Car Insurance

The buzz about alternative energy and Electric Vehicle (EV) has revived the last few years because of the clear threat that global warming has become. But for hobbyists and innovators, and lovers of life and earth, electric cars have been the gold standard for quite sometime now. Even more so after losing hope in Detroit, which actually recalled perfectly working and sold out versions of its EV and destroyed it for no apparent reason in the early 90s, even more so. It makes good sense too. The earliest cars were EVs and the managed to make motor vehicle history. Their time was up for no good reason when automakers decided to make cars with the internal combustion engines that require fossil fuel, a limited source of energy.

Everything from old Ford Taurus to Opel GT and even full scale trucks has gone electric or hybrid thanks to your owners. You can rest assure though that it takes a lot of time and energy to get it done, but surprisingly not a lot of money. In fact, for what you save on gas after your little science project, the cost of the whole thing will seem negligible. You might want to consider taking help from a friend who lives and breathes engines or a local mechanic if you yourself are a novice, despite your enthusiasm. Just keep in mind that the basic to making your car hybrid is packing it with a load of 12volts car batteries and figuring out a way of using smaller engines that powers it up enough to keep you rolling. And you better have clear diagram on where your wire are headed. But there is more to it than meets the eye. To get a clear idea of what you are doing, you might even want to read up on plans for restructuring your car. Websites such as MotherEarthShopping.com offers them online too. Or you could just Google “hybrid car plan” or “DIY hybrid car” to find other online sources.

But if you don’ want to jump directly into gutting your car’ engines, there’ a perfectly rational and satisfying thing you can do: get yourself a DIY electric car building kit. Not only will this give you a great sense of creation satisfaction, it will also help you better understand how electric cars work. Companies like the Robert Q. Riely Enterprise offers a great range of high end DIY kits which allow you to actually make everything from scratch, but with full detailed instructions. You even have your choice of two or four wheelers that you can take for a real spin around and beyond your neighborhood.

They make for fun and interesting science projects that will serve a real purpose once completed.

Electric cars are one of the simplest forms of self-propelled motorized transportation. The engine or the driving mechanism of an electric car is made up of a series of batteries attached to an on and off switch that in turn is attached to an electrically operated motor.

It’s the electric motor, which drives the wheels, thereby propelling the car into motion. Usually, all electric cars have a more complicated method to control the amount of electricity that goes into the motor and the gear system to help drive the wheels in a more capable manner. Some electric cars also have solar collectors that convert solar energy into electricity for slow recharge of the batteries.

But why bother with an electric car? It’s because electric cars offer a singular driving experience, with excellent handling, as well as quick initial acceleration thanks to their low center of gravity. With almost continuous torque even at lower speeds, making it easy to climb curbs, steep inclines and sharp turns. Additionally, with the cost of conventional fuel increasing on a regular basis, using electrically charged cars makes for an ideal choice.

Making a basic electric car is fascinating and easy. Since, electric cars are very simple in overall construction; they can even be built by anyone. The main components are a simple frame, basic wheels, an electric motor, a car battery, and an electric on and off switch. You can build a simple electric car in about two weeks!

Although there is more to an electric car than was provided in this article, it is still easy to accomplish with a simple blue print, knowledge of electric currents and wiring, and the parts to put it all together.

I bet you had to read that headline twice! I know, I couldn’t believe it myself. One of the biggest deterrents to buying an electric car for me has always been performance. Now we finally have someone with a vision for revolutionizing the industry that is doing what no one else has done to date, introduce an electric car that performs like a sports car.

The development of this cutting edge vehicle by Martin Eberhard is being bankrolled by high profile internet billionaires like the founders of Google and Paypal. This should tell you right away that this car is serious business.

The new battery powered car will be one of the quickest production cars available on the planet holding its own with the likes of Ferraris and Lamborghinis that cost five times what the new roadster will sell for. The name of the company is Tesla Motors, named for the Serbian inventor of the first AC powered motor.

The Tesla roadster gets its power from nearly 7,000 lithium-ion batteries, rechargeable of course. There is nothing special about the batteries either, they are the exact same batteries we use in our laptops. Besides going from 0 to sixty in under 4 seconds the vehicle has a top speed of over 130 mph and a range before recharging of 250 miles. The first model to be built will be a two seater roadster but they already have plans for a sedan as well. So what does it cost to run this car? You won’t believe it, less than two cents a mile! Say goodbye to high gas prices because this car uses ZERO gas.

Eberhard’s electrical engineering background is what has given him the knowledge used to build the first performance electric car. He says he got his inspiration to create the car from reading about other revolutionaries in the automotive industry, John DeLorean and Preston Tucker.

Instead of trying to invent a new battery source he decided to use the lithium-ion batteries because he was involved in the computer industry and he knows that the large computer companies will keep working to make lighter and longer lasting batteries that he can get from the computer industry and use for powering his cars.

Tesla Motors has gone from a concept to a car that will be built in less than three years. The first cars are being built in a factory in England and will be available by summer of 2007. The price of the first cars is expected to be around $80,000. Considering the price of gas, that may soon be considered a bargain.

Electric cars that zip by have always been more sci-fi than reality, thanks to pop culture. But in fact, the earliest cars were running on electricity long before the energy and automobile industry decided to convert Detroit into a gas guzzling machine based on the internal combustion engine. And precisely because of that, electric cars are making a comeback. With fuel prices soaring, and fossil fuel itself adding ever more to greenhouses gases that cause global warming, the world is betting on solutions such as alternative clean fuels, and zero or low carbon emitting cars powered by electricity.

As Detroit is to the American automobile industry, Japan is fast becoming to the world. And their fleet of hybrid cars, those that use an alternative clean energy only or in combination with gas is helping Japan’s position as a global leader in the auto industry big time. Last summer, while Toyota took the lead from Ford and became the second most selling brand of automobiles in America just after GM, Honda comfortably outsold DaimlerChrysler.

Toyota and Honda, both Japanese companies, are also the only mass producers of hybrid vehicles and enjoy steady success in that market. By 2003, Honda had sold over more than 37,000 units while Mazda expected to sell at 7,000 units of its 4WD Demio series. And according to a research by J.D Power, 350,000 units of hybrids will be sold in the US alone by 2008. You can rest assure that the Japanese brand of EVs will make a significant chunk of that market. It helps to get the word out when celebrities like George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio are already hybrid drivers.

Japanese automakers Mitsubishi too is hoping to re-brand its market imagine by launching a series of EVs in Japan by 2010. Subaru too is teaming up with the Tokyo Power Company to launch a series of electric vehicles, based on Subaru’s R1e minicars that will challenge Toyotas hybrids when it is launched.

While Japan continues to work on mass market models of EVs, engineer and designers there are also working on ever more impressive line of sporty and luxury models. The Eliica electric car, still only a prototype, can climb up to a speed of about 100mph in 7 seconds and reach a top speed of 400kmph. A brain child of Prof. Hiroshi Shimizu, Keio University, the car was produced with the help of a team of students.

Did we mention it has 8 wheels, four in the front and four in the back? A full charge from a normal outlet takes about 10 hours and that will keep you going for 200 miles. The point was to show the potential of EVs, and it’s a point well taken. The California born Tesla is the only Super EV coming out anytime soon but it’s a luxury sports car. And Detroit is still grumbling. But you can count on Japan’s EV industry to take the world on a clean, eco-friendly spin.