Electric cars in the 70s

There is a new doc film coming out saying the electric car was
"killed." I don't know whether the filmmaker is a Michael Moore
wannabe.

There were good things about electric cars in the 70s but what were its

don...

Most required recharging within 100 miles.

Rechargeable batteries have limited life of usually a few to several
years, and the replacement cost is significant.

Most of these electric cars, possibly all of them, had trouble reaching
typical interstate highway speeds (laugh at posted speed limits especially
ones under 65 MPH).

Most to possibly all of these electric cars had lousy acceleration when
the speed gets past maybe 40 MPH or so. This is a major consideration for
entering and doing lane changes in freeways.

Also keep in mind that electricity costs have since the mid and probably
early 1980's inflated a lot less than gasoline costs have. This means
that electric cars should be more profitable now than back then.

- Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)

geoffm...

The unavoidably finite length of the extension cord.

Seriously, the only electric car I ever saw in the '70s was
this little, wedge-shaped thing that was styled by Zagato.
It seated two people, side by side, and had a ridiculously
short wheelbase. It was really just a glorified golf cart.

shortcomings?

Keith Williams...

Even if perfect (and others have shown the problems) how much more
electric generation capacity would we need if the current fleet
were magically converted to all electric tonight? You won't like
the answer.

John Weiss...

Short range due to battery technology limits.

Long recharge time.

Poor to mediocre performance.