News from Red Herring
Hybrids may be all the rage, but some still long for all-electric cars. And a few companies hope to capitalize on a technology that just won’t die.
With 52 batteries strapped inside their “e=motion” car, Mark Newby and Colin Fallows dream of doing something nobody has ever done before: driving an all-electric car from zero to more than 300 mph.
It’s an ambitious pursuit. The standing record is 245 mph for electric cars weighing more than 2,200 pounds that started from a dead stop, although a team from Ohio State University got to 314.8 mph last year with a push start.
Unfortunately, battery problems and high winds on the Nevada desert delayed attempts by the e=motion team on Thursday, and again on Friday.
As they waited for another chance, their quest became an unintentional emblem of the frustrating setbacks faced by supporters of all-electric vehicles for more than a century.
While many view electric cars as old—even dead—technology, they still have adamant fans. And now, some companies are hoping to capitalize on the loyalty of those consumers.
“People love the feeling of driving electric cars because it’s clean and you don’t feel bad about having fun in your car,” said Alex Campbell, director of communications at Santa Rosa, California-based Zap. His company has become a kind of trading post for electric vehicles.
It also sells electric scooters and is trying to import DaimlerChrysler’s tiny European Smart Car. But Zap has yet to make a profit.
Electric cars like the “e=motion” have been spurned twice. They were invented in the 19th century, but cheaper gasoline cars and low gasoline prices made them obsolete by the 1930s. They found limited use, such as with the U.S. Postal Service, in the 1970s, and were revived again in the 1990s.
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