Electric cars are the future of automobiles, says a Vancouver advocate — but good luck finding one today.
About 60 Edmonton and St. Albert residents met at Grant MacEwan University Wednesday for a talk on electric cars organized by the Solar Energy Society of Alberta.
Electric cars were the leading technology at the start of the auto age, says John Stonier, director of the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association, but were surpassed by the superior range and price of gasoline. Now, they're making a comeback, with Nissan, GM, Subaru, BMW, Volvo, Mercedes and others all selling or releasing full or hybrid-electric cars in the next two years.
"The whole thing with electric cars is to go fossil-fuel free," Stonier says. Electric motors are far more efficient than gas ones, he says, and can get their power from many sources. An electric car in Alberta would have the same carbon emissions per kilometre as a gas-electric hybrid, he estimates; you could also buy solar or wind power to make it zero emissions.
But that's not their only selling point. "People buy on horsepower but drive on torque," Stonier says — it's nice to have high top speed, but you can't use it unless you're on the Autobahn. "For performance at legal speed, it's better to accelerate off the line."
Unlike gas engines, which start with little torque and acceleration, electric motors give you max torque right off the bat. The Tesla Roadster goes from zero to 97 kilometres an hour in four seconds as a result, according to Car and Driver. "It's very exhilarating," says Stonier, who test-drove the Roadster.
These cars will also be much cheaper to maintain. A gas engine has 640 moving parts, Stonier says, which makes for a lot of friction and breakdowns. "Electric cars essentially have one moving part, which is the motor." That makes them very long-lived: his group has a working electric car from 1912 that has never had its motor replaced. "You're going to be able to buy a car that you can keep forever."
But the biggest selling point to him, Stonier says, is the drive. There's no engine noise or rumble, he notes, so all you hear and feel is the wind, the tires, and the road. "It's a much more refined, smoother, and more pleasing drive."
Great. So where are they?
Electric cars are extremely rare in Canada, Stonier says — he knew of two in Edmonton. You can import them from the U.S., but you won't be able to buy one in Canada until about 2012. "Because they're not in showrooms today, they're pretty hard to find."
Phil Belland of St. Albert Dodge says he'd love to have an electric car, citing their zero emissions as "fantastic," but notes they still have some big problems. Canada has few, if any places equipped to charge or fix an electric car, he notes, which would make maintaining one tough. Customers are also concerned about range and price — Tesla's upcoming sedan starts at $50,000. "If it's not competitive, it won't sell."
Range isn't a huge problem, Stonier says, as the average North American drives just 50 kilometres a day — most electric vehicles can do 150 on a charge, and battery technology is improving. The cars are expensive, but he predicts they'll fall rapidly with mass production.
Governments would have to take action to prepare cities for electric cars, Stonier says. Vancouver recently changed its building code to require electric-car outlets on all new garages, for example, while London and Berlin are building public charge stations.
Some 64 per cent of cars sold in 2030 will be electric, Stonier says, citing a University of Berkeley study, and for good reason. "When people drive these cars, they will love them."
