Ten Things to Know About EVs

1) An EV is a vehicle propelled by an electric motor and powered by batteries. The batteries are rechargeable; “refueling” means plugging the car in to an electrical power source, which could include a standard wall outlet or special EV charging station.

2) EVs are very quiet, have plenty of power, and are fun to drive. On June 9, 2004, a British team will seek to set a land speed record of more than 300 M.P.H., driving the ABB e=motion on the salt flats of southern Tunisia. (And update on this story--apparently, the weather did not cooperate and the attempt was called off.) The current record of 257 M.P.H. was set by the Ohio State University Buckeye Bullet on the Bonneville Salt Flats in October of 2003. UPDATES! While foul weather foiled the ABB e=motion effort, the Buckeye Bullet did it again! In 2004, the Bullet set a U.S. electric land speed record at 314.958 MPH and was clocked as the world's fastest EV at 321.8 MPH. See the latest on the Buckeye Bullet here.

And how about the Tesla roadster? EV's forever shake the "golf cart" stereotype. Zero to sixty in about four seconds, 250 miles on a charge, and seriously styling. Forbes magazine called it the "new car that best lived up to the hype."

3) EVs make an ideal second car. The average individual in the U.S. drives 35 miles in a day—a distance easily managed by current EV technology. The car in Electric Dreams was built in less than six months by high-school students and could travel more than 60 miles on a charge. More recently, the students at Northampton-East High School built an EV conversion that traveled more than 110 miles on a charge.

4) EVs are typically charged at night, when demand for electrical power is lowest. Millions of EVs could be plugged in around the country without demanding any additional power-generating capabilities than are already available from existing electric utilities.

5) EVs are energy efficient—at least 75% of the energy in the batteries goes towards propelling the vehicle forward. By contrast, the most efficient internal combustion vehicles use only about 20% of the potential energy in a gallon of gas. The rest is wasted.

6) Electricity from clean, renewable energy sources including wind, solar, and hydropower, can be used to charge an EV. Northampton High School-East built a solar charging station / solar-powered outdoor classroom in front of the high school.

7) EVs emit no tailpipe pollutants. In fact, they have no tailpipe. By contrast, an internal-combustion (IC) vehicle: (i) even when stopped with the engine off, emits evaporative emissions of hydrocarbon pollutants; (ii) is a source of runoff oil, gasoline, and coolant pollutants that contaminate water supplies; (iii) when in operation, gives off exhaust/tailpipe pollutants including:

• hydrocarbons that react with sunlight and nitrogen oxides to form ground level ozone.
• known carcinogens
• nitrogen oxides (NOx) contributing to both ozone and acid rain
• carbon monoxide (CO)
• carbon dioxide—a “greenhouse gas”

8) With no oil, filters, spark plugs, hoses, belts, or coolant, EVs require very little maintenance.

9) EVs reduce our dependence on oil imports. Oil is a finite resource subject to unpredictable price fluctuations, and the U.S. is heavily dependent on foreign sources of oil, currently importing well over half its oil supplies. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has predicted that world oil demand will increase by 50 percent over the next two decades, driven largely by transportation needs.

10) Henry Ford’s wife owned an EV.

Want to know more?

Jerry's EV Conversion: A step-by-step chronicle of an EV conversion project, invaluably informative and entertaining too.

How Stuff Works: more on electric cars from one of my favorite web sites.

TerraPass: How to turn 6 pounds pounds of gasoline into 20 pounds of CO2

Date updated: 12.21.06

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