The Prius, a “Hybrid Vehicle” which is produced by Toyota, has already been altering the auto industry. Lately celebrities and media promotions of every angle have held these in the spotlight. But here’s the shocking fact: they have even been marketed for several years already. Much smaller electric vehicles (and Petroleum-fueled vehicles) are being tested and adapted and produced in European countries, too. Around the world, the demand has been growing. Now the supply needs to build in order to match that demand. The United States auto industry desperately needs to hop on this wagon. Or have they already?
Detroit, in fact, already has. According to “Detroit Goes for Electric Cars, but Will Drivers?” in the New York Times (Brooke), the Ford Motor Company has designed Product M, a proposal to “build a prototype of a totally electric, battery-powered car in just six months” in order to at least compete, if not flood the upcoming electric car market with hopes to annihilate competitors. This plan has been developed, roughly, throughout the course this past year, since the summer of 2008.
From “The Detroit Electric,” in concern to the Detroit Electric Car (www.detroitelectric.org/):
Most people think that electric cars are a recent phenomenon. The truth is that in the early 1900’s the electric car was a common site on the American road. Electric cars were used in a large part by women and doctors. Doctors needed a car that they could get in and go and gasoline engines were not that easy to start or reliable. Because hand cranking a car was difficult to say the least and could be downright dangerous the electric cars were very popular with women. In fact one of the downfalls of early electric cars is that they were thought of as a women’s car and men did not want to be seen driving them. In fact in the latter years the cars were built with what looked like a radiator in front. An example is the picture above of the 1912 Detroit at Stave Falls outside Mission B.C. Another downfall was the invention of the electric starter or at least the first working one in 1911 by Charles F. Kettering of Dayton Electric Laboratories (DELCO). It was first used in 1912 by Cadillac.
Onto another, Chevrolet introduced the Volt (an individualized hybrid with an E-Flex) a while back. This General Motors vehicle runs on an array of fuels, too, from gasoline, diesel fuel, to hydrogen fuel. Aside from all the fuel alternatives, this car gets roughly fifty miles per gallon. Aside from all that, the battery will charge with only 40 percent battery charge remaining.
So the Hybrid is showing first broad, commercial notice in the Toyota Prius; we are seeing proof of this fad in Detroit and from GM already; and we can bet that the greater amount of auto manufacturers will introduce their own variations of this Hybrid soon enough. From Wikipedia:
A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid vehicle with batteries that can be recharged by connecting a plug to an electric power source. It shares the characteristics of both traditional hybrid electric vehicles, having an electric motor and a internal combustion engine, and of battery electric vehicles, also having a plug to connect to the electric grid. Most PHEVs on the road today are passenger cars, but there are also PHEV versions of commercial passenger vans, utility trucks, school buses, motorcycles, scooters, and military vehicles. They are sometimes called grid-connected hybrids, gas-optional hybrids, or GO-HEVs.
In all reality, Electric Cars came about far before these ‘Gas Hogs’ we currently drive ever came on the market in the first place. Seems shocking, but true. Also according to Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile]:
The first electric cars were built around 1832, well before internal combustion powered cars appeared.[21] For a period of time electrics were considered superior due to the silent nature of electric motors compared to the very loud noise of the gasoline engine. This advantage was removed with Hiram Percy Maxim’s invention of the muffler in 1897. Thereafter internal combustion powered cars had two critical advantages: 1) long range and 2) high specific energy (far lower weight of petrol fuel versus weight of batteries). The building of battery electric vehicles that could rival internal combustion models had to wait for the introduction of modern semiconductor controls and improved batteries. Because they can deliver a high torque at low revolutions electric cars do not require such a complex drive train and transmission as internal combustion powered cars. Some post-2000 electric car designs such as the Venturi Fetish are able to accelerate from 0-60 mph (96 km/h) in 4.0 seconds with a top speed around 130 mph (210 km/h). Others have a range of 250 miles (400 km) on the United States Environmental Protection Agencyā€ˇ (EPA) highway cycle requiring 3-1/2 hours to completely charge.[22] Equivalent fuel efficiency to internal combustion is not well defined but some press reports give it at around 135 miles per US gallon (1.74 L/100 km; 162 mpg-imp).
As is evident, these electric cars are nothing new. In the July 1969 issue of Popular Science, a feature article concerned “the General Motors XP-883 plug-in hybrid. The concept commuter vehicle housed six 12-volt lead-acid batteries in the trunk area and a transverse-mounted DC electric motor turning a front-wheel drive.[29] The car could be plugged into a standard North American 120 volt AC outlet for recharging” (History of Plug-in Hybrids, Wikipedia).
This is the future of the auto industry. Compact and affordable. This is where to invest in a vehicle, purchase stock, what have you, and these are what will be consuming the roadways soon enough.
The initial step in concern to the Electric Auto Industry can be found here: The Electric Car: Why the U.S. car industry may survive
B David Ferrel
Sources Cited:
New York Times, 10 January 2009. Web. Brooke, Lindsay. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/business/11electric.html?pagewanted=1&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/B/Batteries&_r=1>
2006 - 2008 Detroit Electric - Email: Webmaster@DetroitElectric.org <www.detroitelectric.org/> Last modified: February, 2008
Automobile, Electric. Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile>
Battery electric vehicle. Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_electric_vehicle>
History of Plug-in Hybrids. Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_plug-in_hybrids>
Plug-in hybrid. Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_hybrid>
