Electric Cars For $10 Grand!

[DudeAsInCool]

Automaker aims to bring clean cars to the masses

SANTA ROSA, Calif.--ZAP CEO Steven Schneider is right: People do notice you more when you drive an unusual car.

During a 15-minute test drive of the company's all-electric Xebra car, nearly every pedestrian downtown here stopped and turned as we passed by. There was the elderly couple with their mouths slightly open and the two guys in their 30s in the park who pretended not to look. A group at the corner switched from staring at the cars and scooters arrayed in the lobby of ZAP's headquarters to watch a Xebra in action.

Read more at CNet

Check out the Xebas

[rainbowdemon]

Nice, but big oil will never let it happen.

[DudeAsInCool]

The Future of Cars is Electric - From the CEO of Tesla Motors

Not too long from now, most cars will be electric. Why? Two reasons: because electric cars are far more efficient than any other kind of car, and because they are the ultimate multi-fuel cars. Sound bold, maybe crazy? Read on.

The May 2006 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine got it right in its typical easy-to-understand way. The article was about biofuel, but they compared many technologies in the centerfold sidebar: gasoline, ethanol, methanol, biodiesel, compressed natural gas, hydrogen fuel cells, and, of course, electric cars. They compared the cost of a cross-country drive for each of the cars, all of similar size. The benchmark drive cost is $212 in a Honda Civic. The VW Diesel Golf came close at $230. E85 ethanol (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) came in at $425; methanol cost $619; the hydrogen fuel cell drive cost a whopping $804! Compressed Natural Gas looked pretty good at $110. And the electric car? $60. And the article wasn’t even about electric cars…

Cost per mile is a reasonable approximation of energy consumption. (I set about doing a direct energy consumption comparison in our white paper, but money is a whole lot easier to understand.)

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