Electric cars Blog

December 1st, 2008 by admin

The growth of the electric car market in the last 5 years has led to an increase in selection. Consumers who are concerned about the price of gas can shop through several electric car manufacturers competing in this growing market. Here’s how to select an electric car for the best long-term investment.

1. Use the driving distance per charge of an electric car as your main criterion for selection. A good electric car will exceed 100 miles per charge, which allows for a daily commute and errands between charges.

2. Purchase an electric car might be electric Pontiac car, electric Mitsubishi car, electric Saab car, electric Volvo car etc with a simple charging mechanism. Locate the recharging port and determine the equipment needed for safe charging.

3. Conduct a detailed search for local and regional dealers. A look through online lists like the one provided by the Electric Drive Transportation Association can help you pinpoint electric car dealers.

4. Stretch your arms and legs while sitting in the driver’s seat of an electric car to judge cockpit capacity. Your car should have enough storage room and passenger space to ease the transition from a spacious gas-fueled car.

5. Analyze the reputations of electric car manufacturers through the eyes of experienced vehicle owners. The magazine “EV World” offers owner journals on every electric car on the market for a firsthand look at performance, comfort and savings.

6. Read through the warranty for the standard electric car battery to get more out of your investment. The original battery should be covered for at least 30,000 miles to avoid frequent replacements.

December 1st, 2008 by admin

With the future catching up to us quickly, it is likely that we will see the gasoline driven vehicle disappear. Replacing them is a new species of transportation. Hybrid cars and electric cars like electric Saab car, electric Pontiac car, electric Volvo car, electric Nissan car etc are hitting the streets in every neighborhood and town. These new aged electric breed are not only saving money in the tanks, but they are being given all new futuristic designs and tastes. Hopefully in the near future, there will be talks of cars that you can just plug in when you get home and they will be all charged up the next time you’re ready to go.

GM is hard at work at just such a project. The new Chevy Volt should be coming out of the factory with all sorts of top of the line gadgetry. From the new Flex Fuel System to the range extending onboard fuel system. The new Volt should be able to accommodate just about anyone’s needs for it. Whether it is just your grocery getter or your everything car. This car will run purely off the sole power of a lithium battery for at least 40 miles, and has E85 ethanol to recharge it when needed. With one swift motion the car can also run from the gasoline to extend your mileage. That sounds like a sweet ride! Having a battery that recharges itself and gasoline would protect you from many of those moments when you ‘run out of gas’.

Dodge is also catching up the new electric car technology trend. With aggressive and impressive styling, Dodge is throwing out the new ZEO, which stands for Zero Emissions. This car not only looks good but should get an impressive 250 miles a charge, and take the breath out of anyone who sees you driving it.

Even in the United Kingdom they are raving about new electric car technology. From new Lexus’s that do 0-60 in 4.5 seconds to Acura’s that are sleek and designed for the future that is now. Nobody is going to get left behind on this new age venture.

New electric car technology is popping up in conversations everywhere. Talks of the changes in the car market, rises in the stock market, questions about what the oil companies will do and what the public will think. Variants of electric cars are coming out of dealership as we speak. Flex Cars, hybrid cars, solar cars, and more. In designs and trim packages that could never have been expected. They are the next generation in personal transportation.

November 26th, 2008 by admin

When people think luxury, they think of the Porsche. With its cars’ high price tags, powerful engines, and smooth, sleek lines, there’s no question that Porsche is one of the most prestigious automakers in the world.

The genius behind the company was a man named Ferdinand Porsche. Born in what is now the Czech Republic in 1875, he demonstrated astonishing mechanical aptitude at a young age. He was the third of five children. His father, a plumber, expected Ferdinand to take over the family business-but Ferdinand had other dreams. At eighteen, after completing an apprenticeship with his father, he took a job in Vienna with the firm Bela Egger & Co.

At the company, Ferdinand demonstrated impressive skill for his age. He built an electric wheel-hub motor, and was soon attracted across the street to rival Jakob Lohner & Co. This company was actively developing electric cars for sale, and Ferdinand felt his skills could be better used there. And they were-three years after joining the company, electric Porsche car was built.

This historic car, the Lohner-Porsche, was innovative in several ways. The two wheel-hub motors on the front wheels had an output of 2.5 horsepower, generated an astonishing 120-rpm, and were completely silent. The battery could travel 50 kilometers between recharges. The car could travel up to 50 kilometers per hour.

But this was only the beginning. Porsche began experimenting with internal-combustion motors, and his next car, the System Mixt, had internal-combustion wheel hub motors. Porsche went on to win several speed records and widespread acclaim-his name was now well-known not just in engineering circles, but also to the general public. In 1905, he won the coveted Poetting Prize as Austria’s most outstanding engineer.

