Electric Powered Cars

An electric car is a type of fuel-efficient vehicle utilizing chemical energy stored in rechargeable battery packs, and electric motors and motor controllers instead of an internal combustion engine that requires gas to function.

In some cases vehicles will use a combination of both electric motors and internal combustion engine’s , commonly referred to as hybrid electric vehicles. Hybrids are generally not considered to be pure electric vehicles because they operate in a charge-sustaining mode. Hybrid vehicles with batteries that can be charged externally to displace some or all of their ICE power and gasoline fuel are called plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), and are pure battery electric vehicles (BEVs) during their charge-depleting mode. Electric vehicles include automobiles, light trucks, and neighborhood electric vehicles.

Surprisingly to many people, electric cars are not new. In fact electric cars were among the earliest automobiles!

The main advantages of electric cars are that they:

• Produce no exhaust fumes
• Produce and minimal pollution if charged from most forms of renewable energy
• Are often capable of acceleration rates higher than conventional vehicles
• Are quiet
• Do not produce noxious fumes.
• Reduce dependence on petroleum and decrease or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, depending on how their electricity is produced.

In the past, electric and hybrid cars have been slow to catch on due to high battery costs, limited travel distance between battery recharging, the time to charge, and the lifespan of the batteries used. With current advances in battery technology many of these problems have been addressed. New models have recently been prototyped, and a many future production models have been announced. Technology has advanced to far in fact that many major car manufacturers like Toyota, Honda, Ford and General Motors all produced electric cars in the 1990s.

One great idea was the concept of regenerative braking, a feature which is now standard on many electric and hybrid vehicles. a significant portion of the energy expended during acceleration may be recovered during braking through friction.

In general terms an electric car is a rechargeable battery electric vehicle. Other examples of rechargeable electric vehicles are ones that store electricity in ultra-capacitors, flywheels.

One common alternative to buying an electric car is to build your own by converting an existing production car with a conversion kit. There is a popular cottage industry supporting the conversion and construction of electric vehicles. In some cases colleges such as the University of California, Irvine even electric cars from the ground up

Short Range Electric Cars

Short-range battery electric vehicles offer builders comfort, utility, and quickness, with the sacrifice of range. Short-range electric cars may be built using high-performance lead–acid batteries, using about half the mass needed for a 60 to 80 mile (100 to 130 km) range. When build this way the vehicle has about a thirty mile (50 km) range, which when designed with appropriate weight distribution (40/60 front to rear) does not require power steering, offers exceptional acceleration in the lower end of its operating range, is freeway capable and legal. The downside is they can be expensive due to the higher cost for these higher-performance batteries. By including a manual transmission, short-range electric cars can perform better and with greater efficiency than the single-speed electric cars developed by some major manufactures. Unlike the converted golf carts used for small area electric vehicles, a short-range electric car could be operated in your average small city roads and highways with average speeds 40 to 45 mph. This allows them to easily keep up with traffic typical on such roads and the short “slow-lane” on-and-off segments of freeways common in suburban areas.