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6 Major Pre-Production Electric Vehicles Compared

rbgrn writes with a review of six major pre-production electric vehicles. The review offers an easy side-by-side comparison of these six cars with projected release dates of either 2008 or 2010. "With all of the hype surrounding hybrid vehicles today, I thought I'd do some research and post my findings on the next generation of fully electric and plug-in hybrids. The fully-electric EV has had a bad name in the past, mostly due to insufficient battery technology, politics, lack of performance models and other factors. Starting this year with the Tesla Roadster, the EV is going to take on a new form in the eyes of John Q Public. Quiet, efficient EVs will start to become commonplace in the next few years as major manufacturers go into production with the newest generation of vehicle sporting more powerful motors, efficient generators and the latest battery technology."

14 of 486 comments (clear)

  1. Dead batteries? by MarkGriz · · Score: 3, Funny

    Must be running their servers off that "insufficient battery technology"

    --
    Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
  2. Re:My fear by ShawnCplus · · Score: 3, Funny

    As long as it's not called the EV Pinto we'll be fine.

    --
    Excuse me while I gather the virgin sacrifice and assemble the pentagram required to solve your problem
  3. Hollywood in trouble? by Walpurgiss · · Score: 3, Funny

    With all these electric only cars on the horizon, what will hollywood use to explain the ease of exploding cars? Not that gasoline is so spontaneously explosive as they'd have people believe, but I'd imagine Li-Ion batteries would be even less so.

    How will they sell movie tickets if everyone becomes aware that cars wont explode from a couple bullets?

  4. Let's black this bitch out! by 4D6963 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yay! Let's all buy fully-electric cars! Together we can take the power grid down!

    --
    You just got troll'd!
  5. Seriously by KlaymenDK · · Score: 4, Funny

    In all seriousness, there has been much progress on the warp drive front. In 1926 or so, theories claimed that you needed many times the energy of the universe to create a warp field, and your craft had to be a good deal lighter than zero mass.

    The latest benchmark is from cirka 1986, I think, and claims only 2-3 times the energy of our local sun ... and your craft only needs to be very little lighter than zero mass, or maybe it was acually zero.

    But the warp field won't make a positive impression on those in the lane next to you, or the little old lady on the sidewalk... ;)

  6. Re:My fear by TnkMkr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes because a 15 gallon tank filled with gasoline is as safe as kittens.

    Doesn't matter if you store energy in batteries or in combustable liquides, when a fuel cell full of stored energy is released in an uncontrolled manner, it will always suck.

  7. Re:My fear (the smell of burning cars) by orasio · · Score: 2, Funny

    Amusingly, it seems like there is a car or van on fire in my county probably every day - some days there are up to 10 car fires.

    You can live in Fear.

    Or you can be a proud patriotic American and refuse to live in Fear.

    Those are the choices. In related news, the population of Fear Town is constantly diminishing for no aparent reason.
  8. Re:The Aptera is cool looking by TopShelf · · Score: 2, Funny

    Take, for instance, the Honda Civic, which retails starting at $15k. The Civic Hybrid is almost 22K, and has the features of the standard $15K model. That's DOUBLE the price for a modest increase in fuel economy.

    You don't know much about math, do you?

    --
    Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
  9. Re:Not a Solution by Average_Joe_Sixpack · · Score: 2, Funny

    Jupiter of course!

  10. Re:Tesla by Sporkinum · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can hardly wait to see Jeremy on Top Gear go rabid because it is clean and quiet. The Stig should like it though.. He is a man of no words.

    --
    "He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
  11. Re:Cost? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "...lead to the occupation of America by the europeans..."

    Well, at least that occupation brought to an end the previous occupation by the Siberians!

  12. Detroit will never buy in to zero mass vehicles by wsanders · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Big Auto Lobby will never buy in to a vehicle with zero mass.

    However, they are just fine with vehicles that use 2-3 times the energy of the Sun.

    Write your Congressman today!

    --
    Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
  13. Re:My fear by suggsjc · · Score: 2, Funny

    There are so many things to work with here.

    First, I could go any number of ways with the kittens. There is the obvious humor of when kittens aren't safe Or you could take another approach and kinda reverse what you said...but what about kittens strapped to 15 gallon gas tanks or even what about kittens with frickin laser beams?

    The other thing is that I can belittle your comment about the obvious contradictory logic of "combustable liquids" "sucking."

    Either way, I think you totally missed the point as kittens cannot (at least in the developed world) even operate a vehicle whether it be gas operated or battery powered. But even if they could, there aren't that many media outlets that are dedicated solely to kitten news...so even if said accident occurred, then I doubt that many people (erm, kittens) would even notice.

    You, TnkMkr, is what is wrong with the world today. You are creating problems that don't (or in this case can't) even exist. You must work for a big oil company, whose board of directory are the same as M$, who we all know kills kittens...coincidence, I think not!!!

    --
    When I have a kid, I want to put him in one of those strollers for twins and then run around the mall looking frantic.
  14. Re:Battery-only cars will fail. by eggfoolr · · Score: 2, Funny

    Dude. Do you drive your car on full throttle 100% of the time?

    Bet you have a bumper sticker written in mirror image on the front of you car saying "GET OUT OF MY WAY!"