Why are we not all driving electric cars by now? If you listen to the manufacturers advertising we should all be driving them? There is however one reason (apart from the sky-high price of joining the electric car club) why we cannot all be driving electric, which is range. We do not all live in the cozy world of the electric car manufacturers adverts, where we all drive a maximum of ten miles to work and back. That is just not the world that most of us live in unfortunately.
This huge concern for most people thinking of going electric has been highlighted in a recent competition for electric cars.
In total, four cars from Tesla, one Toyota, one Mitsubishi and a Nissan, alongside a Zero S motorcycle, lined for an adventure covering 1,500 miles from Canada to California. There were three Tesla Model S and a Roadster, two Nissan Leaf, the RAV4 EV from Toyota and the iMiEV from Mitsubishi, taking part in this serious endurance distance for electric vehicles.
The race was in four sections with timed checkpoints in each section that allowed breaks in the race so that all the cars could catch up and start each section together. The winner was the vehicle with the fastest time across all four sections.
When all was done, unsurprisingly, it was Tesla who came out on top with four Tesla cars in the top five fastest. What are the main reasons for this great result for Tesla? Two things are range and recharging. The Tesla motors have not only the longest range amongst the competition, but also the quickest charge time with the Model S recharging in an hour at a Tesla Supercharging station. Compare this to the Nissan leaf, which relies on the CHADEMO charging system, of which there are none available after you leave Oregon, for fast charging. When the CHADEMO system was not available the Nissan Leaf was taking fifteen hours from a normal outlet to charge.
For those of you who want to buy an electric car, but for reason of range cannot do so, maybe now is the time to buy one, but only if it is a Tesla.
