Electric Cars

Is this going to be the year of the electric car?

By and large, electric cars still come at a premium compared to gasoline-powered cars. While they run much more cleanly, the means by which their electricity is produced may not be a clean source of energy.

The main thing holding electric cars back right now is the duration of their battery charge. Battery technology is improving, however, and that holds promise for the future of electric cars.

Would you buy an electric car if you were given the option and the price were affordable?

Not at the moment. They don't have enough range to meet my needs. While I'd like something more environmentally friendly like that, it doesn't make a huge difference if you're charging up from electricity produced by a coal-fired power plant. You're still responsible for pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere either way.

What's actually a decent option (albeit not perfect) is a diesel vehicle. They are more efficient and get better fuel mileage than a gasoline vehicle but there are different maintenance issues with a diesel vehicle. A lot of refueling stations offer diesel.

They do tend to be more expensive so that's a problem, too.

Sometimes I want to say "damn those greedy oil companies" for suppressing the progress made on developing decent electric cars (by buying up patents) but then I realize there's more to it than that - battery tech really IS inadequate (cell phone batteries, anyone?) even nowadays.

Some of those other news posts are talking about improvements in batteries (using the most confusing technobabble I've ever seen) so that's making things look more hopeful for electric cars.

I wouldn't mind taking a spin in a Tesla roadster!

Electric cars will eventually be a viable option for most people, I'm sure.

The reason I wouldn't want one right now is because most of my driving is fairly long range. I don't live in an area where most of my freelancing clients or any IT related businesses are nearby. All of my commuting for past jobs I've had -- with a few exceptions -- has been over 10 miles round-trip.

Although I don't know what the range is on electric cars these days, it doesn't seem like they're really the best option for someone who has to frequently commute out of town.

The idea is nice and sure I wouldn't mind having one. Most of my driving is local (I don't live far from my workplace) and I don't take too many road trips. Most of the time when traveling, somebody else is driving anyway. I'm driving a compact car right now so it's not bad on fuel mileage.

My husband and I both try to be "green" as much as possible. An electric car would be sweet as long as it gets its electricity from a clean source .