It’s happening.
New production electric cars are being delivered at a rate of 100 per month. Teslas mostly, but the first BMW MINI E was also delivered last week, and we’ll have about 500 more of them on the road within the month.
Back in 1999, when we were all a twitter about Y2K, there were about 5,000 production EVs on California roads with a few dozen more in both Arizona and Georgia. Then they were gone. All but a thousand or so survived the crusher and have been proving themselves for 6-10 years by driving millions of oil-free, noise-free miles.
As we watch the first thousand of the new breed of EVs enter, and by doing so, double our national fleet, we can take heart that this meager trickle of cars will grow into a flow of thousands of EVs within the next 24 months. Then, everyone on this list can get one. Yahoo!
Each EV will replace a gas burner, thereby reducing the pollution we all breathe and the demand for oil which will keep the costs down for all of us.
How long before the number of plug-in cars outnumbers the gas burners? I think it’ll happen some time around 2022, give or take. Of course, you can help your community get there earlier by getting in line early for yours …
12 Comments
This should have happened over a decade ago. If Reagan and Bush and Bush 2.0 helped stop it.
I think for the majority of cars on the roads to be electric, there needs to be some advance in the technology, mainly because you can only get about 70 miles or so out of one charge. I think if the miles per charge rate increases then the number of cars sold will increase also.
About time, Electric Cars have been around since the Early 1900’s.
The electric cars will finally make their triumphant return!! Look at GM, Chrysler, and Ford now, crying to the government for bailout money, when their bailout was there 13 years ago.
whoops, didn’t mean to include Ford in there
I had the supreme privilege as a nobody to test drive the Mini EV. As an owner of a gas powered Mini – I was allowed to drive the EV on the open road and provide my opinion. After test driving one, I would enthusiastically suggest that EVERYONE drive one then buy one. I finally got the reason EV1 drivers were true fanatics of the car.
Please! You have to be joking. The Tesla is a wonderful car but it takes 16 hours to recharge it from a standard 3amp socket! Not only that but where do you think that recharge is coming from? Huge power plants and most likely from a nuclear plant. The car that makes the most sense is the new Honda FCX Clarity. It and other cars of its type are the future and the future is bright, electric and without batteries.
@ Geir
Have you seen a Honda FCX Clarity driving around lately? And sixteen hours of recharge time is when the battery is COMPLETELY drained. Most would just plug their car in every night. And even if the power comes from a fossil fuel/nuclear power plant, it still puts out 1/3 of the emissions that the internal combustion engine does! Although to have true ZERO emissions, we will need to rework the entire power grid. Solar panels and wind farms left and right.
@ Zach
) and “recharge” it in about 2-3min. in the long run i do think fuel cell cars are the way to go. Battery cars may be a stopgap measure but not a solution. If you track the pollution that making the batteries causes from mining the raw metals and chemicals through to assembly then battery powered cars pollute more then gas powered cars do. BTW i have nothing against nuclear power plants but then us that live here in Iceland will never need them. Besides, cars dont cause global warming, the relationship between co2 and global temperature has been reversed by scientific political correctness.
If you are talking about the rarety of the Honda then i think we can agree that any groundbreaking car will be made in few numbers while the technology is perfected but as a proof of concept it is brilliant cos it fits into our lifestyle as it is now. If you have been driving your Tesla all day and then have to take a long trip in the evening, you are a bit stuffed cos you need to charge it up for at least a few hours but with a car like the Honda, you just go to the nearest gas station(when they become available.
@ Zach
PPS. Please tell me that you were joking about the solar and wind thing.
I think Electric Cars are great, I like the Mitsubishi i MIEV, Would suit me Fine. I just cannot work out where they Hide the Spare Wheel.
I was wondering about a Solar Roof for the i-Miev, I live in South Australia plenty of Sun, When Parked it could Trickle Charge the Batteries. Or may be a Wind Generator, It all help’s to keep the Batteries Topped up, Or may be Travel that little bit further. We know people further out, Approx 200 to 300 kms. Would be nice too visit, With out stopping at a Motel to Charge up, For such a short Distance.