The Electric Car On the Road

05/23/96

Independent carmakers are already selling them, and GM's EV1 will be available for lease in California by the Fall. Ford and Chrysler are getting with the program, too: both carmakers plan to have electric vehicles ready for the California mandate that says 10% of car sales by 2003 must be electric. Getting electric cars ready for market, however, is the easy part, some say. Critics claim that selling the cars will be a trick, as consumers have largely written electric cars off as feeble puddle jumpers.

What's the truth, though? A recently published report that compared a number of electric cars noted that most electric vehicles are closer to their gas powered counterparts than one might imagine . . . and much more quiet.

Test drives of a Solectrica Force (a Geo Metro with an electric motor in place of its drivetrain and gasoline engine) and GM's EV1 revealed that the cars were comfortable and had quite good acceleration and power. The cars also come with almost all the standard features consumers expect.

The major objection to today's electric cars is the short range they can travel before needing to be recharged. The EV1 uses lead-acid batteries and can go about 70-90 miles before loosing current, while the Solectrica has a range of about 45 miles. Recharging takes 3-3.5 hours with a 220-volt recharger. The range of the batteries also limits the size of the car: the bigger and heavier, the car, the less distance it can cover before it runs out of juice. Solectrica's marketing director points out that most American cars average only one or two 10 mile trips a day, so a range of 90 miles (or even half that) should satisfy general day to day driving needs.

The EV1 and Solectrica come with the whole coterie of accessories (AM/FM/Cassette deck, remote-control mirrors, rear defoggers, day-time running lights). Powering these items doesn't drain the battery much. Air conditioning, and power steering are a different matter, however. Because electric motors don't idle like gas engines, there's no power to run a power steering pump or air conditioner's compressor when the car is not moving--and when the car is stopped is when power steering is needed most. So far electric carmakers have come up with only one workaround for this problem: they install a separate and constantly running motor to drive those systems. The solution works, but turns out to be a bit of an energy sink.

Heating the car poses another problem. Electric heaters don't work very well and they draw a lot of power. Solectrica is looking at kerosene heaters as an alternative. Kerosene, they say, puts out many less fumes that would running a gas engine for heat or for primary power.

The Solectrica Force sells for $34,000 while GM's EV1 is expected to go on sale in the fall for about $30,000. Both are two-seat subcompacts. Add $2,000 every two years for battery packs, and the cars aren't cheap. Government subsidies are expected to reduce the cars' market price to about $25,000 when the cars really go into production.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel