Electric cars quietly gaining acceptance
- From: "Sco" <Sco@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 00:53:15 GMT
Bankrate.com
Electric cars quietly gaining acceptance
Monday August 28, 6:00 am ET
Michael Reade
While not much of a murder, much less a mystery, the documentary Who Killed
the Electric Car? may fuel new interest in what is a very old idea, namely,
electric vehicles or EVs. The 2006 documentary, directed by Chris Paine,
chronicles the life of General Motors' EV1, which was available for lease
from 1996 until 2001. But reports of the demise of electric cars have been
greatly exaggerated. A handful of start-up companies are entering the market
with vehicles like the lightning-fast Tesla Roadster and the Wrightspeed X1,
the revolutionary Tango, the light trucks of Phoenix Motorcars and the
low-speed GEM from DaimlerChrysler.
Upstart Tesla Motors, based in San Carlos, Calif., raised $40 million from
forwarding-thinking guys like eBay billionaire Jeff Skoll, PayPal founder
Elon Mush and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. (Tesla was
named for Nikola Tesla, the often-mysterious inventor of alternating
current.) With a range of nearly 300 miles on a single three-hour charge,
the Tesla Roadster looks like a sleek Lotus and drives like one, too. The
company is positioning the Roadster alongside the Porsche Boxster,
Mercedes-Benz SLK55 and the BMW M. They carry price tags in the mid-$40,000
to mid-$60,000 range, and the Roadster will be higher than that, about
$80,000. While congestion and short commutes are driving other business
models, the Roadster is built for open roads and for those who like
curve-hugging handling at high speed. This car ain't no golf cart.
Contributing to the Tesla Roadster's creation was Ian Wright, another
Silicon Valley-based "extreme performance" electric supercar maker.
A former data communications engineer, Wright gained notoriety when he
tested his X1 electric car against a Ferrari 360 Spider and a Porsche
Carrera GT. The electric upstart outpaced the competitors, going from zero
to 60 mph in 3 seconds, and reaching the equivalent of 170 mph.
Coincidentally, its energy consumption in urban use is the equivalent of 170
miles per gallon. Wright boasts it's among the fastest production cars ever
made, and he founded Wrightspeed to custom-make the cars. Soon speed demons
will be able to get one of their own for around $100,000.
Everyday EVs
Clearly, the Tesla Roadster and the future production Wrightspeed X1 are
aimed at well-heeled driving enthusiasts, but both vehicles challenge the
perception that electric is dull. That perception is not something that
bothers DaimlerChrysler, the only big automaker currently in the electric
arena with the GEM low-speed vehicle. Recently, DaimlerChrysler got screen
time when President Putin bought 30 GEM vehicles for the G8 summit held in
Russia in July.
Focusing on the campus, gated-community and resort markets, the GEM (an
acronym for Global Electric Motorcars, which is based in Fargo, N.D.) is a
fully street-legal and safety-tested "neighborhood" vehicle. With more than
31,000 currently in use in the U.S. and Western Europe, and a $7,000 to
$12,500 sticker price, they are as functional as they are cheap to operate
and maintain. While decidedly unglamorous, DaimlerChrysler's GEM vehicles
may be part of a corporate strategy. Russ Keifer, director of sales and
marketing, admitted that there was a lot of research and planning going on
at DaimlerChrysler. "The next step is obvious," he says. "Once we decide to
go to a full-size city car, we will already have an installed base of
customers."
Phoenix Motorcars Inc. in Ojai, Calif. is targeting another part of the
workaday market: light pickups, small vans and, in mid-2007, SUVs that are
capable of being used as taxis. Phoenix Motorcars first gained green
attention when it showcased a nostalgia-provoking reproduction of a 1937
Ford Cabriolet. But under the hood it was strictly 21st century electric.
It's been a crowd pleaser at Earth Day and green events in California for
the past few years.
Phoenix chairman Daniel Riegert says that a fleet-market penetration of 5
percent to 10 percent would mean production of 12,000 to 24,000 electric
vehicles. With a minimum range of 120 miles per charge and max speed of 95
mph, the light-duty Phoenix vehicles will be ideal for messenger, service
and light delivery fleets. "Fleet sales will enable us to ramp up production
capacity," says Riegert, "and using our light-truck chassis and other common
components, we expect to introduce an SUV in mid-2007."
