Virtually every automobile company is scrambling to produce electric vehicles. Right now, Los Angeles residents have a few electric cars to choose from.
General Motors new Chevy Volt electric car won the Green Car Journal’s “Green Car of the Year” award. American manufacturer Ford is coming out with the completely electric Ford Focus in 2012. The Nissan Leaf has a waiting list of over 20,000 buyers.
Unlike a hybrid car—which is fueled by gasoline and uses a battery and motor to improve efficiency—an electric car is powered exclusively by electricity. Historically, EVs have not been widely adopted because of limited driving range before needing to be recharged, long recharging times, and a lack of commitment by automakers to produce and market electric cars that have all the creature comforts of gas-powered cars. That’s changing as battery technology improves. Cars today can go 100 miles on one charge. By increasing energy storage and reducing cost new batteries have ushered in a new era of electric vehicles. The future is here.
Electric cars produce no tailpipe emissions, reduce our dependency on oil, and are cheaper to operate. Of course, the process of producing the electricity moves the emissions further upstream to the utility company’s smokestack—but even dirty electricity used in electric cars usually reduces our collective carbon footprint.
