- Electric cars enjoyed popularity between the mid-19th century and early 20th century.
- Electric cars currently enjoy relative popularity in countries around the world
- Today the electric car certainly does have its limitations - they are generally more expensive than gasoline cars, the 'efficiency' offered by the existing batteries are fairly low (approximately 125-150 kms before they have to be charged again), and re-charging facilities are not readily available.
- The Tesla Roadster gets 394 kilometers (245 miles) per charge.
- In 2010 the US government estimated that a battery with a 100 miles (160 km) range would cost about US$33,000.
- Conventional gasoline engines effectively use only fifteen percent of the fuel energy content to move the vehicle or to power accessories, and diesel engines can reach on-board efficiencies of twenty percent, while electric drive vehicles have on-board efficiency of around eighty percent.
- On April 21, 2010, Sanyo announced that it performed a 345.2 miles (555.6 kilometers) travel from Tokyo to Osaka on a single charge with an electric Li-Ion batteries powered Daihatsu Mira.
- A vehicle with an internal combustion engine that gets 25 miles per gallon will require $1,800 in gasoline (at $3 per gallon) over a year of driving (24,000 km or 15,000 mi), which works out to $0.12 per mile. At $0.11 per kwh, an electric car costs $0.026 per mile to operate, or $396 for 15,000 miles—a savings of about $1,400 (per year).
Electric car facts
