By Digoy Fernandez
I THINK that the nearest most of us has ever gotten to an electric driven vehicle is the ubiquitous golf cart that one finds in upscale golf courses. One can even make a comparison between one driven by an electric battery or one motivated by a small internal combustion engine. One of the obvious shortcomings of the battery driven golf cart is if it runs out of juice right in the middle of the golf course, forcing you to carry our clubs and walk back to the clubhouse prematurely.
Battery operated cars have shortcomings that are just being addressed now. One is the obvious size and weight of the batter needed to run a vehicle for a reasonable distance.
The other is the length of time or distance that the car can run before running out of power. A third problem is making the batteries out of more environment friendly stuff so that one does not pollute the environment when the batteries have to be discarded. The old lead-acid battery technology is just getting a bit better these days, as battery companies are forced to take environmental considerations in hand in their manufacturing operations.
One can try the E-Jeepney now servicing the route between Bel Air village and Rockwell mall. The electric jeepney is cute and, according to my niece who lives in Bel Air, provides a free fun ride for her family when they want to go to the mall. But like most vehicles of the genre, it is slow and can only run so many kilometers before requiring an overnight charge.
Now comes Tesla Motors, with their sports car that has been tested quite extensively by mainstream automotive magazines and test organizations. Almost all are properly awed by the car’s performance figures, until they come to the price. The car, as befitting a sports car with a low production volume, will probably hit $100,000 when it finally gets into the showroom. Well, it seems there is no lack of buyers because the first year run has already been spoken for. And perhaps even the following year’s production. Such is the performance of the car that it makes speed junkies drool at the prospect of owning and driving it.
The developer, Martin Eberhard, was a former Silicon Valley engineer who made money inventing useful products, and then was bought out, leaving him with a nest egg with which to pursue his dream of an electric car. He attacked the problem right at the source, by inventing a battery that would provide proper power for a reasonable length of time.
The battery is of the lithium-ion variety, and is situated at the bottom of the car, increasing the vehicle’s good low center of gravity even more. It allows the car to run up to 250 miles or 400 kilometers, which will allow for a trip to Baguio from Metro Manila plus some time motoring in the Pines City itself. It takes only 3.5 hours for a full charge.
Fortunately, Mr Eberhard chose to tie up with a noted independent car manufacturer, Lotus Motors, for the chassis. Thus the car looks a lot like the Lotus Elise. Unfortunately, only two people can enjoy the car’s benefits at any one time, but the trunk is large enough to carry golf clubs or a week’s worth of groceries.
Meanwhile, another new car company based in the UK is making its debut with its own take on an electric sports car. There must be a contagious disease somewhere. Why so much interest in upscale sports cars instead of mainstream vehicles? I suspect the reason to be economic in nature, as development budgets and cost of production will have to be spread over a larger number of cars for the cheaper variety of vehicles.
This car company, the Lightning Car Company, has come up with a prototype that looks even more wicked and attractive than the TESLA. So far, they have a video of the car running but have yet to have it driven hard by the testers.
What does this trend show? That, given the incentive of high gasoline and crude prices, it becomes attractive to explore and develop alternative fuels that can power vehicles. So, we have the air-powered car and the water-powered car we wrote about earlier. Now, we have the electric sports car. (Of course, there are other electric cars being developed or actually out on the street as of this writing, but none as exciting to the performance addicts like the Tesla and the Lightning.)
Enjoy reading the following threads here and here on the two vehicles that we discussed.
P.S: Daniel Dingel seems to be having problems with our bureaucracy, among other things. He wrote another response to our article about the water-powered car. Can any of the readers there provide him with the necessary direction, since I no longer have the patience or wherewithal to deal with our local bureaucrats? You can answer right on the blog on the water-powered car itself. Thank you.