GEM and Phoenix seem to be betting that wider use of electric vehicles will
cause a mind shift to power up consumer demand and make large-scale
production and lower costs a reality.
Dancing in the street
On the other hand, the recently introduced Tango has loftier ambitions: to
make us rethink how we drive and how we use our roads and parking lots. And
while we're rethinking that, how about rethinking how a car actually looks?
That's what Rick Woodbury, president of Commuter Cars in Spokane, Wash., the
maker of the quirky-looking Tango, is betting on.
Billed as a totally new transportation concept, the Tango is a two-person
car no wider than a motorcycle in which the passenger sits behind the
driver.
Woodbury recently conducted a thoroughly unscientific survey of area
teenagers by showing up at a local high school with his decidedly
odd-looking car. When the principal burned rubber driving the Tango, the
crowd was wowed. The Tango got a little more buzz when George Clooney bought
the first one made.
The Tango's funky head-on silhouette appears to be top heavy and offer
little crash protection, but Woodbury claims it's actually safer than most
cars and has a much lower center of gravity. Its design is based on a
racing-car roll-bar frame and its battery weight serves as ballast. With
acceleration of zero to 60 mph in under four seconds and handling that
outperforms a Corvette, this is a car that might draw a crowd wherever you
pull up -- even if you're not George Clooney.
But the Tango story really concerns how to improve the way we commute. Since
lane splitting is legal in California, as well as in Asia and Europe, the
Tango is designed to drive between cars stalled in traffic-clogged freeway
lanes. Parking in congested city centers is just as easy as parking a
motorcycle -- four Tangos fit into a conventional car parking spot. In
expensive parking cities like Los Angeles and New York, the savings might
actually cover the leasing cost. The upbeat Woodbury says the Tango is "an
investment that will change the world more in terms of pollution than any
other investment."
Charging into the future
With an initial asking price of more than $100,000, the Tango, Tesla and
other EVs still carry a hefty premium. But when consumers factor in what
they won't be spending on gasoline -- $75,000 to $100,000 over the average
life of their car -- it doesn't seem so pricey anymore. And there are other
savings: no tune-ups or oil changes, and no transmission to repair either.
Tesla's 130 mph capability? First gear takes you to 65 mph and second gets
you to top speed.
Brake pads may not need to be replaced before, say, 100,000 miles, because
electric cars can rely on what is called regenerative braking. By using the
electric motor to slow the vehicle, it actually generates electricity that
in turn recharges the batteries, meaning stop-and-go traffic can actually
extend the range 10 to 15 percent. With electricity usage costing about a
penny a mile, what's not to like here?
Is there a market?
Lingering skepticism about electric cars mirrors what hybrids faced. Critics
pooh-poohed hybrids as too complicated because they integrated two different
power systems and said there was little consumer interest. But the success
Toyota and Honda have found with hybrid cars has made people rethink the
electric car. Toyota, which once showed little faith in plug-in hybrids (an
electric with hybrid backup), has made a U-turn and is now heading in that
direction, as is Ford. Mitsubishi announced it will be launching an electric
model by 2010.
In the movie Who Killed the Electric Car?, actor and environmentalist Ed
Begley, Jr., says, "The electric car is not for everybody. It only meets the
needs of 90 percent of the population."
Tesla founder Martin Eberhard seconded that thought in Red Herring magazine,
saying, "Ten years from now, it'll be obvious that electric cars are the way
to go. They are more efficient than any other car on the road. They are the
ultimate multi-fuel technology because you can make electricity with
whatever comes along."
Comparison chart
a.. Maker: Tesla
b.. Model: Roadster
c.. Top MPH: 130
d.. Miles/Charge: 250
e.. Cost: $90,000
f.. Maker: Wrightspeed
g.. Model: X1
h.. Top MPH: 112
i.. Miles/Charge: 160
j.. Cost: NA*
k.. Maker: DaimlerChrysler
l.. Model: Roadster
m.. Top MPH: 25
n.. Miles/Charge:
o.. Cost: $7,000-$12,500
p.. Maker: Phoenix Motorcars
q.. Model: Light trucks
r.. Top MPH: 95
s.. Miles/Charge: 120
t.. Cost: NA*
u.. Maker: Commuter cars
v.. Model: Tango T100, T200, T600
w.. Top MPH: 150
x.. Miles/Charge: 80
y.. Cost: $18,700-$108,000
* Vehicles not currently in production, so no price has been quoted.
.
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