Electric Cars and Year Round Driving

What’s not to like about electric cars? Skip the gas station altogether and just recharge your car in the garage every night for a fraction of the cost. There are three drawbacks of electric cars that have gotten a lot of attention as electric cars have hit the American market. The high cost of batteries for electric cars is Problem 1. This is main factor that increases the cost of electric cars and makes it difficult for them to compete against gasoline powered vehicles. Government subsidies are working to offset the cost issue in short run. Problem 2 is limited range. Range is still a major sticking point. When you drive away from your garage and its charging station, you can drive about 100 miles before recharging. Most people drive less than 100 miles before returning home each day. But if you’re driving further than 100 miles before returning home, you’re going to have a problem. If you were able to find an electric charging station out there along your travels, you still can’t fuel up in just a few minutes like you do at a gas station.

Now let’s add another wrinkle. Problem 3 is that electric car batteries don’t fare so well in extreme temperatures. If it’s very hot or very cold out, the battery may last less than half as many miles as it does in more mild weather. The range of an electric car could easily drop to 40 or 50 miles in freezing temps.

Does this mean that electric cars are impractical in areas that experience very high or very low temperatures? What are the possible workarounds?

Make sure you have enough power to get where you’re going. An electric car is still practical for short commutes. If you’re lucky enough to have a charging station at your place of employment, your range is effectively doubled.

Move to a sunny locale. Drive your Nissan Leaf in Los Angeles or your Chevy Volt in West Palm Beach. Electric cars and sunny climes were made for each other. Why not join them? There are other benefits of living in the sun belt, such as beach days instead of snow days.

Have a backup means of transportation for cold days. Can you carpool on snowy days, or take public transportation? Is telecommuting an option? If you don’t absolutely need your car every day, your flexibility could pay off in terms of fuel savings.

Buy a hybrid instead of an all electric car. A hybrid vehicle has a gasoline tank and can use gas, but it uses electricity whenever possible. It switches back and forth automatically, using the appropriate source of power for short trips in city traffic or long trips on empty highways. The other benefit of having both is that there is a backup if the battery should run out of power.

The bottom line is that electric cars aren’t yet at a point where they’re as practical as traditional gas powered vehicles. Technological advances in battery design may help. If they can store more power, the range of the cars will increase. If they can protect the batteries from temperature extremes, the battery’s capacity will be more stable. Unfortunately technological advances will require research and development, which means money. Since range and battery capacity have been sticking points for several years, the investment in time and funding to get past this could be significant. That, of course, translates into higher car prices. This brings us right back to problem 1.

Southern California is a great place to drive an electric cars. Find one at Nissan Los Angeles. Or if you plan to go the traditional route, try this Cadillac dealer Chicago.