Battery Powered Electric Vehicles & Technology Review

Battery-Powered Electric Vehicles
Because of the limited electric vehicle test marketing undertaken by automakers during the latter part of the 1990s, battery electric vehicles are on American highways today. Their advantages are numerous, including no harmful emissions, little required maintenance, and lower operating costs. Among these modern EVs are the Chrysler EPIC minivan, Ford Ranger EV, GM EV1, Honda EV Plus, Nissan Altra EV, and Toyota RAV4 EV. The Memoranda of Understanding signed with the State of California effectively required automakers to test market certain numbers of EVs in exchange for postponing a mandate. When this agreement expired, the costly EVs rapidly came off the market, with the RAV4 EV being the last one to exit showrooms.

So while no major automaker is currently selling a full-feature electric vehicle, some, most notably DaimlerChrysler, continue to market low-speed neighborhood electric vehicles. Others appeared to make a major commitment to this field and then pulled back. Ford, for instance, set out to market its TH!NK City commuter car and Neighbor low-speed electric vehicle, but pulled the plug on this effort when it determined that consumer demand wouldn't support a business case for these vehicles.

The reasons for this are quite simple: battery-powered electric vehicles have well-defined drawbacks. The models that automakers test marketed were expensive - generally priced from $20,000 to $50,000. Battery electric vehicles also have a limited range of no more than 120 miles before requiring a lengthy four- to eight-hour recharge, and they will require expensive battery replacement after a number of years.

However, there are other types of AFVs to consider...