President Obama jumped the gun. Renault-Nissan CEO and Chairman Carlos Ghosn jumped the gun. And plenty of others jumped the gun. They thought we’d have a lot more electric cars on the roads today than we actually have. But they all jumped the gun for a good reason: they know (or some of their key staff know) the benefits of electric cars… and know that they trump the benefits of gasmobiles.
The future of transport is electric. The only real question is how long until we get there. The growth trend has been clear in the past few years. Have a look:
http://cleantechnica.com/files/2015/03/electric-cars-worldwide-total.png
Word is getting around. And the number of new electric models coming to market keeps growing. BMW plans to have a plug-in electric version of every single one of its models by 2020. I’d be very surprised if other automakers didn’t follow close behind.
Tesla Motors, meanwhile, is a 100% electric vehicle company that is primed to eat their lunches and steal their customers right out from under their noses. Its Model S is widely considered the best mass-manufactured car in history — the quickest, the safest, the most technologically advanced, and the absolute best. Yes, those superlatives are in comparison to cars of all kinds, not just electric cars.
Tesla is about to release an electric SUV that will drive like a sports car. It will surely break the 0-60 mph acceleration record for SUVs, and I think it’s safe to say that it will cannibalize the high-end SUV market.
And then there’s the Model 3…. Tesla CEO, Product Architect, and cofounder Elon Musk has just indicated that it is indeed on schedule for launch in 2017. If so, in two years, there will be a long-range electric car on the market for the price of an average US car that will have performance approaching that of the Model S, and with many of the other advantages the Model S comes with. Nissan, GM, and Volkswagen indicate that they are going to launch long-range EV competitors. We’ll see if they do and how well they compete, but this puts the icing on the cake for me. This makes it very hard to deny that the electric vehicle revolution is underway.
About the Author: Zachary Shahan is the editor of Sustainnovate.ae, CleanTechnica.com, EVObsession.com, Gas2.org, and several other websites. You can make friends with him on just about any social network you like.
Rolling swap of the battery mule will end the range war on EVs. By swapping hands free and often the battery life is much greater due to the chemical properties of commercial cells. The idea behind swapping the battery rather than waiting for anything gas or charge is to instantly get a 100% instant charge and by swapping often you can shallow discharge the cells making them last thousands of cycles longer that deep discharge especially under quick charge. Lithium is better utilized by shallow discharge with swapping the full battery several times per trip. That means the swap has to be fully automated an not involve the driver at all other than billing for the electricity used. By swapping the weight and cost of the battery mule drops way below the cost of gasoline or diesel burning. The rolling swap can be seen on YouTube and it happens in a few milliseconds and the charge profile is optimized for the cell chemistry which is usually a slower charge cycle than people in a hurry going places like. I personally do not like waiting for anything much less a machine. Machines serve man not the reverse. When you buy a Hover vacuum cleaner you swap batteries to clean your house. Why not swap your battery mule (patented) in your lighter lower cost EV?