, I'd be happy to buy the parts and build one of my own.  Fortunately, prices are coming down and with the Obama government being at least somewhat in support of EV's, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Cheers,

WiredForStereo