Should the average consumer buy into this electric car craze?
I don’t know. In fact. I believe in clean energy, but they sell me gas (despite the fact that at 14 I blew myself up in Fairbanks trying to start a pile of rubble on fire with my 5 gallon container of chainsaw fuel. But that’s another Torch type story Human.)
Gasoline has that feeling of passion for life, of sudden acceleration, immediate return.
But give me $101,500 or $9,900 for a deposit and $1,658 a month for a lease and maybe I’ll change my mind. That’s the price of a Tesla Roadster. With a 0-60 mph time of 3.7 seconds and a range of 245 miles, it’s just about perfect.
I pause here on a mental journey in that imaginary Roadster, black by the way, up Highway 99 to Bakersfield. Past Bakersfield and up Grapevine to Vallejo and Magic Mountain, stomping on the guts of BMWs and Mercedes trying to be fast. Oh…
For the purposes of this post, I have removed hybrids. No Toyota Prius or Camry. Skip the Honda Insight and the Ford Escape. Electric only. I have also not included lead-acid or lithium battery conversions.
And at this point, we only have Tesla on the road with a production vehicle. Actually, ZAP should also be included in the mix. The Santa Rosa-based company makes a line of small conveyors. In July, the company signed a deal in which ZAP will acquire 51 percent of Chinese automaker Zhejiang Jonway Automobile Co. Ltd. for $29 million “as part of a strategy to capitalize on the growing automotive and electric vehicle market in China.” China”.
This list includes models that are expected to be available soon. So here it goes.
1. Tesla: Without a doubt. It’s fast, looks great and could really blow the doors off my friend Al’s TA in OK City. He likes to race that 1977 big block Pontiac around the track.
2. Chevy Volt. Very practical. It is versatile and not frowned upon. The price is $41,000 and the range is 40 miles. However, it is complemented by a gasoline generator that allows it to travel another 340 miles. It will be out this fall.
3.Nissan LEAF. Nothing bad. It looks like a first generation Prius with a custom rear end. The SV package price was listed at $32,780, while the SL package was $33,720. The SV includes a photovoltaic spoiler, a rear view monitor and a universal transceiver. The range is 100 miles. Due in California in December.
4. Termination. Good name. Led Zep’s latest album comes to mind. But company not proven in the United States. I was impressed by the website that calculated a comparison of annual expenses for my 2000 VW Passat and a Coda. Passat: $725, Code: $124. Coda’s tag price isn’t listed on their site, but it’s expected to be in the low to mid $30,000 range.
5.Sigma. ElectricCars.com lists Sigma/Montelle kit cars as a viable option. Manufactured by EV Concepts, it goes from 0 to 60 in 6 seconds and has a top speed of 100 to 120 mph. Pricing for two-wheel drive models starts at $23,000 and all-wheel drive models start at $55,000.
There’s also Ford, which will launch a sleek electric version of its Focus sometime next year and follow up with a lineup of electric vehicles, says dailytech.com. The range of the Focus will be about 100 miles. And Audi, Mercedes and others are reported to be in R&D.
Fisker Automotive Inc. of Irvine will also launch a car, but it will be a hybrid.
Divulgation. I have not tested any of these cars. For that, I’d have to defer to Earth2Tech.com’s Katie Fehrenbacher, who can be seen in the video piloting some of them.
The feasibility of going electric seems more likely every month. But who knows. A friend of mine who has worked most of his life in the oil field says, “Bah!” to most of this talk. His prediction: There is too much oil and natural gas in reserves, counting shale and oil sands.