Check out this story...

Phat Tango

This is the manufacturers website...
Commuter cars

A little pricey, but this thing is a sleeper if I ever saw one.

 

wish there were better pics of it...but it says top speed 124 MPH!! omg that would be scarry at that speed!!!

not to mention 0-60 in 4 sec....and 120 in the 1/4 mile!!!!

 

Click on the commuter link and go to the gallery. they have tons of pic if you click on the red car....there is also a video if you click on the suspension link...

Scary is an understatement.....

 

$80,000 Commuter? I think not, the whole point of a commuter is a budget car that gets good gas mileage. Good thinking, but it seems they were aiming for those who wanted to trade their Viper or Vette in, rather than us with our true commuters

 

Sorry that should be stability link instead.

 

I like the idea of small cars. It is enviroment freindly, and cheap. Though, I do not think they will ever do good in the US. The safety regulations are way too strict in the US, because there are way too many trucks and SUVs. I cannot bear a thought of how much damage Ford Exurcion can do to that thing simply going 25 mph. You would be dead! The cities should ban certain parts of them, where only car that size are allowed. But it would be years before legislation will anything get pass through, and long beofre you know it, there will be no small cars, the trucks will be even bigger, and when the fuel shortage comes around again, we all will be sitting the with the thumbs deep our assess! IMO eace:

 

I'm not sold on the 1/2 the cost of a regular commuter claim. When you look at the notes, it's clear that you have to meat several conditions in order to make it.

I love how they claim that the car needs no oil changes, etc... but that the 25 batteries each cost $100 if you buy a truck load. I'll bet that when you try to get just 1 of them, it'll be more like $150. So when you need to replace all your batteries, you're talking $3750... I could change my oil with Mobil 1 at the dealer 100 times (500,000 miles) with that much. Do it myself, and the number is more like 1 million miles of oil changes.

That electric car at best case needs a full new set of batteries every 90,000 miles. Lets be fair, and assume that you'll drive the car for 100,000 miles. Assuming there is no major technical problem with the car (any decent car these days should go 100,000 with only routine maintenance). Your gas car will need 20 oil changes at $25 each = $500. Add air filters, tune-ups, routine maintenace, call it an additional grand. The maintenance on the gas car = $1500. The electric car needs batteries = $3750. If you don't charge at optimum time, you'll only get 12,800 miles per battery pack (80% DOD = 64 miles x "a couple of hundred charges) instead of 90,000... you are more likely to charge the car after 50 miles than after 20 miles, so let's say you need to replace the batteries 3 times = $11,250 in maintenace.

Given that electricity will cost you 1 cent/mile, your 100,000 miles will cost you $1000. You gas car at 25 miles/gallon costs you (.04 gallons/mile x 100,000 miles x $1.25/gallon) = $5000.

100,000 miles
electric car best case = $4,750
electric car average case = $12,250
electric car worst case (12,800 miles/battery replacement) = $31,000

gas car 30 mpg = $5,700
gas car 25 mpg = $6,500
gas car 10 mpg = $14,000

The average case electric car is not much better than the absolute worst case gas car. That is why this car will never sell in the US.

My other point would be that they claim that "electricity can be found in almost every home." It isn't quite so easy to find an electrical outlet on the side of the road or at a rest stop. Or when you run out of juice, it's not like the towtruck guy can bring you a can of gas... you're in for a tow, or you're going to be pushing your car the distance.

 

I think that Environmentalist do not care about the price of running a car. They care about pollutions! Also, the goverment just gave all hybrid/electric car owners $2000 credit, cuz they have evnironment friendly vehicles (that cost more than regular cars).

 

I forgot to add that if you wanted to drive an additional 60 miles in your gas car and you new you weren't going to be able to re-fill, you could carry along a 3 gallon gas tank that you bought for less than $10. If you want to extend the range of your electric car, you'd have to purchase a whole "generator cart" - plus more batteries.

 

Electrical weren't made for the long range driving. People use their cars today to drive around town and hang out. Thats what these cars are for. IMO eace:

 

OK... I'll give you the $2000/year credit. Those are handy. If you own your $80,000 electric car for 20 years, then it's roughly the equivelant of buying a $40,000 BMW.

 

Wow that was detailed.

 

Glad to know that we're looking for a future of people zipping around town at 120 mph, just to go to the corner store.

If you're just driving around town, then you just made a good case for a $4000 electric golf cart... and I *would* endorse that as a cost effective, environmentally friendly method of transportation.

 

unfortunately, Americans that think bigger is better will never adopt these cars. In Europe they have something like that except that it still runs on gas, but it gets amazing mpg numbers. In London they're really popular and really usefull.

 

didn't they have those cars int the movie european vacation?