I would consider purchasing an electric car if one was available. I am 100% against purchasing new cars, but would consider a new electric car if it was priced reasonably and the cost to replace the batteries was low. I don't travel more than 50 miles during the week. I thought about the RAV4 electric but at $20K to replace the batteries, that is way to much for me.

I will not be in the market for a new car for another 5-10 years, but I am quite hopeful that when I do need a replacement that electric cars are a viable option. I don't drive more than 50 miles on average per day.

As a hybrid owner, I own a Toyota Prius, I am very annoyed by the fact that the information presented in this article that hybrids have to be charged for several hours a day is completely wrong. Come on! This is supposed to be a technology oriented site.

The truth of the matter is that NO hybrid currently on the market from any manufacturer needs to be recharged. Here is an excellent site where you can inform yourself on the matter. http://www.hybridcenter.org/

That said, I would love to have a plug-in hybrid. Why? Because there are people out there that have converted the Prius to a PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vechicle) and some of them report getting excess of 200 MPG. Yet even a PHEV would not have to be plugged in to operate. I'll leave the details as an exercise in self-education.

However, a car like this with ultra caps would be far beyond a battery powered vehicle. There are no environmental concerns with the disposal of an ultra cap, and they should have lifetimes far longer than any battery currently on the market. I hope that this technology does come to market. I have been following it for a long time, however, nothing has yet hit the market. When it does, I just might buy one.

The little detail that 'tree huggers' fail to acknowledge is that you still have to plug the battery into the wall. So that electricity used to charge your battery has to come from somewhere. In most cases you get it from burning oil and coal. So put it in your gas tank or use it to make electricity you are still using it. Can't get something for nothing.

yes normal hybrids do not require charging you are correct in that. we're talking about modifications you can make to a prius that allows you to charge the battery using a 110V plug so that it runs purely on the battery for around 50 miles. this company is talking about replacing those batteries with different ones that increase the capacity so that you can run off the battery long.

you have to realize that a normal prius does not have the ability to run purely on electricity with no gas consumption unless your going like under 25 miles an hour.... which is pretty useless unless your in a very rural area or you want to even the people in the slow lane off.

What you "tree haters" fail to acknowledge is that power plants are far more efficient than gasoline engines at generating power. Since batteries charge very efficiently, and electric motors are far more efficient than combustion varieties, the electric car uses far less oil/coal. And emit less CO2. And many utility customers can purchase "green" energy, which is cleaner still. Please stop presenting misleading information.

Yes you do have to plug it in to get power from burning oil or coal right now. But you forget a couple of points. First, when the nations grid switches to other sources of power (nuclear, solar or whatever else it might be) a plug in car would instantly make use of that. Also, from what I've read the amount of fossil fuel it takes to charge an electric car is far less than the amount burned by a normal gasoline engine, so it is still a net reduction.

It is also unlikely that you are telling people something they don't know. Most people understand there is no "free" energy with no costs, but there are certainly better solutions than the current status quo. Anyways, we need to start taking small reasonable steps now, because even an oil industry executive would admit that oil is a finite resource, period.

It has been illegal to generate electricity by the burning of oil since the Carter era.

You don't have to be a tree-hugger to realize that electric vehicles are a major step to defeating the terrorists/oil companies.

you can modify your hybrid (especially the prius) to run only on electric power and be rechargeable. i believe that is what they are refering to.

yes, electricity may come from a fossil fuel plant, but is it easier to monitor the emissions of one power plant or 50000 cars, you tell me (i am an automotive tech).

and as far as im concerned the electric car is cheaper to produce, easier to work on (as well as being simpler in design), and reaches maximum horsepower at much lower rpms than their gas burning counterparts. so in the end you have a cheaper, more reliable, more efficient, lighter car.

It is easier to filter the pollutants from a energy plant than a car. With an energy plant, one does not have to worry about it being light enough not to hinder the vehicle plus it is a few power plants as opposed to thousands of vehicles. One could also use a fuel cell to recharge the battery. There are more efficient solar cells being developed that could also be used to recharge the battery.

