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I'll wait. I have been waiting since I was in elementary. I've been hearing about electric cars all my life, but I've never seen one on the road except for a few hybrids. The closest thing I've seen is the Zenn, but it only clocks at 40km/h and it isn't street legal in Canada. I kept hearing and seeing ads for this Chevy Volt, but I never seen it in action. And even if a number electric car models do manifest into reality, am I going to be able to afford it? At this rate, I think I'd rather wait for a unicorn.

Check out the Grizzly, the NEV, the Spyder, or the ZENN. Yes, they're all pretty strange. If we want normal cars, we buy Hondas.

Electric cars have been lingering at the high point because no significant car has been rough to market. The Tesla and the Volt appear to be the firsts going there.

What about these?

MDI Enterprises S.A. - Air compressed cars
Electric Tiger Star Truck
Zenn Motor Company
Tata Motors
GM before the Volt
Zap Electric Cars
Global Electric Motors
Phoenix Motorcars
Dynasty Electric Cars
Nice Car Company
Reva
I could keep going but let me Google that for you.

We need to take the first steps if we are ever to migrate from oil to electric.

I agree.

You are aware of something called the auto pact. Basically the deal is that we agreed to allow Canadian makers to be taken over in exchange for complete integration into the north american market. So our branch plants of automakers represent approximately double the number of employees, per capita of population in comparison to the US.

We didn't get the names, but we got the jobs. Canadians used their noggins for what was important to them. And the most popular segment in the late nineties was the Chrysler Mini-van, which was designed and built in Canada from day 1 until today, where it is now sold as a VW Touran.

As for being alone in the G8... Name me a British automobile brand that is still in British hands, and still in business. Show me a Russian car you can buy in North America (nope, no Lada's) Please attempt to find an affordable Italian Car in North America. Fiat doesn't exist here. Your choices are: Alfa, Lambo, Ferrari, ... If those count, then check out: T-Rex, http://www.auto123.com/en/car-reviews/new/2008-t-rex-1400r-road-test-video?printable=1&artid=91050 or zenn http://www.zenncars.com/ there are a half-dozen other boutique style manufacturers.

Further, there are many non G8 countries with automobile brands, such as Korea, Sweden, India, China, Brazil, etc... So what's your point?

P.S. Canada's Bombardier is:
#1 manufacturer of train wagons in the world, to the point where folks are considering anti-monopoly rules.
#3 manufacture of aircraft, after Boeing, and Airbus.
oh, and they started out in Snow mobiles, and are still big there.

So on the one hand, there are other G8 countries without meaningful presence in one of the largest auto markets in the world (North America), on the other hand, some G8 countries' manufacturers' are economically insignificant. On the third hand, the presence/absence of an auto brand says little about the overall economy... and many non G8 countries have auto brands. So It's hard to see how that could be a condition of entry into the club.

Remember this is one country without a domestic car concern...the only such country in the entire so called G8! Canada? Give me a break!

http://www.zenncars.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZENN_Motor_Company

You insensitive clod. ;)

Billions for whom?
These guys claim to have a perpetual worldwide rights to the thing for 4 wheeled passenger vehicles

Talk about weird timing. The ZENN car (Zero Emission No Noise) car has been making the news this weekend as they'll finally be starting to sell them in Canada. Its about time, considering the car is built here, but was only sold to the US and overseas.

21k$ fully loaded. Top speed of 40km/h with an 80 km range on a charge. Perfect for running errands in the city. I particularly like this blurb on their website. 280mpg. 100% Electric, the ZENN doesn't use any gasoline. A gallon of gas has an energy equivalent of 33.5kwh3. One gallon of gas provides the same energy as fully charging the ZENN about 7 times. This is an equivalent fuel economy of 7 x 40 miles = 280 mpg. (National Association of Fleet Administrators, www.nafa.org)

Rick Mercer Report on the car.

Auto manufacturers would probably be just as happy with hybrids going mainstream as they were with fossil-fueled vehicles. Why ? Because they make a heck of a lot of money selling replacement parts.

