Electric cars: 100 years and no progress.
Exhibit A:
9 Electric Cars 100 Years Old or More
http://gas2.org/2009/04/19/9-electric-cars-100-years-old-or-more/
Exhibit B:
5 electric cars you can buy now
With gas prices soaring, plugging in has its appeal. But there are trade-offs: high costs and low speed.
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/autos/0806/gallery.electric_cars_now/index.html
Ever since I was a child, I've wondered to myself while learning about cars, fossil fuels, and society "did I miss something?". Yes, we are now dependent on fossil fuels and it seems to be a world-wide consensus that we have an imperative to change that... well... it has seemed this way for the last 50 years. And yet nothing happened. In fact, we seemed to go the other way.
But this doesn't even capture the entirety of the nonsense world we live in. It is an undersold fact that electric cars were prevalent way back when... before the personal use of cars even took off. In fact, they happened to be quieter, easier to maintain, and were visibly less polluting than their gasoline competitors, which are facts that were apparent to our great grandparents.
People say that electric cars are making a comeback now. Well... ... they will make a comeback. Supposedly. But we have some on the market now? Right?? Like that link I posted above. Well, read through the list in detail... if you want something to make you pull your hair out. I thought I would make a comparison in a livejournal post of the merits of the options available to us now, in the 2000s, versus those in the 1900s.
Today
100 years ago
GEM Car:
Range:
30-40 miles
Top speed:
25 mph
Seats:
4 people
1891 Morrison:
Range:
50 miles
Top speed:
20 mph
Seats:
6-12 people
Dynasty iT Sedan:
Range:
30 miles
Top speed:
25 mph
Seats:
4 people
Electrobat 1894-1899:
Range:
25 miles
Top speed:
20 mph
Seats:
2 people
ZENN:
Range:
30-50 miles
Top speed:
35 mph
Seats:
2 people
1909 Babcock:
Range:
100 miles
Top speed:
14-17 mph (average)
Seats:
2 people?
Zap Xebra:
Range:
25 miles
Top speed:
40 mph
Seats:
2 people
1901 Riker Torpedo:
Range:
??
Top speed:
57 mph
Seats:
1 person?
Now, I'll be the first to admit that this list is pretty cruddy. I don't have all the metrics, and I haven't included all the cars by any stretch of the imagination. But this is a cross section of what's available and what was available that illustrates my point (I'm not claiming very much). Our options are not exactly better, that's the point.
I'm sure the apologists are ready to disprove my claim, but really, think about the entire situation. The old cars are slower in some cases, but the average speed of cars at the time was lower. The old cars are crazy unsafe. Well, driving then didn't expose you to other drivers whizzing by you at 70 mph, and horses are pretty good at yielding.
The sheer magnitude of our failure in regards to electric cars makes me numb to excuses. So they're required to meet safety standards, keeping the speeds low. Well, that's still a circumstance society co-created that prevents people from getting more useful electric cars. And really, we should have an advantage or two over car manufactures from 100 years ago. You know, ideally we should have a thing or two going for us, added onto the fact that we already use cars and know that we need to be switching to electric.
Just back up a little bit, and I just want you to think to yourself next time you start up your car: "Why are we still driving these?"
9 Electric Cars 100 Years Old or More
http://gas2.org/2009/04/19/9-electric-cars-100-years-old-or-more/
Exhibit B:
5 electric cars you can buy now
With gas prices soaring, plugging in has its appeal. But there are trade-offs: high costs and low speed.
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/autos/0806/gallery.electric_cars_now/index.html
Ever since I was a child, I've wondered to myself while learning about cars, fossil fuels, and society "did I miss something?". Yes, we are now dependent on fossil fuels and it seems to be a world-wide consensus that we have an imperative to change that... well... it has seemed this way for the last 50 years. And yet nothing happened. In fact, we seemed to go the other way.
But this doesn't even capture the entirety of the nonsense world we live in. It is an undersold fact that electric cars were prevalent way back when... before the personal use of cars even took off. In fact, they happened to be quieter, easier to maintain, and were visibly less polluting than their gasoline competitors, which are facts that were apparent to our great grandparents.
People say that electric cars are making a comeback now. Well... ... they will make a comeback. Supposedly. But we have some on the market now? Right?? Like that link I posted above. Well, read through the list in detail... if you want something to make you pull your hair out. I thought I would make a comparison in a livejournal post of the merits of the options available to us now, in the 2000s, versus those in the 1900s.
Today
100 years ago
GEM Car:
Range:
30-40 miles
Top speed:
25 mph
Seats:
4 people
1891 Morrison:
Range:
50 miles
Top speed:
20 mph
Seats:
6-12 people
Dynasty iT Sedan:
Range:
30 miles
Top speed:
25 mph
Seats:
4 people
Electrobat 1894-1899:
Range:
25 miles
Top speed:
20 mph
Seats:
2 people
ZENN:
Range:
30-50 miles
Top speed:
35 mph
Seats:
2 people
1909 Babcock:
Range:
100 miles
Top speed:
14-17 mph (average)
Seats:
2 people?
Zap Xebra:
Range:
25 miles
Top speed:
40 mph
Seats:
2 people
1901 Riker Torpedo:
Range:
??
Top speed:
57 mph
Seats:
1 person?
Now, I'll be the first to admit that this list is pretty cruddy. I don't have all the metrics, and I haven't included all the cars by any stretch of the imagination. But this is a cross section of what's available and what was available that illustrates my point (I'm not claiming very much). Our options are not exactly better, that's the point.
I'm sure the apologists are ready to disprove my claim, but really, think about the entire situation. The old cars are slower in some cases, but the average speed of cars at the time was lower. The old cars are crazy unsafe. Well, driving then didn't expose you to other drivers whizzing by you at 70 mph, and horses are pretty good at yielding.
The sheer magnitude of our failure in regards to electric cars makes me numb to excuses. So they're required to meet safety standards, keeping the speeds low. Well, that's still a circumstance society co-created that prevents people from getting more useful electric cars. And really, we should have an advantage or two over car manufactures from 100 years ago. You know, ideally we should have a thing or two going for us, added onto the fact that we already use cars and know that we need to be switching to electric.
Just back up a little bit, and I just want you to think to yourself next time you start up your car: "Why are we still driving these?"