The real problem with electric cars isn’t range, or style, or carbon output. It’s something much more serious: You just can’t seem to buy one anywhere. Car makers talk all day long about electric cars, and press release after press release is, well, released, but once the dust settles and the hype is gone you find yourself back to square one still driving your dinosaur-juice burning clunker.
Help is at hand however. Time to cut through the crap. I’m now going to list all the available factory-made, full-speed vehicles you can buy today, right here and now, in North America.
1: Tango T600
Top Speed: 150 mph (240 km/h)
Range: 80 miles (130 km)
Upside: Neck-snapping acceleration
Downside: Looks ridiculous
2: Ford Ranger EV
Top Speed: 65 mph (104 km/h)
Range: 65 miles (104 km)
Upside: Looks like a normal truck
Downside: Available only as used vehicles
3: Triac
Top Speed: 80 mph (130 km/h)
Range: 100 miles (160 km)
Upside: Looks like it’s from the Jetsons
Downside: Looks like it’s from the Jetsons
4: Toyota RAV4 EV
Top Speed: 78 mph (125 km/h)
Range: 120 miles (192 km)
Upside: Looks good, practical, 5 doors
Downside: Only 328 were ever built – good luck finding one
5: NMG
Top Speed: 75 mph (120 km/h)
Range: 45 miles (70 km)
Upside: Can be driven on a motorcycle license.
Downside: Looks like a giant goldfish
6: Tesla Roadster
Top Speed: 135 mph (215 km/h)
Range: 220 miles (350 km)
Upside: Looks utterly beautiful – like a 4-wheeled supermodel
Downside: Bankruptingly expensive – just like a real supermodel
So that’s it. Even though I’ve read about 14 press releases and news announcements about electric vehicles this very morning, the fact remains that you can still only buy 6 actual highway-capable electric cars right here and now (and some of them have clearly been beaten with the “ugly stick”).
My suggestion to you all is to either sit tight and hang onto your checkbook until 2011, or get into your garages and beat Detroit at their own game by converting an existing gas clunker to all-electric.
No matter what road you take, we can all hope that cheap, long-range electric cars aren’t simply items of fantasy for ever, as gas certainly isn’t getting cheaper.
