Electric Car Myths
There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about electric cars, which I guess stems to the days (which is quite a long time ago now) when electric cars were first introduced. Electric cars were mostly seen as impractical vehicles due to their ugly design and poor electric car battery performance.
Technology has progressed hugely since the early days of electric vehicles.
Some of the myths that still seem hang around are:
- Electric cars aren’t fast. The very first electric vehicles were certainly very sluggish, but there are modern electric cars that are as fast as (if not faster) than the top petrol powered sportscars.
- Poor Vehicle range between recharges. Again, this was the case with early electric cars, but most electric vehicles can do at least 100 miles between recharges. This is mostly due to huge improvements in battery technology.
- Batteries used in electric vehicles aren’t very environmental friendly. Battery technology for all sorts of devices has improved hugely in recent years. Gone are the days of the very toxic lead batteries. The newer lithium ion batteries are much, much cleaner and with recycling programs, the batteries can be almost completely reused.
- Electric cars just transfer the pollution problem to the source. Obviously you have to recharge your batteries from some electricity source, but even in the worse case where your power comes from a coal burning power station, the net emissions over a year is drastically less than an equivalent gasoline powered vehicle. This equation is improved even more in the electric car’s favour if the electricity source comes from natural gas, solar, wind or hydro (or a combination).
- Electric cars are expensive. While most electric cars and hybrids are more expensive than gas powered cars, their running costs usually more than make up the difference. Costs are also another reason with electric vehicle conversion kits are becoming very popular, with an electric car conversion cost being a lot cheaper than you might imagine. Building a diy electric car motor is not a difficult task providing you have a good manual on converting to an electric car.
Now, the last myth was really my motivation for researching electric car conversion kits, as I knew there was the potential for me to save a lot in fuel bills. However, I didn’t realise just how easy it was to convert my car to use an electric motor and just how much I was going to save in running costs.
Watch this short video with Tom Hanks talking about his electric car to hear his views
You can also watch some of my favorite electric car videos that I’ve collected.
Interesting summary of the myths and misconceptions many people have with regards to electric cars. Can you tell me when electric cars first came on the market? You said it has been quite some time, but I only really recall them becoming popular (or even really recognized by the media) during the more recent “green” movement of the past few years. This could be related to the fact that I am relatively young, but it’s hard to imagine electric cars going back too far.
With that said, the only thing that ever put me off of getting an electric car (or any other brand of “green” car) is the price tag. It is just not affordable for someone my age, and even people who can afford tend to skip out on them it seems. To be frank, electric car conversion kits really seem like the best method to get into the savings of having an electric car; without having to put out tens of thousands of dollars for one.