True you have to get the energy from somewhere and that may be oil and coal for now. Where I live we use Natural gas in the main but the idea is that hydrocarbons will not exist forever and a migration to something other than combustion engine is going to happen eventually whether we like it or not.
There are many other ways of generating power for plants such as nuclear, hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, solar, wave, etc.
I think electric cars are a viable alternative in the medium term and with increasing efficiency in storage and usage along with low emissions and no noise pollution, people should start considering change within the next decade( keep an eye on how the Japanese go about it).

I agree with you 99%. I have used that argument myself on several occasions to deflate the enthusiasm of environmentalists. There is, however, one potential benefit to electric vehicles, which typically is not addressed by either side of the argument. Yes, the electricity has to come from somewhere, and yes that is usually a coal or oil source, but it may be easier to control pollution from a few point sources (the power plants) than from many distributed sources (cars). This is not by any means guaranteed (so don't get your hopes up too high, environmentalists) but it may be the saving grace for electric cars. The same argument applies to hydrogen powered cars, which also require energy to generate the hydrogen.

"Me" your observations are true as far as they go, energy has to come from somewhere. But consider that regulating/enforcing pollution emissions on 1000s of power plants is more practical than doing so for 100s of million of gas vehicles.

Also consider that much energy is wasted in the transport of fuels in tanker trucks to service stations.

But the greatest improvement that I see coming from an electric car, once battery performance meet user's practical needs, is that electricity is a "universal" medium for the delivery of energy to a vehicle. That is to say electricity derived from oil, coal, wind, nuclear, alcohol, thermo vents, dams, solar, what have you; can all compete for your fuel dollars. Then if oil prices go too high, converting to another source is much easier and requires no modification to the vehicle.

People who report 200 mpg on their PHEV's are deceiving themselves. Their gas mileage is exactly the same as it was before they modded their car into a PHEV, the extra "efficiency" is derived from the electricity they pull off the grid. If you have a PHEV and never put any gas into it and always drive slow enough so that it never needs to engage the gasoline motor, you could report infinity miles per gallon, but that doesn't make it true.

As an anecdote, back in the 1960's, my grandfather purchased a Dodge, which he claimed got great gas mileage. In a rather pompous manner (not unlike some of the hybrid owners I know), he bragged about it to his co-workers every day. They became annoyed with him and decided to play a trick on him. Every day at work, they would sneak out into the parking lot and fill his gas tank (this was before cars had gas gauges, so my grandfather was none the wiser). Over a month went by, and the gas mileage on this amazing vehicle kept going up and up and up! It ran over 2000 miles on a single tank of gas! His co-workers finally broke down and told him what they were doing, which suitably deflated his ego. The moral of the story? A: don't brag about your gas mileage, and B: just because your gas mileage looks outstanding, doesn't mean it actually is.

I routinely go 40 MPH on pure electric in my stock Prius. Take one on the nose; you obviously do not own a hybrid. I am sure that I speak for many hybrid owners when I say please base your articles on real research instead of conjecture or hearsay.

The car you are talking about in this article is an electric car, not a hybrid. So why use the hybrid term? IMHO, in the context of this article, the term "hybrid" is confusing technobabble.

Hybrids have a gasoline or some other form of internal combustion engine fueled by some combustible fuel. Any electric powered car that lacks an internal combustion engine is an electric car, and yes electric cars need recharging. The Zenn motors car does not have an ICE.

If you replace the batteries in a hybrid with ultra caps, then you still have a hybrid. But, again, the Zenn motors car is an electric car, not a hybrid.

Technically, you're correct. Most factory-stock hybrids do not, and indeed /can/ not, be plugged into a wall socket and charged. However, the energy in your batteries does not magically materialize. You /do/ in fact /charge/ the batteries, through regenerative braking and, occasionally, direct powering of the electric motor/generator.