Hybrids have very little differences in maintenance costs, and are potentially more expensive to maintain, when compared to fossil-fueled vehicles.

On the other hand, a fully electric vehicle requires relatively 10 % of the maintenance cost, and that equates to rotating the tires and checking the brakes. In the (very rare) case that the AC motor in an electric vehicle needs to be replaced the cost-per-visit peaks and then goes right back down.

Now when you say that the economy is the basis for (common-commuters) not switching to electric vehicles, that's just stupid - there are many, many jobs to be gained, trades to learn, dollars to be made, etc, with the adoption of electric vehicles for the commoner. Don't forget that there will still be a need for heavy-trucks and other work vehicles to run on fossil-fuels.

If you really want to flame someone, flame the pre-baby-boomer urban planners that decided to turn North America into a white-picket-fenced suburban wasteland. If that hadn't happened then 90% of people wouldn't even need to drive a car, let alone take public transportation.

In many older cities (I live in Montreal), riding a bicycle is still incredibly faster than driving a car.

[shameless plug]
Incidentally, the ZENN is now fully legal to drive in most of Canada - it's launch date was just this weekend and it sells brand new for 16900 CAD. I believe that there is also a gov't tax credit upon purchase, not to mention the drastically reduced annual maintenance. I'm mostly looking forward to the CityZENN. Canadians - It's not too late to change your vote to Green!! [\shameless plug]

I submit that this project, though good in itself, would be of no use and therefore a waste of time in Ontario, Canada because the government over there will not license a similar project from a local manufacturer, Zenn http://www.zenncars.com/.

You wonder who these folks in government are working for. I suspect that they are protecting big oil.

Their argument is that these cars have not been proven to be safe on [Canadian] roads, though these same cars are available in the USA where they have not caused any trouble.

Has anyone used these cars? How do they perform?

You can get something like that now as long as you don't mind it not being highway-worthy. Check out the Zenn.

We already have the ZENN car, but it is not allowed on most Canadian streets, so unless GM can eliminate government bureaucracy we won't be seeing the Volt any time soon.

http://www.zenncars.com/

Apparently you can buy and operate one in the US today; in Canada, you can only operate it in British Columbia, as LSVs (Low Speed Vehicles) are regulated by the provinces, and today only BC has regulations in place for them. If it was legal to sell them in Canada, they'd go for about $12K.

Thank you Rick Mercer!

If I read this correctly, none of these cars are actually in production yet.

The ZENN car is and can be purchased now.

http://zenncars.com/

Is there a comprehensive list of reasonably available electric vehicles?

The Reva ( http://www.revaindia.com/ ) has already been mentioned elsewhere in this thread --- one which I actually considered purchasing is the Twike ( http://www.twike.com/ ) (really more of an enclosed three wheel recumbent bicycle) --- there are some others though. A quick search on Google reveals:

  - http://www.zapworld.com/
  - http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php
  - http://www.gemcar.com/
  - http://www.zenncars.com/

There was an article in the local (Harrisburg, PA) paper recently about a local who'd purchased an all-electric scooter, and another about a (school teacher?) who had refurbished an electric car from the 70s which was street-legal 'causeit was grand-fathered in.

Of all the above, the only one which seems to have full equivalency to a gasoline powered vehicle is the Tesla (which is ~$100,000 if memory serves) --- I thought about getting a Twike, but it's ~$20,000, and would've required me to rent a vehicle for vacations, or to drive our other car (an 8 year old Cavalier w/ ~130,000 miles), so got a Chevy Aveo ($9,999 when I bought it the other year).

William

I'd TOTALLY pay $15000 to feel what it's like to go 25mph!

25mph top speed, 35 mile range, $15,000. I'm not sure if WonderCaps (TM) can save this company...

Is it funny that they're touring the country to show you how great electric vehicles are by towing them in a trailer with an SUV?

I guess middle America is too crappy to stop and charge the thing.