Assuming the price is right, I’m all for electric vehicles, and in fact I suspect electric automobiles are ultimately the future of daily personal transportation, with gasoline automobiles perhaps reserved for long trips.
But the first batch of electric vehicles on their way to market don’t seem like practical alternatives to old-fashioned internal combustion.
On the one hand, you’ve got platforms like this new prototype single-seat electric automobile from Topia, called the HUVO.
‘Huevo’ would be a more appropriate moniker for this flyweight deathtrap.
Even leaving aside what would seem to be fatal design problems (it is just a prototype after all), I think the more massive question is why you’d bother to own a vehicle that has less storage space than your average pair of cargo pants.
Chevy’s upcoming electric vehicle, the Volt, on the other hand, seems far more practical.
But in truth it’s just as useless (at least for now) as the HUVO.
The problem is that the premium you pay for the battery technology obliterates any gas savings.
Chevy claims that if you drive less than 40 miles a day, you’ll never have to put a drop of gas into your Volt.
But the Volt is expected to cost around $40,000 or so when it goes on sale (which could be as soon as 2010).
At that price, gasoline makes much more financial sense.
Let’s say the Volt ends up with sticker price of $40,000.
Compare that to the Chevy Malibu LS, which starts at $20,550, seems about equal in size to the Volt and is considered an exceptional automobile.
That’s a price difference of $19,450.
Let’s state gas jumps to $5 per gallon (which seems pretty likely by 2010). At that price, $19,450 would buy you 3,890 gallons of gas.
The LS is rated for 22 mpg in the city and 30 on the highway.
Most people probably do a mix of city and highway driving, but lets state you do only city driving.
That means your 3,890 gallons of gas would grant you to drive 85,580 miles.
The average American drives about 12,000 miles per year.
So that means you’d have to own a Volt for more than seven years (and never use a drop of gasoline) to make it a better financial decision than a run-of-the-mill gas-powered car.
And that’s not even counting the spike in your home electric bill from charging up your Volt in your garage each night.
The technology of electric automobiles is enticing and promising.
But it’s not ready for prime time.
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