Hit the button on your dash to enable the real-time energy flow display. Whenever energy is flowing /into/ your batteries, you are charging them.

The writer's statement is misleading, but technically correct as well. (The best kind of correct! lol) It may indeed take several hours of city driving to achieve a full charge on your hybrid batteries, if that's even possible.

http://www.pnl.gov/energy/eed/...mbined.pdf

search www.pnl.gov for more info...

Where on earth did you come up with the idea that burning oil for electricity is illegal?

Portable generators (lowes, home depot, etc...) big diesel backup generators.

Oh wait, and http://www.epa.gov/solar/oil.htm .

Hybrid, full electric, bio-diesel, alcohol, hydrogen fuel cell, whatever. There is no free lunch period. Some vehicles will be better than others, but all the people with snobbish attitudes because they drive eco-friendly cars, you're still polluting.

You really want to be environmentally friendly, then walk.

Yes - you are correct. A hybrid's batter is charged while driving.

I'm not the only Prius owner that has experienced a full charge. Pretty easy to accomplish, but it is not the most efficient means to drive a hybrid.

to you ppl who "point out" that the electricity comes from coal or oil. As I can see that you are frustrated by this, I recommend simply buying a share or two in a non-profit wind power plant. In Sweden there are lots of these projects popping up. So stop whining and go green, it's cheaper too even. Its just a choice, no one forces you to get dirty energy!

Do yourself all a favor: Go look at the 1.4 turbo diesel VW Lupo. The net fuel consumption is LOWER per km than the Pirus... Oh, and the car actually have some guts performance wise considering, unlike the Pirus.

PS: I also believe that diesel in netto even cleaner than a plug in hybrid: SHOCKING! That is Bio-Diesel. The plants that we use to produce it, can more effectively clean the environment than us converting them into diesel (And unlike the unclean power stations used with plug in hybrids, excluding solar, hydro and wind). Oh, and unlike coal used in most power stations, plans IS A renewable resource

"Technically, you're correct"..No..technically you are totally wrong. Hybrid does not mean batteries and gas engine any more then a college degree means that Bush can solve a partial differential equation. Hybrid means a marriage of two or more things.
Just like a train engine a "hybrid". It uses a diesel engine to produce electricity to drive electric traction motors.
GM has plug in hybrids. This is a much more efficient way of doing things even if they were to use terrible batteries.
It all comes down to economy of scale. A power plant can produce power much for efficiently then your gas engine. This is just a fact. If you could somehow run your car off the grid with say a 700 mile power cord, you would be paying the equivalent to about 60c per gallon of petrel.

As one of the technicians building the machine(s) that this company is going to use for this new technology I gotta say this is cool beans. We haven't been told much but the little we have extracted so far makes the future of more efficient hybrid and electric cars much brighter.

If they could only manufacture a VW that wouldn't fall apart, that might be a workable alternative. I was about to buy a Jetta TDI until I read carsurvey.org.

As for all the folks who think they are making a point but don't understand the simple fact that electric motors are 80% energy-efficient whereas internal combustion are around 20% efficient.

There is no real debate among scientists about whether or not electric cars would be good for the environment overall, it is a slam dunk.

I will use my 350 to run over all your little priuses, I am an american, who will never buy anything except american, i drive 500 miles a week for work and am happy with my 10 miles to the gallon. I blair my country music the whole time, so eat my exaust fumes if you dont like it, go hug your tree while i kill it with my truck.

They recharge on the fly partially from the burning gasoline. A little from breaking while burning gasoline.

So, no they do not require recharging . . . As long as they burn gasoline.

Are you a propagandist or a genius?

Mark Raby made a big crusial mistake.
CAR will recharged in a few MINUTES not hours.

