The rise of the electric car
The annual Geneva motor show is one of the big events in the petrolhead’s calendar, second only in importance to Detroit. Except that his year’s show is not quite the celebration of all things petrol driven as once it was: When Lotus, Ferrari and Porsche join Toyota, GM, Ford and Chrysler to showcase hybrid petrol-electric vehicles, you know that change is in the air.
According to Carlos Ghosn, Nissan/Renault’s boss, a hybrid is like a mermaid – if you want a fish, you get a woman: if you want a woman, you get a fish. Why not go all the way and build a completely electric car? That’s exactly what Nissan plans to do with the release of its all electric Leaf car.
OK, so batteries are currently heavy, expensive and don’t give you the range of a hybrid. But Nissan is working on these. Since the company began developing its lithium-ion batteries in 1992, it has increased their power density by a factor of ten, while reducing their cost by a factor of 16. And it’s partnering with an outfit called Better Place, to put a network of battery swap stations, initially in Denmark and Israel, and then throughout the world.
You can of course already buy an electric car. The Tesla Roadster gives you 0 – 60 in 3.9 seconds, a top speed of 125 mph and a range of 200 miles for £86,750. If you are content with a range of 50 miles and a top speed of 50mph the G-Wiz is a more modest £8000. But no one has yet produced an affordable mass market car. That will change with the launch of the Nissan Leaf in Japan and the US this December.
As mainstream manufacturers like Nissan get in on the act, prices will come down. Even if the upfront costs of an electric car are relatively high, the running costs are very low: The G Wiz, for example, costs about 1p per mile to drive – in running costs the equivalent of a petrol car that does 600 miles to the gallon.
As oil prices continue to rise, it’s likely that more manufacturers will, ahem, take a leaf out of Mr Ghosn’s book.