Electric car question

Disclaimer: I am car-tarded. I own 3 vehicles and I think I have popped the hood on all of them a grand total of 2 times.

I tend to look at the finance side of things since I know absolutely nothing about the mechanical function of electric vehicles. I thought I'd throw this question out here to find out what the major hold up is with electric vehicles.

Why aren't they being mass produced?

Is it a battery capacity problem still?

Not enough power or range?

Technology still prohibitively expensive?

Since I am in fact cartarded, let me ask what might be a stupid question:

Would an electric fan driven car be feasible? Think along the lines of a fan boat with wheels but with an electric motor driving the fan. That doable?

You might want to post this in the Automotive forum in BTS. You'd get better response there.

Originally posted by slackerwire
Why aren't they being mass produced?

Because we've been spoiled by cheap gas and little money has gone into R&D since the last burst of activity in the 70s.

Is it a battery capacity problem still?

Not enough power or range?

Yes, but not in the way you think. Lithium Ion batteries are set to become standard and will give sports cars a range of 200 km per charge. The main roadblock is something called "Thermal Runaway"

www.teslamotors.com...

Technology still prohibitively expensive?

Once mass production begins the price will plummet. The single most prohibitive cost of the car is the batteries but I think that can be remedied by leasing the batteries instead of owning them. Perhaps even design the battery stacks to be removable on the fly at a gas-like service station. Having robots do it could make refueling faster than a gasoline car.

Would an electric fan driven car be feasible? Think along the lines of a fan boat with wheels but with an electric motor driving the fan. That doable?

No. This would only be practical in a fluid like air or water.

[edit on 24-6-2008 by sardion2000]

[edit on 24-6-2008 by sardion2000]