In 1906, Austro-Daimler offered to make Porsche its chief designer. Porsche accepted the job, and in 1910 he designed an 85-horsepower car for the Prince Henry Trial, an international competition named in honor of Prince Henry of Prussia. Porsche’s designs won the top three places at the trial.

Dr. Porsche had competed in rallies and speed competitions since he became interested in building cars. He believed that by building race cars, he could improve the performance of all his vehicles. As a result, he developed an interest in building small, light, high-performance cars.

Porsche as a company has always been closely tied to Volkswagen; many of the components of the early Porsche cars came from the Volkswagen Beetle. Porsche’s Volkswagens were popular, affordable cars that survived after the collapse of the Third Reich. Porsche and his son, and later his grandson, went on to design such ground-breaking cars as the 911, the Boxster, the Spyder, the Roadster, the Carrera, and many others.

Porsche survived the Great Depression, the Third Reich, and dramatic corporate restructuring to keep its place at the forefront of the automotive industry. No matter the country, everyone knows that Porsche cars stand for luxury, power, and performance.

November 24th, 2008 by admin

One of the major concerns with automobiles has been the pollutants they emit into the atmosphere. Carbon emission from cars is known to be one of the major destructive substances for the ozone layer. For this reason environmentalists have been very concerned about internal combustion engines that must necessarily smoke in order to make the cars work.

The advent of the electric car has been a great relief to many. The biggest benefit for this type of car has been the cost of ownership but in a global perspective, it is an environmentally friendly car. Electric cars for sale do not have any emissions at all. They do not smoke because they don’t have internal combustion engines that use gasoline to provide energy. All the energy they use is obtained from the battery pack in the car.

Evs are going to be the answer to the world’s quest for a green vehicle. The absence of smoke means cities would have clear skyline and no more will smog be characteristic of urban dwellings.

You may want to know that the reduced components of the electric car means there will be little or no lubricants. Lubricants are also known to cause pollution to the earth’s atmosphere. Mostly made of hydrocarbons, they are also a depleting substance for the ozone layer.

Electric motor cars do not have the kind of engine to produce smoke so they run clean. You will not find an exhaust pipe on these kinds of cars at all. By operating on batteries, they are able to leave the skies clear and clean at all times.

November 24th, 2008 by admin

So you’re thinking of getting an electric car? Well, one of the first things you need to do before getting one is to learn a few basic things about these vehicles — especially with regards to how they run and where they get their power. And like all things electric, an electric car relies on an independent power source — the battery.

A normal car only needs the battery to start the engine as well as run the air conditioning system and the car stereo. That isn’t the case with electric cars. In fact, the battery used in electric cars runs about everything. When electric motor cars were first introduced, the primary concern was (and still is) the quality and reliability of the electric car battery, i.e. how long can the battery last before it needs to be recharged. Fortunately, the last few decades has produced significant improvements on how electric car batteries are made. Now we already have nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lead-acid and lithium-ion (Li-ion) types that are rechargeable and readily available in the market.

Compared to normal car batteries, how do electric car batteries fare? Here’s a look at the benefits:

Cost-effectiveness : For five bucks worth of electricity, your electric car can run for more than 300 kilometers. Now if you do the math and compare that with your current gas costs and equivalent mileage, you’ll see that going electric can be quite economic in the long run.

Cleaner & Greener : Although you still need to burn fossil fuels in order to generate the electricity needed to recharge electric car batteries, the pollution produced is very minimal compared to the pollution caused by internal combustion engines. Plus, with better power generation sources like nuclear plants, the level of carbon emissions in the process of recharging becomes even lesser.

Re-usability : Electric car batteries can be reused and recycled. So you don’t need to worry about how you can dispose of your battery pack.

However, like any new technology, electric car batteries are not perfect. Here are the drawbacks:

They’re heavy : Because electric car batteries are designed to provide more power, they need to be connected to battery packs to ensure heavy duty performance. And these battery packs are not light. A battery pack can weigh as much as half a metric ton. But don’t worry, there’s hope — manufacturers  like Ford, Volvo, Pontiac, Porsche, Mitsubishi etc are designing electric cars with lighter body frames to offset the battery’s weight.

Recharging time : Unfortunately, there’s no technology available yet for quicker and easier recharging. You still need several hours of downtime before your electric car can run again.

Maintenance : Electric car batteries are still uncommon, which means the number of service stations which can do repairs is still fairly limited, too. And since they’re quite fewer, maintenance costs might be a bit higher, too.

