Are there any available electric cars that can go highway speed?
February 26th, 2010
Future Teacher asked:
I watched “Who Killed the Electric Car?” and heard a presentation about electric cars. They seem like really great cars but the only ones that are available are low speed cars (max speed of 35 mph), right?
I watched “Who Killed the Electric Car?” and heard a presentation about electric cars. They seem like really great cars but the only ones that are available are low speed cars (max speed of 35 mph), right?
February 26th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
The prius is still your best bet for conservation. In a couple years, thats all there will be… My suggestion is wait til gas really goes up again and see whats out there, good luck.
February 26th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
The Tesla electric car. It is REALLY expensive but it is a production car available now.
0-60 in under 4 seconds
244 miles on one charge
March 2nd, 2010 at 9:06 am
Sure. In fact, you can build one yourself for under $10,000. I plan to turn this into a summer project for me. You may want to check out diyelectriccar.com. There is lots of great info there to get you started. Another place I’d like to recommend is evalbum.com. This is a showcase for anyone who’s built/owns an electric car. If you don’t want to build an electric car yourself, you ought to check out evtradingpost.com, where people sell fully-completed conversion vehicles, production electric vehicles, and parts to make your own electric vehicle (sort of like classified ads). Whichever route you choose to go, good luck!
EDIT: You may also wish to look into the Solectria Force. It is a professionally converted car that is capable of going highway speeds, with a reasonable range to boot. These can be seen on the evalbum and the evtradingpost, amongst other places.
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:45 am
Yes, if “now” is 2007, and “available” is only brand new cars from a dealer.
There have been plenty of electric cars that worked at highway speed. They occasionally come up on eBay.
There are hundreds of homebrew conversion EVs which are viable on the highway.
However if you want an electric car that works exactly like the gas cars you’re used to … forget it. Stick with gas and hybrids.