The Best Electric Cars
June 10th, 2010 |
There’s huge competition in the electric car market, all benefitting us, as consumers. The drive to make a better electric car with more features, stronger engines, and roomier interiors, all at an affordable price, can only benefit the buyer. There’s a ton of investment capital around for the development of clean technology, and in the car market, that means lighter, cheaper, cleaner, more efficient all the way around. The main contenders so far are American, European and Japanese car manufacturers.
That said, some of the best electric cars are as follows:
Tesla: It was the first manufacturer to sell 1000 cars in the U.S. market. It’s developing a Model S hatchback that’s about half the price of its popular Roadster (which starts at about $110,000). The cool thing is that the Roadster has a 240 mile range, and the Model S hatchback is shooting for 300 miles.
Nissan’s committing to putting over 10,000 LEAF electric cars on the road, and over 10,000 charging stations. It’s a battery-electric car with a 100-mile range.
Toyota’s of course got the Prius, and coming soon is the Prius PHV (Plug-In Hybrid). It looks just like a regular Prius, but there’s a plug for charging.
GM/Chevrolet’s offering the Volt, a plug-in hybrid with a range of 40 miles per charge, and up to 500 miles by working a small gasoline engine that acts as a generator. Among US manufacturers, Ford will be selling at least three electic cars by the end of 2011. There’s a Ford Focus EV, a battery/electric that will be on par with Nissan’s Leaf. Ford’s talking about making its Focus available in battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, hybrid or fuel-efficient models.
In the European market, look for the Converi, and Opel’s hoping to offer a diesel plug-in hybrid soon. The electric car market is only going to grow in the next ten years, so if you’re concerned about the very best technology, it might be a good idea to wait a few years until the fully electric models are fine-tuned. If you just want to start driving greener now, however, one of these electric car models will be a great buy.
