The Electrical Vehicle Industry – How Its Progress Has Accelerated
During 2009 the British government committed to electric cars. When they are available on the market car buyers will be offered a 163, 2000-163, 5000 subsidy to encourage them to buy plug-in electric cars. It is part of the government’s overall plan to promote environmentally friendly transport as well as becoming a world leader in the production of these cars. From a fleet’s perspective it is predicted that running costs will be at least 20% lower with fleet insurance costs being down also.Elektroinštalácie
TV Presenter and motoring journalist Tom Ford compares our current opinion of these first generation electric cars with the brick-like mobiles of the 1980s. So look at the phone you have now? It has a billion times more processing power, twenty times of battery life and of course looks much smaller, slimmer and sexier these days. The EV (Electric Vehicle) Industry is predicted to have a similar technological acceleration.
So why are all these electric cars starting to appear now? Investment in green technologies has become a big priority as well as the environmental considerations which mean that more people are actively seeking green cars. Manufacturers are now producing EVs which are lighter, go further and perform more like a normal car.
Even over the past 18 months there have been significant improvements. Tom Ford test drove the original electric Smart-the Fortwo EV-18 months ago and at that stage it only managed less than 20 miles from a full charge. Now however the new Smart can be 80% charged in about 3½ hours. It can go further up to about 85 miles and is also fitted with batteries which can last for eight years rather than for just three years.
Taking Nissan as another example, they have doubled the potential mileage of their EVs over the last six months, even before the Nissan Leaf has been launched. Now there are some electric cars with ranges of 150 miles whereas the average commuter needs’ are an 80 mile range, accounting for 70% of total commuting needs.