Internal combustion engines are far more efficient at producing heat than anything else. The rotational force caused by the reciprocating action of the pistons is merely a by-product of the burning of fossil fuels; to the point that about 80% of the energy exchange is not applied to propelling the car and its passengers down the road. The electric motor, on the other hand, applies 80 to 90% of the energy exchange directly to a rotational force, regardless of where or how the electrical energy originates.

This is potentially great, if they can produce that in massive quantities.

However, in response to an earlier poster who said there's no environmental impact from a cap vs a battery, you're sorely mistaken.
Capacitors tend to have all sorts of wonderful things in them that are tightly regulated by the EPA, due to being toxic/hazardous in some way.
Also, the sources for some of the materials used in capacitors are exploited child miners in Africa (look up tantalum capacitors, specifically), so there's an environmental AND human impact.

Even so, I think the net result is a gain for all.
Resistance to electric/hybrid cars is silly and irrational.
Seriously...Can any of you who have spoken AGAINST them justify your staunch position against something that is provably more efficient?

Be careful about waiting for new technology. I waited 11 years before I bought an electric car because I kept waiting for some miracle breakthrough. Last year I stared driving a ZAP XEBRA sedan, a very simple, affordable design, and it works perfectly for my daily driving. I understand ZAP tested a lithium battery that may be available as an upgrade to 100 mile range. I think more technology will come into play the more people go electric.

Both sides continue to overhype their perspective. While i may be inclined to focus on the energy requirements of the the battery charge, the "green" people will not even slightly acknowledge that without oil, coal their batteries go nowhere, even if they are more efficient. What i would like to see is a cradle to grave comparison of the pure IC engine and the hybrid (one with an electric and IC engine).

Hybrid: not only do you have batteries that have to be replaced frequently (How often i don't know, but i do know that it currently isn't anywhere near the life of a IC engine) to power the electric motor, you have a IC engine as well. So you have to burn the oil at the power plant to produce electricity, great, single point of control, valuable from many perspectives. What is the efficiency for transfering that electricity to your power outlet? (there has to be losses there) and then to your car. The dynamic hybrids that don't plug-in are neat but still use the IC in some manner to charge the batteries. The manufacturing process and materials used to produce the batteries are extremely harmful to the environment. I guess it's OK to kill trees so long as it's not with our tailpipes. Just stop telling me that power is free, cause it's not. If its better than IC, then good, but there is still a cost to get the power.

IC: very inefficient at converting the energy. I won't bother discussing further because the environmnentalist will be quick to point them out and i would probably agree with most of them.

I agree, hybrids MIGHT be the way to go, but lets be honest to the debate and compare both methods from cradle to grave.

If they can make an electric car that has a top speed of 120 MPH, has the acceleration of a 4 or 6 cylinder, can go 500 miles on one charge, and will allow for all the regular luxuries that a standard car has (or slight modifications), then I would gladly get one.

Telsa motors have some cool performing electric cars. For short distances, like in Europe this is great.

http://www.teslamotors.com

I'm glad that you are proud to be an American. I am also proud to be an American and I hate the fact that as a nation we are addicted to oil. If you are going 10 miles to the gallon then think of all the bullets and bombs that you are buying for haji to shoot at us in Iraq and Afganistan.

Just so you know, electric vehicles have more torque than any ICE vehicle ever could, it's just the physics of it. Once EV's become a common market the concepts of speed and power will completely change.

If you are a motor head like me, then look into building an EV, it is very possible for anyone with basic mechanical skills and a little time.

Why a Hummer might be better than a Prius any day
http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/editorial/print_item.asp?NewsID=188

Do you REALLY believe that people buying Hummers drive them for 300,000 miles before buying a new one?

Do you REALLY believe that a Prius will stop running after 100,000 miles?

Also, the condemnation of the Sudbury, Ontario nickle mining and smelting facility is grossly inaccurate at best. E.G. NASA trained there not because it was a "wasteland" but because of the rock formations connected with meteorite impacts (the nickle deposits came from this meteorite, and NASA had planned on going to the moon, which has many craters).