Electric Power Cars - Where's the love?
Electric power cars currently find it hard to compete with traditional internal combustion engine cars and hybrids. Electric cars are expensive to buy mainly due to their costly battery packs and the issue of range and recharging is still outstanding. You can drive 500 miles in a traditional car, pull over and fill up in a mater of minutes and then drive another 500. The range of the best electric power cars is only 150-200 miles and when your batteries are out of juice you're looking at hours to recharge them, not minutes.Now these problems with electric power cars will be overcome. Technology is improving at a tremendous pace. Battery packs are becoming more powerful and cheaper to produce. Range is consistently going up and fast charge technology will eventually result in recharge times of just minutes. But lets assume all these issues are overcome tomorrow and we have an electric vehicle that is the same price and as practical to own as a traditional car. Are we ready to make the change? Are we ready for an electric power car?
The opportunity to benefit the planet will obviously drive many people to purchase an electric car, as will the likely savings in running costs. But for many people owning and driving a car is about more than these things. Its about fun, its about emotion, its about the feeling you get when you hear the horses under the hood come alive and the noise that the exhaust makes. The cars got to have soul. To many people the gurgle of a V8 is powerful and beautiful and the scream of a Ferrari V12 makes their hairs stand on end. These cars have soul and individuality. Electric power cars need to show they can offer the same excitement and individuality before the real car enthusiasts make the change.
I'm not saying the electric vehicles need to be like their petrol equivalents. I'd hate to see tacky electric power cars with external speakers pumping out V8 noises as they drive down the street. And motoring enthusiasts would hate this and be turned completely off. No, electric power cars need to remain true to themselves and embrace something thats unique to their own kind in order to find their soul. They need to come alive and be individuals in ways that petrol cars can't.
An electric car may find its individuality in a unique tone of its electric motor, or noise that some additional piece of electric technology makes (think of the noise that a turbo adds to gas cars). It may be that the heart and soul of an electric power car can be formed through a unique road handling setup that a gas powered car can't offer - for instance torque is available all the time in electric cars not just in narrow rev bands. Another feature unique to EV's is that four electric motors can be used to drive each wheel, and yet another is that boost systems can be used by storing regenerative energy. All these things could give an electric car a unique feel.
Motoring enthusiasts will make the change. When electric power cars develop unique heart and souls, that makes them not only independent of petrol cars but individuals within their own kind, car enthusiasts will fall in love. And when they do they will really embrace the new technology - but don't be surprised if they also have a V8 at the back of the garage for the odd Sunday afternoon outing!