Seeing the latest electric cars

by Rhona Mahony. This Saturday, September 6, the Silicon Valley chapter of the Electric Auto Association (EAA) showed off scores of innovative, all-electric vehicles in Palo Alto, California. Companies brought their electric cars, trucks, motorcycles, mopeds, and electrically-assisted bicycles. We could also take turns driving them around a test track in the Palo Alto High School parking lot. The biggest thrill was how sleek and colorful the cars were. The designers have a terrific sense of form and color. The second thrill was that these vehicles really were silent. It was eerie. It was a joy to see them rolling and to not hear them. The lesson that I learned was that there are many, many more electric vehicles on sale now than I have been hearing about. A little digging will reveal lots of options. A good place to start: the EAA’s Web site and its monthly newsletter.

Some of the vendors at the show were:

• AC Propulsion, from San Dimas, California
• CityE, from Denmark
• Green Rides, from Campbell, California.
• Zap!, from Santa Rosa, California
• Zenn Motor Company, from Toronto, Canada

Local hobbyists also brought their homemade contraptions: converted, all-electric sedans, racing cars, pick-up trucks, dune buggies, motorcycles, and dirt bikes. Most of them ran on lead-acid batteries.

I learned some terminology: a “personal vehicle” carries only one person; a “neighborhood vehicle” has a top speed of 35 or 40 miles per hour (45 to 65 kilometers per hour); and a “highway commuter” can drive at least 50 mph (80 kph). Also, a powered two-wheeler without pedals that can drive no faster than 35 mph is, in California, a “moped.” You don’t need a motorcycle license to drive one here.

I’m in the market, then, for a neighborhood vehicle. I want it to transport my carpool, me and four schoolchildren, on city streets at 35 mph. I saw a homemade, 5-person car that I liked: a VW that, years ago, had been stripped down and converted into a dune buggy, then recently emptied out and converted into an all-electric car. I was surprised to see that it needed twelve lead-acid batteries, six per side, which together weighed 400 pounds. Ouch! Lead-acid batteries may be cheap and ubiquitous, but they are awfully heavy.

I also want a personal vehicle. I’d love a silent motorcycle. The yellow E-Ranger Scooter, on the right here, from Green Emotor was on sale for about $2700. My neighbor bought one then and there. I hope to drive hers and see how I like it. I think, though, that I’d rather have a motorcycle that can reach 50 mph so that I can take it on the highway. The motorcycles for sale at the show were stylish and pricey: $8000 for this blue one, on the right, from Electric Motorsport that ran on lithium-ion batteries. The one that appealed most to me was a homebrew, converted from a gasoline-powered Kawasaki.

To read more about the rally, see The San Jose Mercury News article.

Do you want an electric vehicle? What kind? What is the most you are willing to pay?