Friday, March 30, 2007

Hybrid Car from 1969 !

I was digging around the web looking for stuff about electric cars in terms of motors, battery technology, and other general info. I came across this site about a hybrid car from 1969 !

I've already watched "Who Killed the Electric Car" and knew about GM's EV1 car. The whole issue is still puzzling as to why the car was discontinued, but know finding out that a plug-in hybrid car was developed almost 40 years ago is troubling.

With hybrid cars only now being produced by car manufacturers, one can't help but wonder what 40 years of production and development would have produced. Would big city smog be as bad as it is now ? Would the demand for oil be as high as it is now?

In any case, have a look at the Tesla Roadster for an interesting electric car.

There are tons of sites out there about building your own electric car. You can start here, here, here, and here.

Interested in racing your EV ? Have a look here.

I like this idea...probably has lots of appeal for students and big city residents. Not really practical in the Canadian winter though.

It seems like our government could be a little more agressive in giving car companies more incentives to produce hybrids and electric cars. They could set up a contest scenario like what Richard Branson does and the X Prize. You think a struggling car company like GM would benefit from a 2-year tax free status from being the first company offering a production electric vehicle with a 300km range per charge ?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Follow the money. That's where you'll find the answers.