No doubt, electric car batteries are still a work in progress. It has its own set of limitations but there’s still plenty of room for improvement. But in a few years, the new generation of batteries will be lighter, more economical and most importantly, more powerful. That’s certainly a comforting thought.

November 21st, 2008 by admin

Batteries are used to run electric cars might be electric Pontiac cars, electric Saab cars, electric Nissan cars, electric Mitsubishi cars etc, they are stored beneath the hood and maybe 12 to 24 in numbers. When it is time to replace them they are all there. These batteries are similar to those used on cell phones and toy cars children love to drive around in the backyard. Thus, it is not very difficult to get new batteries when we need them.

Actually, electric batteries do not need to be replaced often so replacement of batteries does not happen too frequently. They cost around $2000 to $5000, depending on the model and make of your car. You must be careful about the amount of electricity in the battery before charging it.

Sometimes the batteries have an in built “memory” , and if the battery is not run completely before charging it may lose some of it’s potency. In this situation you may have to spend on a new battery before it is due.There is a lot of research and development underway in the electric cars industry.

New battery technology is being worked on to ensure that your vehicle can get charged faster and hold more power for a longer time. It will not be long before you can drive your car longer without the need for a battery charge. This is really some great news for those who patronise electric cars. At present the cars can run up to 100 miles per charge. There is a strong possibility that by 2010 the car will be able to run 200 miles on new batteries. Recycling of the batteries can be done when it is time to replace the batteries.

Electric car batteries are recyclable up to 95 percent. Only those who are concerned about the environment and want to protect their wallets against the gasoline price hike will opt for an electric car, since you have, you are sure to be one of them. So, if you can recycle your electric car battery, before buying a new one you have given yourself a new source of power along with peace of mind.

It is advisable to choose the best type of batteries, for the best price, for your car and be assured that you have done the best for yourself and for the environment.

November 20th, 2008 by admin

The conventional car has a very simple pricing system - you pay according to the horsepower, size, furnishing, and axle load, year of model or auxiliary fittings. The electric car follows a similar pricing structure but in a different way. With the EV, your price will depend on mainly the type of motor in use or the set of batteries the car is running on.

Typically, a factory made EV will cost about $35,000 but many of the electric cars we see around are home made conversions. These are cars that once used gasoline and have been converted to electric.

The price you pay for the electric car might be electric Pontiac car, electric Porsche car, electric Saab car, electric Volvo car etc will depend on how you are going about the conversion. If you are buying a kit, then you may have to spend about $2200. This cost excludes other petty fittings that you may need to make the conversion complete. Some people would rather want to buy individual components and then fix them one by one. This approach would cost about $6000 but in the end you get exactly what will fit your car so there may be no extra cost.

Choosing one motor type over the other can cause about 50% difference in your electric vehicle cost. AC conversions tend to be much expensive over their DC counterparts. The fact is AC motors provide better acceleration and higher power.

The kind of car used for the conversion will also determine how much your cost will be. Some cars require small modifications to get the conversion done, others elaborate changes. The more changes you need, the more expensive the conversion becomes.

November 19th, 2008 by admin

With fuel prices soaring and no end in sight, it only makes sense to look for alternatives. Face it, you need to travel for work, school, or shopping and without a car, these tasks are almost impossible. Not all communities and areas provide public transportation, so what do you do? Converting your car or buying an electric car makes perfect sense.

An electric car is a car that uses electric motors instead of an internal combustion engine. In essence, these cars are rechargeable. They have battery packs that are charged, thus powering the vehicle. You can even convert your already owned car to an electric. There are also cars that utilize both battery power and fuel power. These are known as hybrids and are widely available.

Electric cars are not a new concept. Some of the first cars were electric. The improvement of battery storage helped the electric car to flourish. Many early electric cars hold speed and distance records. Don’t worry about electric cars for sale being slow. They are not, this was proved on the popular show Mythbusters. Some of these vehicles can achieve speeds of up to 135 mph, and on a single charge can reach the fuel equivalent of 135 mpg U.S.

The use of Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) batteries makes electric cars capable of distances of up to 245 miles. This is a great improvement from early batteries that could get up to 100 miles on a single charge.

There are several advantages to driving an electric car. It can save you thousands on fuel cost, and with our economy in the shape it’s in, this is reason enough. Electric cars are also cleaner, helping the environment. It costs about $1 to charge your electric car and gives you about 100 miles. Driving an electric car might be electric Pontiac car, electric Saab car, electric Porsche car, electric Volvo car etc also makes you eligible for tax credits from the federal government for driving a car that hosts clean fuel.

