I desperately need a vehicle and don’t want to pay for gas. I so want one of these!!

Also, I live in missouri, would it be possible for the battery(ies) not to die/explode because of the cold winters??

And using the excuse of “But, it requires a motorcycle endorsement”.. is lame.. it’s a small matter to get one.. and allot of states have exclusions for motorcycles of this type. A special endorsement may not be needed.

It is true that most of our electicity is generated with coal, and “electric” vehicles essentially are “coal powered” vehicles.

However, that’s not the end of the story, and electic vehicles offer a lot of advantages.
Firstly, the efficiency of one, big power plant is much higher than having millions of tiny, mobile power plants (vehicle engines). Vehicle engines rarely operate in their highest efficiency range since the speed of the car is constantly changing, while a power plant is tuned to operate at a constant speed at its highest efficiency. Also, the cumulative friction of millions of vehicle engine pistons is much much greater than the internal friction of a power plant turbine.

Secondly, the electicity grid can be fed by many different sources. Wind capacity is growing all the time, as is solar, biomass, low-impact hydro, and many other renewable sources of power. As green regulations come on line, and as electricity consumers demand cleaner power, the electicity mix is (slowly) shifting to cleaner technologies. If you are in a deregulated electricity market, you can talk to your electicity provider about green tariffs where you pay a small premium to purchase “green” electricity. Then you could say that your electric car was driven 100% by wind power. As the market for “alternative” energy heats up, the electicity grid will become cleaner.

Thirdly, having all of the emissions for driving come from a central power plant gives us the opportunity to deal with those emissions at a point source in a stationary setting. It is extremely difficult to scrub and treat vehicle exhaust, simply because the vehicle is in motion. And just think of it…we have all of these vehicle engines chugging away spewing noxious gases directly into where we work, live and play. Think how much cleaner the air in our cities would be if we all drove electric cars. Sure the emissions are just shifted to the power plant, but the emissions would be outside of the city, the toxins could be scrubbed from the exhaust, and even the carbon dioxide could be sequestered (or dealt with in other ways).

Fourthly, with central power stations, you have the opportunity to combine cycles for much greater efficiency. Specifically for gas turbines, the hot exhaust from the turbine cycle is used to make steam for a steam turbine, thus generating more electricity from the same amount of fuel. The same opportunities do not exist for millions of individual vehicle engines.

Fifthly, you can generate green electricity at home with solar panels or home wind turbines, so if you have the talent to set up such a home power system, you would never have to purchase fuel for personal mobility ever again! That’s pretty attractive.

If everyone on the planet switched to using electricity for transport, just think what that would mean for electricity supplies. The only way to sustain it properly would be to go nuclear. There just isn’t enough alternative energy sources out there to sustain millions upon millions of electric vehicles…

Think about it. An electrical future won’t work unless we all go nuclear. That really sucks, non?