Why The Size And Strength Of Batteries Is Holding Back The Electric Car Market

Have you ever used a battery? Of course you have. It is highly unlikely that there is anyone alive today that has not used a battery. Many times you do not realize how much you depend on batteries until they die and you do not have any spares around.

When you think about batteries you may not think about the batteries that power your vehicle, but these too are batteries. They can be recharged and last much longer than the double A or nine volt batteries that charge the cd players or flashlights that you were probably thinking of but they are batteries nonetheless. They also require different care than the batteries that you may have had in mind originally.

With the price of gas and the pollution involved, alternatives have been developed to the vehicles that we have always used. One of the first is the electric car. The electric car depends highly on a rechargeable battery and of primary concern with this is the capacity of the battery, the size of the battery, and with size also comes the weight of the battery.

As it stands right now the size of a car battery is tied to the strength of a car battery. A regular car battery is nine inches by twelve inches, by seven inches in size. What is most important is power. It takes power to move the car and power to maintain speed above ten to fifteen miles per hour. This power must come from the battery.

In the case of electric cars this power must come from the battery. In order to get more power (more amps) from a battery it requires more size and/or more batteries. In order to get the speed needed for the electrical vehicles you actually need several batteries. By using several batteries, obviously you take up more space, by taking up more space; you lose more space for other things. Since the parts of a vehicle are pretty much mandatory what you lose is seating space and/or storage space.

Because of this, we are down to two seats with the electric car. So, obviously there are some problems with the electric cars. There are some situations to be resolved. With the environmental issues that are resolved it is definitely worth trying to resolve the issues.

More and more people are concerned about the environment and as this concerns mounts they are realizing that electric cars may be the way to go for environmental safety. Cars that can use a combination of gas and electricity are referred to as hybrids. Currently these types of cars are quite expensive but as time goes on the price will go down.

Build Your Own Electric Car

The Basics Of How You Can Build Your Own Electric Car

With the cost of gas these days, some consumers have decided that having and operating an electric vehicle will be more effective and cheaper in the long run. If you decide to build your own electric vehicle, there are whole lot of resources available to assist you understand and work through the process of changing a gas vehicle to an electric vehicle.

If you have a long commute everyday, an electric vehicle might not be your best choice, since on average, electric vehicles can run from 30-70 miles each day. This is totally dependant on the driving conditions, the weight of the vehicle and the battery quality. Also consider how you will be recharging the batteries. If you live in an apartment complex with no garage, it may be impossible to charge the car’s batteries every night.

Important Considerations

First you have to decide what type of car you want to use to build your own electric vehicle. Smaller cars will usually be ideal, but larger vehicles can be used as well. You will most likely want to use a car that has a manual four or five speed transmission, since manuals are more efficient. Interestingly, since electric motors are so efficient, shifting up and down constantly won’t happen as much as it does in a gas fueled engine.

When you build your own electric vehicle, the additional systems can add anywhere from 200 to 500 extra pounds to the total weight of the car. So, when choosing the car you want to work with, make sure that the total weight of the car with the modifications isn’t completely ridiculous and is within reason.

A few things that are optional and not used often when you build your own electric vehicle are power steering and air conditioning. The power steering would require another motor to make the power steering pump work. Air conditioning drags on the batteries, but you can hook up air conditioning using a special magnet system to work the compressor.

If you want to build your own electric vehicle, there are plenty of resources out there to help you do the job right. As time passes, electric vehicles and hybrids will become more and more popular simply because the price of gas seems like it is going to stay fairly high and for many people, gas is almost not affordable. Take a look and decide if you want to build your own electric vehicle; you might be surprised at how fairly easy it is to convert your gas guzzler into an electric vehicle.