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Electric Cars Available Now:Electric Cars for Sale At the Moment?Talk! Talk! Talk! Talk! - Electric cars available in 2011 or 2012.......  ....at this moment in time there is lot's of talk on the net about the future of electric cars, great schemes to get WHOLE COUNTRIES electrified and so on. But what I want to know is - as of now - what electric cars are available? Also, are they worth buying now? .... or are you better off waiting? When I started to look in June of 2008, I felt that Ireland (where I live) was WAY WAY BEHIND on electric vehicles and that just about every other country in the world WAY WAY AHEAD!  But when I started to read more, I saw that most people were TALKING ABOUT THE FUTURE! Of course, there are SOME electric cars available now - but it seems that they are just in small pockets of the world where they make a lot of sense (such as London with it's traffic congestion charge) - but most seem to be planned for serious production between 2010 and 2012 (see the History and Future of Electric Cars).
As for what is actually available now (The Test - can pick up the phone and arrange to see one and maybe even drive one!) this is what I came up with:
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| Car Name | Manufacturer and Link | Available Where? | In Production Since |
Specs: Top Speed, Range, Acceleration |
Motor Battery Charge Time |
Picture |
| Tango T600 | Commuter Cars Corporation, Washington USA | USA | 2006 |
130mph Range:40-200miles 0-60mph: 4s |
Twin DC motors Lead-acid/li-ion Fast charge 10 mins, Normal Charge 3hrs |
|
| Mega e-city | Aixiam-Mega group,France | Europe | 2007 |
64 km/h Range:60km |
? Lead-acid Normal charge 8-10 hrs |
|
| Think City | Think, Norway | Norway | 2008 |
100km/h Range:200km 0-50km: 6.5s |
AC Sodium/li-ion 230V 13hrs |
|
| Tesla Roadster | Tesla Motors, California | USA, Europe | 2008 |
125mph Range:220miles 0-60mph: 3.8s |
AC Li-ion 240V 3 + 1/2 hrs |
|
| Reva G-Wiz Li-ion | Reva Electric Car Company, India | India, UK, Ireland, Chile, Japan | 2003 |
51mph Range:75miles 0-31mph: 8.8s |
AC 14.5kW Li-ion 6hrs |
|
| Reva G-Wiz i | Reva Electric Car Company, India | India, UK, Ireland, Chile, Japan | 2003 |
51mph Range:48miles 0-31mph 11.6s |
AC 13kW Lead-Acid 8hrs |
|
| ZAP Xebra | ZAP, USA | USA | 1994 |
65km/h Range:40km |
DC Lead-acid ? |
|
| GEM e2 | GEM, USA | USA | 1998 |
25mph Range:35 miles |
DC Lead-acid 8-12hrs |
|
| GEM e4 | GEM, USA | USA | 1998 |
25mph Range:30 miles |
DC Lead-acid 8-12hrs |
|
| GEM e6 | GEM, USA | USA | 1998 |
25mph Range:30 miles |
DC Lead-acid 8-12hrs |
|
| Aptera 2e | Aptera, USA | California | 2009 | Range: 100 miles |
? Li-ion 8 hrs |
|
| Nice Mycar | Nice, UK | UK | 2008 |
40mph 64km/h Range:40miles |
DC Lead AGM 8-10 hrs |
|
| IT Sedan | Dynasty Electric Vehicle Limited, USA | USA | 2001 |
25mph 40km/h Range:30miles/50km 0-40km/h: 10s |
? Lead-acid 6-8 hrs |
|
| Kurrent | American Electric, USA | USA | 2007 |
35mph Range:35-40 miles |
4.1 kW Lead gel 8 hrs |
|
| Miles Z40s | Miles Electric Vehicles, USA | USA | ? |
25mph Range:40-50 miles 0-20mph: 5.95s |
AC Lead-acid AGM 4-6 hrs |
|
| Citroen C1 ev'ie | The Electric Car Corporation, UK | UK | 2009 |
60mph Range:60-75miles |
? ? 6 hrs |
|
| Verde VC-2 | Verde Autos, Ireland | Ireland | ? |
40km/h Range:80km |
? ? 4-6 hrs |
|
| Verde VC-4 | Verde Autos, Ireland | Ireland | ? |
40km/h Range:80km |
? ? 4-6 hrs |
|
| Verde VC-6 | Verde Autos, Ireland | Ireland | ? |
40km/h Range:60km |
? ? 4-6 hrs |
|
| Current | Electric City Motors, USA | USA | ? |
70-75mph Range:45-55miles |
45 kW Nanotube Technology ? |
|
| Venturi Fetish | Venturi, France | Tokyo, LA, Monte Carlo, London, Paris, Dubai | 2009 |
160km/h Range:250km 0-100km/h: <5s |
180 kW Li-ion Quick charge:1hr Normal charge:3-4 hrs |
|
| ZENN | ZENN Motor Company, Canada | USA, Canada | 2006 |
25mph Range:30-50miles |
AC Lead-acid 8 hrs |
|
| Maranello 4-cycle | Maranello, Italy | Italy, Spain, Norway | 2008 |
45km/h Range: 70-100km |
DC 4kW Lead-acid ? |
|
| Stevens ZEcar | Stevens Vehicles, Wales | UK | ? |
56mph Range:Less than 100miles |
AC Gel lead-acid/Li-ion ? |
|
| Blade Electron | Blade Electric Vehicles, Australia | Australia | ? |
110km/h Range:100km 0-60km/h: 7s |
AC 40kW Li-ion ? |
|
| NMG | Myers Motors, USA | USA | ? |
75mph Range:30m |
DC Brush Motor Li-ion 4-6 Hours |
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So - as you can see, there is a fairly motley crew of them out there at the moment.
They seem to be:
- Mostly cheap(ish), slow and small range (40 miles)
- Or expensive, fast and ok range (100 miles plus)
- AND built by small companies who are having a hard time convincing buyers that this is the way to go
- AND still have some questions hovering over their battery reliability and costs of replacements
As a result, the market for the cars seems to be for the truly GREEN pioneer at the moment (with cash to splash!) - with lots of pioneering companies making great products - BUT the whole market seems to need the BIG BOYS (and GIRLZ) to come in to get the confidence going just right.
For my own family - I'll be recommending that we stay away from the Electric Cars available until about 2010 (when we should see some confidence in the market for them).
So we'll keep looking at Electric Bicycles, Electric Scooters and Electric Motorcycles
... but ... of course ....
...I wouldn't say no to a Tesla Roadster in the meantime!
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