Check it out.  Lotus helped with the basic design of the car, but it looks like everything else was done in California.  Only available in the US (in 2007), and the only sales (and service) centers are in California, New York, Chicago, and Miami.  They will sell the car outside of these areas, but charge a $10k "out of service area" fee for transporting the car to a service center.  The thing looks sweet...too bad it'll likely cost an arm and a leg.

Duuude yea, I definitely see a Lotus in there.  But wow, 0-60 in 4 seconds, that is fast, and 250 miles per charge isn't all to bad either.  

Although, going on a 500 mile trip might be a bit of a pain, because you'd have to factor in 3.5 hours of waiting time so the battery can recharge.

Cool, but so far unpractical.

I wonder if the interior is easy to clean?   I'm thinking it's going to need to be hosed down now and again... especially the dashboard.

The motor is probably near silent so the driver will need to make an engine noise of some sort.   This could lead to 'spittle' everywhere...  ick

Meh, looks pretty, but calculating the MPG would only work if every electric company in the US charged the same price.  If your electricity is say... 24cents/kwh then you'll pay XXX per charge.  If it's 10, you'll pay less.
Might not even be worth the cost.

Still gotta be cheaper than gasoline, though, right?

Not neccisarily.  I'll look through the site to see if I can get a power rate and do some math.

if everyone switched to electric cars, the demand for electricity would increase, and we'd be burning more coal instead of gasoline.  
I wonder which would leave the larger enviromental footprint?


(either way I vote hydrogen)

I vote more nuclear power plants, but that's just me.

Anyway, I did the math:
Max engine rating is 180kw and it says it goes over 130 mph.  Max range is 250 miles per charge.
So, assuming you travel at 130 mph using roughly 170kw/h of energy (most applicanes are rated watts per hour) until your charge runs out, you'll drive for approximately 2 hours using 340kw.  So to recharge 340kw in 3.5 hours you'll need to pump in 97.143kw/h.
At 24 cents per kwh (that's how high it is for me) you'll pay 2331.432 cents per hour and 8160.012 cents per charge, which is 81.60 dollars.

81.60 dollars per "fill up".
Unless my math is wrong.

Quote (Cobalt60 @ July 20 2006, 12:22 pm)

if everyone switched to electric cars, the demand for electricity would increase, and we'd be burning more coal instead of gasoline.   I wonder which would leave the larger enviromental footprint? (either way I vote hydrogen)

My Dad (Who work at a coal power station) wouldn't hesitate to say that burning coal would be many times more environmentally friendly.  I think I agree with him, power plants watch their emissions carefully, only a small percentage of car owners even care.  Furtherly, not all power plants have high, if any, emissions.

I wonder what amperage the car battery uses to charge?

Edit:

Quote (Lord Dave @ July 20 2006, 12:36 pm)

81.60 dollars per "fill up". Unless my math is wrong.

They say $.01 per mile, you say $.32 per mile....humm little far off? Somehow they claim $2.5 per fillup