Electric Cars

Imagine a car that runs solely on electricity, no pollution and no noise but simply smooth sailing. Now imagine that they are already here but right under your nose, imagine that electric cars has been available for over ten years but someone simply has not bothered to tell you about it. Quite upsetting is it not? The truth is that the future already is here but it is not in the shape as one could imagine and the big boom of sales that could seem logical never came. Keep on reading to learn more about the electric car and its history.

Electric cars – Under the hood

electric carObviously an electric car is somewhat different under the hood than any other more conventional motor vehicle, but when it comes right down to it they work in a similar fashion. Just as the conventional car has a fuel tank, fuel and an engine does an electric car have batteries, electricity and an electric motor. Instead of refuelling the fuel tank at the gas station the electric car is recharged at a special station or simply at home. All of the functions that earlier used the engines power to work, break pumps and servo steering pumps among others, now has their own electric motor specialized for its use.With all the fuel lines, exhausts and air intakes the conventional car might look like something a plumber might have created but the electric car is truly a cable job fit for electricians. So although they might not look the same they do work more or less the same.

Electric cars – History

The electric car is far from a new idea with an earliest history dating back to 1899 when the first electric car was constructed and sold in the USA. Since then the electric car was a reoccurring theme within the car industry and in larger towns doctors were often seen driving in these slow moving but reliable vehicles. It was not until the 1990s though that the real breakthrough came with a massive media coverage and several vehicles occurring on the market. But just as fast as it came, the hype was gone together with vehicles. A lot of people and companies got blamed for killing the electric car but when it all came down to it, the electric car just was not ready since it took long to recharge and could not travel very far even in the best of condition. If the vehicle was not ready for the world or if it was the world that was not ready for electric cars, we will never know.

One of the reason that the electric car wasn’t ready was that old electric cars were too heavy.  Newer lighter builds allow for more efficient electric cars. This is true for your regular car as well.  Whatever you can do to decrease the weight of the car will make it more efficient. An easy way to cut the weight of your car is to clean all junk out of the back and replace your metal rims with aluminum rims. Aluminum rims have never been cheaper and are available in online stores such as  pepboys.com

Electric cars – Today and beyond

Today electric cars seems like science fiction to most people, even though there have been some electric cars on the market for over a decade by now that you can read about in the Hybrid and Green Car Buyer’s Guide . After the 90s fiasco the electric car was more or less never mentioned again until the birth of the hybrid car, a merge between the conventional car and the electric car. Today some of these hybrid cars can be recharged using an outer source of electricity while others solely depends on the built in fuel engine to deliver power via a generator. Anyway the dream of a fully electric car is far from over and as batteries are becoming cheaper, smaller and more powerful it does not seem impossible. Remember, there were electric cars driving around in 1899, the future is already here.