• Question: shu]ould car companys start making more eletric cars because thete not at the mommnent are they?

    Asked by dondon1 to Cathy, Jaz, Mark, Roma, Rory on 23 Jun 2014.
    • Photo: Jaz Rabadia

      Jaz Rabadia answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      There are lots of hybrid cars that use some electric vehicle technology ( even f1 racing cars use this) but you are right not as many full electric cars.. at the moment there are not enough people buying them to make car manufactures make more…. also they are good for city driving not long distances and they need alot of charging… some supermarkets have electric charging points,,, but you cant find them in every petrol station. i think when people start using them more, car makers will start building more…

    • Photo: Cathy Fraser

      Cathy Fraser answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Jaz is right! It’s a real engineering issue at times, the solution may be there, and buildable – but it comes down to cost.
      At the moment the hybrid or even totally electric cars out there do exist but they’re expensive. Car companies won’t invest huge amounts of money into making them as they aren’t going to sell many – so their profit is less!
      In my opinion, engineers should be speaking to governments and companies like this to push the sustainabilty arguement – it might not make millions now, but it is the right thing to do!

    • Photo: Mark Greaves

      Mark Greaves answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      I think hybrid technology is the way forward for now. As Jaz has said F1 racing cars our now exploiting hybrid technology – this will help develop the technology further. Motorsport is a great testing bed for new technology.

      For me the biggest problems with electric cars is the range, charging times and cost. It is still cheaper to buy and run a conventionally powered car.
      The best hybrid cars for me are the Vauxhall Ampera and the Volvo V60 plug-in hybrid. These cars use plug-in technology and use conventional engines.

      When an electric car can perform as a normal car then they will take off and be built in bigger numbers.

    • Photo: Roma Agrawal

      Roma Agrawal answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      I think the car companies are working hard on this one! Its expensive to make lots of them at the moment but time will tell 🙂

    • Photo: Rory Hadden

      Rory Hadden answered on 24 Jun 2014:

      I think that it is coming. A company called Tesla which is based in the USA makes really nice electric cars. They recently made all of their designs available for other companies to share, improve and modify. They were hoping to start a new industry with a totally different outlook to the traditional car companies. I hope that they are successful! I would live an electric car!

      Rory

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