Sunday, November 18, 2007

Who Said the Electric Car was Dead?

Hey Folks!
I've got a lot bubbling around my brain lately since I just got back from the annual conference of the North American Association of Environmental Education (or NAAEE for short). There's lots to be said, but let's start with the simple stuff.

I'm seriously considering buying one of these for my next car:

This car is better than a hybrid. It's electric.



Zenn Motor Company is based out of Toronto, with a its manufacturing plant in Montreal. For a Vermonter like me, it doesn't get much more local for auto-manufacturing. I met reps from this company at the conference, and they explained that the battery technology limits the range to 35 miles, and no one's going to take a car on the highway if its range is only 35 miles. And who knew? If a car is only rated for 25 mph it doesn't have to be registered.

Again, it's not that an electric car is 100% clean, it's that your getting your energy from an electric utility. It should still cost you less per mile than gas, though. And for a place like Vermont (where most of our electricity is generated by Vermont Yankee (nuclear) and Hydro-Quebec), kWh for kWh an electric car is *much* cleaner.

At $11,000 (affordable even for a teacher), they said they can't keep them on the lot!

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