Plugging in to electric cars
By Fiona Wagner • Bankrate.com

The car has long been a symbol of innovation, efficiency and even freedom. But the object of North America's love affair -- or, more specifically, the internal combustion engine that powers it -- has a darker side: air pollution, rising greenhouse gas concentrations in our atmosphere and an increasingly precarious dependency on foreign oil.

Fortunately, there is an alternative, and it's one that's been around far longer than most people think -- the electric car.

"We had electric cars before we had gasoline engines -- we're going back to the past," says Al Cormier, executive director of Electric Mobility Canada, in Mississauga, Ont. "Electric cars got displaced by cheap oil. We've had nearly a century of that -- now let's find out how we can turn around and be more sustainable."

Today's electric vehicles offer urban drivers a range of benefits including low or zero air emissions, little to no maintenance, lower operating costs and freedom from gas pumps.

Take the Tesla Roadster, for example, an all-electric, two-seat sports car powered by lithium-ion batteries. It's turned the stereotype of electric cars as glorified golf carts on its head. These cars are sleek, sexy and sophisticated, with top speeds of 200 km/h and the ability to travel 300 kilometres on a single charge.

But they cost $109,000 US each, so electric cars aren't without their downsides. Still, more consumers and automakers are taking notice simply because they have no other choice.

"There's the increasing price of fuel, growing concerns about the environment and the global recognition that there may be an end to cheap oil," says Cormier. It's time to consider the alternatives, and "it seems that electrification is the emerging consensus worldwide."

Hybrids and plug-ins
As conventional cars are not created equal, there are different kinds or degrees of electric cars.

While a conventional car relies on a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine, or ICE, a hybrid, such as the Toyota Prius, uses both an ICE and a high-capacity battery.

The next generation of hybrid vehicle, the plug-in hybrid, also features an ICE and battery, but the battery can be plugged into the grid for recharging. Plug-ins, which are expected late next year, are more efficient than earlier hybrids and can travel further before using any gas.

Extended-range battery vehicles, such as the much-anticipated Chevy Volt, due out in 2010, recharges its electric battery like a plug-in hybrid, but a small gasoline-powered engine will run a generator that can increase the car's from 64 kilometres on a single charge to almost 500 kilometres.

Then there are true electric vehicles that are powered entirely by batteries and have the greatest potential in terms of reducing our collective carbon footprint and redeeming our gas-guzzling ways. These cars also face the biggest challenges.

"The primary barrier to electric vehicles being on the road today, right now, is not because automotive manufacturers can't make them," says Catherine Scrimgeour, manager of public affairs for Toronto-based ZENN Motor Company, known for its low-speed, all-electric vehicle. "It's because there isn't an energy storage or a battery out there that is really practical in terms of cost, speed and range."