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Nissan has announced the development of its new electric car which is called the Nissan Leaf. It is scheduled to come into production in the second half of 2010 in US and then move into the Japanese market. There is a great deal of publicity surrounding what is being offered as a new idea.
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The car has a range of 100 miles ( 160 kms) before you need to recharge the battery and its top speed is 90 miles (145 kms per hour) per hour. Nissan claim that these specifications are enough to satisfy the needs of 80% of drivers, so they clearly haven’t taken into account the needs of those living in rural America, who need to commute hundreds of miles just to get to work, or the nearest supermarket.
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This is being presented as a fantastic, new idea and there is lots of hype around the idea of zero emission motoring, but the idea is almost 150 years old. The possible speed of an electrical vehicle has increased but there is still the need to keep recharging the battery.
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The invention of the storage battery by Frenchman, Gaston Plante in 1859, made the electric car a possibility. The battery was further improved by Camille Faure twenty years later and he built what is thought to be the world’s first electric vehicle. It was a tricycle and it first ran in Paris in 1881.
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Other three-wheelers followed in London in 1882 and then in Boston six years later. The first US battery powered automobiles were built in Des Moines, Iowa in 1890 and they could reach a speed of 23 kms per hour.
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In the 1900’s, 38% of the automobiles in US were were powered by electricity. (The rest were powered by steam and gasoline.)
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It was the development of the electric-starter that finally saw the end of the electric car. It meant that cars no longer had to be hand cranked to get them started, so gasoline powered vehicles became more popular.
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When someone comes up with a way of constantly recharging the car battery via a continuously operating dynamo, then we will really have something worth buying. Imagine the rush to buy cars that didn’t need to be fuelled up.
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August 04, 2009
I want one….
August 04, 2009
A nice informative article. Well written and researched.
August 04, 2009
Fascinating. Breath-taking.
August 04, 2009
This is an interesting article, louie. I would love to have a car like that.
I heard something about these cars, but I wasn’t sure how they worked.
August 04, 2009
I tell you those tiny cars scare the crap out of me. Here in New York they would just roll right over you.
A car that can only go 100 miles would put me out of business. I travel over 35k miles a year. They better start putting some electric outlet out there.
Great Article awesome photos
August 04, 2009
Back in the 1980’s, you could purchase a book that gave directions for converting a small gas burner to electric. The trade off was hauling power vs. speed/distance on a single charge. Some folks have tinkered with the idea of having an electric car charge when coasting down-hill–much like charging a bicycle lamp. Very nice article, Louie. Amazing how old ideas get dressed up as new.
August 04, 2009
I like the idea of electric cars but what can you do when you are away and your car runs out of juice? Seems like we would need a lot of relay stations.
August 04, 2009
You’re right that the development of the electric car is not new. Henry Ford’s wife drove an electric car. What Is new however is the mass production of the electric car.
The technology, as you rightly point out, has been with us for quite some time. The trouble is that for a company to invest in a brand new plant and hire a workforce capable of mass producing the new technology–well, it’s quite an investment.
Consider what we want from a car: almost total reliability in all sorts of weather and putting up with all sorts of abuse. Oh, and it has to be pretty cheap to fix. So you need trained mechanics too. And a lot of almost perfect cars. Using a technology that has not been mass tested before.
Mrs Ford, after all, was just one person and in the 1900s we didn’t have near as many roads as we do now.
Regards,
Inna
August 04, 2009
That would be great, but where I live the traffic is so terrifying that I think a tiny car like that could be quite dangerous. Lorry drivers wouldn’t see you from their high cabs. An interesting article
Christine
August 04, 2009
All the time that petrol/diesel cars are produced electric vehicles won’t get a look in. People want to use fossil fuels and that’s that.
Hands up anyone who has converted their fossil fuel driven car to LPG.
No one? I thought so!
August 04, 2009
Very interesting article. So many questions are still open…but it is a great old idea! Wait and see.
Best wishes,
Ffrançois
August 04, 2009
Why make it so ugly?
Cars used to be art,
rolling art,and still
can be effective,as
well as still fast,
sporty I swear,your
not even trying.
August 04, 2009
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August 04, 2009
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