Electric cars explained
Back when the automobile was young, many cars ran solely on electricity. At a time when you had to manually crank a gasoline engine to start it, battery-powered models offered the ease of simply pushing a button.
Cadillac’s introduction of an effective gasoline engine self-starter in 1912 changed all that. But today, concerns about fuel prices, oil reserves and the environment have automakers looking at a variety of vehicles that use electricity either alongside or instead of gasoline.
A few are already here: hybrid vehicles are common on our streets, and some Americans are now driving the Tesla all-electric roadster (expected to come to Canada later this year) and the Honda FCX Clarity Fuel Cell Vehicle, offered on lease in limited numbers in California. Scheduled to arrive in the near future are the all-electric Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt extended-range sedan, while Ford, Volvo, Mitsubishi, Toyota and others all have alternative vehicles in test projects.
In many cases, the holdup isn’t the vehicle itself, but the battery. Energy storage technology hasn’t kept pace, and a major hurdle has been in developing a battery that’s lighter-weight, longer-range, and not prohibitively expensive.
As with all vehicles, there isn’t a single “one size fits all,” and if you’re considering an alternative-fuel model, you need to know how they work, and also understand their limitations.
The hybrid models available today – cars like the Toyota Prius, Honda Insight, and hybrid versions of the Ford Fusion, Nissan Altima, Chevrolet Silverado and others – don’t get plugged in. Instead, they capture energy from the gasoline engine and regenerative braking system to charge the battery. Depending on driving conditions, they run on gasoline, electricity, or a combination of the two.
Plug-in electric hybrids (PHEVs) are coming, but they’re not here yet. These can be plugged into a wall outlet to charge the battery, dramatically reducing the amount of gasoline needed. If you can’t recharge it right away, not to worry: once the charge depletes, the car works like a regular self-charging hybrid. Battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), such as the Nissan Leaf, run only on electricity and produce no tailpipe emissions (naturally, they don’t even have tailpipes). They’re primarily for urban drivers whose daily commute doesn’t take them further than the battery’s range before recharging.
