Gentlemen - and women - plug in your engines. This will be the year of the electric car. No, seriously. After seemingly endless testing, technical hiccups and plain reluctance on the part of manufacturers to move electric vehicles from the concept phase to the showroom, it's finally happening. A fleet of new cars powered by the plug instead of the pump will take to the road in 2011.
Leading the charge is the Chevy Volt. With a 16-kilowatt-hour battery and a 110-kilowatt (149-horsepower) electric motor, it can go 60 kilometres on a single charge, plenty for commuting and weekend grocery runs. Critics point out that a 1.4-litre gasoline engine kicks in when the battery runs down, making the Volt a mere hybrid rather than a fully fledged electric car. And with demand for the Volt forecast to far outstrip supply, some dealers in the US are reportedly slapping steep premiums on top of the already hefty $40,280 price tag.
Even if the Volt fizzles, the Nissan Leaf, Ford Focus Electric and Renault Fluence will all be widely available in the next 12 months. Then there's Mitsubishi's diminutive i-MiEV, powered by a 47-kilowatt electric motor and boasting a range of 160 kilometres. It has been on the road in Japan since 2009 and is expected to go on sale in both the UK and the US in the new year.
Two factors have combined to bring electric cars to the mass market at last: the arrival of high-capacity batteries and the near-collapse of the American auto industry, which forced US car makers into building small, efficient vehicles that can compete with foreign offerings.
The biggest remaining obstacle is cost. Electric vehicles offer the amenities of a compact car at the price of a luxury sedan. Tax breaks in some countries should help. But if the quiet whoosh of the electric motor is to replace the growl of the internal combustion engine, prices will have to plummet. Competition and yet more innovation in battery and drivetrain technology could allow that to happen.
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