[arunmur]

Yeah you are right on that. We need a lot more electrics in the market and there are other superb solutions compared to Hybrids and Hydrogen. But this is where the money lies. If the EV1 was on sale till date it would have been one of the best selling cars in the nation. Also Electric cars would have gotten better acceptance world wide.

Having said that, the Volt has a big electric car like battery pulling the car upto 40 miles from home on electric alone and after that there is an engine(supposedly small about 1.0-1.5L) that charges the battery and runs the car. It is practical for far more number of people who do not know the change in their usage patter over time. It is also practical as the only car to own. When run on engine alone i guess it can give about 70 MPG(26kmpl) but if run on battery most of the time it is as green as the EV1. Since it appeals to wider audiance i guess it provides equal or better results. The electric range is bound to go up in some time as battery technologies improve. GM can(and probably will) even launch an electric only model for the Electric car fans, it will definitely be far cheaper than any other electrics in the market. This time they can buy the EV1 in four seater format.

About Americans travelling alone in cars again true, but its true for all the nations in the world. Most people buy cars for comfort over timings and personal space but its all spoilt if more than one person travels in it. There are a very few people who use their car only for family. This is why people are trying to promote car sharing and stuff as it can temporarily reduce the traffic to 1/2.


What pisses me off is that people don't understand these stuff fully but make comments on it. Like Electric cars are not real solution as they too need power generated from coal plants(some consipirecy theory created by some high power Americans). The fact is that it is not necessary that your power comes from coal plants, electric cars make green technologies like wind mill and solar power more easily possible(this is because a 5000 electric cars always connected to grid can capture and distribute power for about 15-20K homes). Electric car are theoretically about 400% efficient as compared to petrol/diesel car but when driven in heavy traffic and slow roads more than 700% efficiency increase is achived. OK, even if they ran temporarily on oil/coal powered stations these stations produce power at a constant pace and reach atleast 15%(more like 30%) more efficiency in actuals, as compared to millions of small engines running with varying load and pace. Some argue that distribution of electric power comes with losses, but petrol too goes through various stages of transportation and every litre of petrol you consume there is about almost equivalent amount of fuel used to transport. In real electric power transmission happens at above 90% efficiency and these big plants recieve fuel in trains which are also mostly electric and very efficient. No matter how you look at it electric cars can reduce the CHG from transportation by a large extent with adoptation of electric car along with reduction in diseases caused by these toxic gasses in cities.

But this information needs to be spread, more companies need to sell electric cars, i guess the biggest cavet in today's electric car is that there is no verity and options for people interested.