It’s not an expensive process to convert your car to electric. This can be achieved for about $300.00. With the process being cheap and all the money that you will save, an electric car is perfect for everyone. There are several resources available that tell you what types of tools you’ll need, along with easy to follow instructions on how to convert your car to electric.

Among some of the first vehicles produced, electric cars are an economical solution to combat rising fuel costs. They are clean fueled vehicles which are good for the environment. You can get tax credits from the federal government for driving a clean fueled vehicle, and they save you money on rising fuel costs. They are not slow, and make perfect since when searching for an alternative!

November 18th, 2008 by admin

Electric cars for sale are not a new concept as we think, people have been using them for a long time. In fact in the 1900’s people used more electric cars than cars run on gas. In the 1920’s when the popularity for cars was growing, gas was very costly. Starting a gas run car was also a very tedious process, there was no key to ignite the engine, in fact a rod used to fit into the front of the car which had to be turned round and round to get the car started.

Not only were gas run cars tedious to start, they emitted a lot of smoke and were very noisy, as either the mufflers used were not good or there were no mufflers at all. Believe it or not , at one point of time electric cars like electric Toyota cars, electric Pontiac cars, electric Saab cars, electric Porsche cars etc were so popular that there were about 50,000 electric cars running on the streets of United States.

As new discoveries were underway to make gasoline cheaper, electric cars started disappearing from the market. The discovery of the electric starter made way for the exit of the crank and the car was started with a key.A car run on gas could travel more distance than the electric car.Thus cars run on gas started getting more popular than the electric car.

Now, once again because of the awareness towards protecting the environment and reducing the dangers caused by the emission of the greenhouse gases ” green ” electric cars are once again getting popularized.

Gasoline is not used to run an electric car, it runs on the energy stored in batteries in the car. 12,14 or more batteries may be needed to run the car.The operation of the electric car is similar to that a remote controlled one since both have an electric motor that turns the wheel and a battery that that runs the motor.

Charging of the batteries can either be done all night or some cars need to be plugged into a standard electric wall.There are some which need a large electric outlet, something like what is used for an electric stove or electric clothes dryer. These are the various ways electricity is stored in the cars.

The batteries used to run the cars have to be either lead acid batteries, similar to those used in torch lights or ni-cad (nickel-cadium) used to run portable video recorders or video games , only much larger in size. A lot of work is going on to upgrade the batteries to hold more energy and last longer. By the time the fifth graders in 2001 are ready to drive we should have electric cars which will be able to travel 150 to 200 miles before needing to get recharged.

Manufacturers of cars and scientists are making constant endeavours to make better cars which will be more eco-friendly. The revival of electric cars and the challenge to make them more attractive is on in a big way and enticing more people to switch over to electric cars.

November 16th, 2008 by admin

You have a choice between two types of motor controllers when building your electric car might be electric Volvo  cars, electric Pontiac cars, electric Saab cars, electric Mitsubishi cars etc. They are DC or AC controllers. They operate in different ways but the end result is the same, they control the speed of your motor.

The interface to the motor controller is still through the gas pedal, but instead of controlling gas flow, the linkage is connected to a device called a potentiometer or pot box for short. The pot box tells the motor controller what position the gas pedal is in, and this is how the controller determines the speed of the motor. As stated before you have two types of motor controller to choose from.

From a cost standpoint DC controllers are less expensive than ac controllers.They are not as efficient as AC controllers, but can and do work well for an economical electric car. The voltage rating of the dc controller should be at least 96v to have ample power available. At this voltage you should almost match the acceleration of a gasoline driven car. Normally the dc controller isn’t setup to go in the reverse direction, so you will have to setup a relay arrangement in order to go in reverse. The operation of the dc controller is pretty straight forward. It sends pulsed voltage to the dc motor at a rate determined by the pot box. Since it is working at a high frequency you don’t even know it is pulsing the motor, and the response is smooth.

The AC controller is sold as a set with the AC motor. Since the operation is more complex they are not sold separately. One of the advantages in an AC setup is the ability of the controller to use braking as a means of recharging the batteries. This makes the AC controller more efficient than the DC but also leads to the added expense. The ac controller still accepts the DC voltage from the batteries, but through special circuits in the controller, it generates three separate ac waveforms known as phases. These three phases are connected to the ac motor, and by controlling the voltage and frequency, the ac controller can adjust the speed of the motor. As with the Dc controller the pot box is used as the interface.

Which ever type you choose for your electric car, either DC or AC, the end result is the same. The electric motor speed is determined by the controller and the battery pack determines how far you can go on a charge.