| Pure Electric
Vehicles Battery-Powered Vehicles These vehicles (the only true “pure electrics”) are seemingly quite environmentally sound. They are eerily quiet and cause no pollution in and of themselves. That said, one always has to wonder what fuel is being used at the power plant where the electricity is being made that will recharge the batteries. This “ultimate” power source could be anything from coal to gas or hydro to nuclear; each posing it’s own special environmental problems. |
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| Battery-powered vehicles are relatively easy to build but somewhat expensive to buy, due to the high cost of high-quality batteries. Once acquired battery-powered vehicles are, however, very inexpensive to operate and maintain. Thanks to tremendous advances in battery technology these vehicles can be large enough to be safe, practical-sized haulers of persons and cargo. Due to there being no exhaust emissions they are ideal in indoor applications such as for carts that are used in airports or forklifts being used inside warehouses. | ||
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Performance can be quite surprisingly good, even out on the open road. The only downside is the constant nagging concern with range, in part due to a very limited number of public charging stations coupled with the exceedingly lengthy time it takes for batteries to recharge. Such on-the-road battery-powered vehicles are ideal in local fleet situations where the routes are predictable and the chance for a thorough nightly recharge at a private charging facility is quite certain. | |
| Suffice it to say there is little currently being offered to consumers at this point in the way of a “mainstream” battery-powered vehicle. Nothing yet offered can compete in every way with the dirty and noisy gasoline/diesel powered vehicles that you might wish they would otherwise replace. | ||
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