Apr 12 2009
High Voltage
The age of the electric car is dawning and we’re the ones lucky (or unlucky) enough to be around to see it. After the first gasoline/electric drive hybrids like the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight will come the completely electric drive ones.
Examples include the Chevrolet Volt and Jaguar’s forthcoming XJ saloon, which will use gasoline engine purely to charge the batteries.
After that when battery technology finally gets into shape and cell phones stop acting the goat, we will have completely plug-in electric cars, zippin along silently, only realising their huge velocities when they collide with one another.
Ok I am kidding about that last bit, but it is a danger. And if you’ve heard of the Tesla electric sports car, then it might be a legitimate concern.
The Tesla Roadster is a plug-in electric car from America, already on sale, and does 0-100km/h in about four seconds with a 200km/h top speed. Made by Tesla Motors in the USA’s Silicon Valley, the chassis design was supplied by Lotus and light weight gives the car a quoted range of 340km.
In other words it sounds like driving heaven and I can’t wait for some entrepreneur to bring some here right away. But back to the real world…
While testing out the fuel economy of the new Volkswagen Golf VI (1.4-litre twincharged engine, I managed a superb 8L/100km thanks in part to the new seven-speed DSG gearbox) it occurred to me that when fully electric cars arrive, it’ll remove a barrier to going fast.
Going fast requires a lot of fuel – F1 cars clock in approximately 75L/100km.
What with the oil prices that came before the credit crunch, nowadays the only thing I feel guilt-free about gunning the throttle on is a motorcycle or a go-kart.
Cars like the Subaru WRX and Honda Type-Rs have brought accessible high-performance to the everyman, but fuel is something which has remained pretty costly. Zooming along on electrons though, will cost cents, not dollars.
It’s certainly no bad thing, but before long (you heard it here first) you’ll have the safety fanatics demanding all electric cars blare some insipid public service message to announce their presence.
I suggest a loop of the first line from Lionel Richie’s song “Hello”: “Hello, is it me you’re looking for?”
If it’s the Tesla talking then I certainly am.
