An estate agent Nick Ponting, 21, broke the world speed record for electric cars driving the Lotus Exige based Nemesis for the Stroud-based forward thinking company Ecotricity.

If that is not good enough take a look at the plans that the manufacturer of the world's fastest production car company has in pipeline.

Electric cars are apparently too quiet and that affects the safety of pedestrians. In future you might be able to download new noises to any silent electric car just like we can do today for mobile phones. For now the German car tuning specialist BRABUS builds their own noises into tuned cars. So all those who like racing at traffic lights, should get hold of the tuned version of Tesla Roadster from BRABUS.

The 100% electric car's only energy source is the electricity stored in its batteries, while the charge cost varies according to supplier:

Off peak: 3 pence per mile    Peak: 7 pence per mile


No Road Tax, no Congestion Charge, and the future is bright. We will have more powerful cars with Lithium Ion Batteries and a range over 200 miles:


Th!nk City is a compact electric city car that was produced by Norwegian carmaker between 2008 and 2011, but it never really made it to the UK market.

But if the future has to be electric, will that save the planet?

Main problem used to be with the Lead Acid Batteries that were initially used in most electric cars.

Lead Acid Batteries have low energy density or specific energy (energy per weight ratio) limiting the range of the currently available electric cars to around 30-40 miles at the best, although the more powerful Lithium Ion Batteries are already starting to appear as an option for some electric cars.
The Lithium Ion Batteries have four times the energy density of Lead Acid Batteries, and slightly higher energy density then the Nickel Metal Hydride Batteries.
Lithium Ion Batteries also have the potential to be one of the lowest-cost battery systems in future. We can follow trough the current state of the Lithium Ion technology on the example of Hitachi Ltd and Hitachi Vehicle Energy Ltd where the Currently most advanced battery technology is represented by their third-generation battery with a power density of 3,000W/kg. They are also developing the fourth-generation Lithium Ion battery with a whopping power density of 4,500W/kg. Although Lithium Ion Batteries are currently the most advanced readily available battery technology, their mass production might not be sustainable in long term due to limited supplies of raw Lithium. Although a possible solution for Lithium Ion Batteries could come from unlikely sources as the geo-thermal plants in the California desert are now turning brine into lithium to help power batteries.
In that respect an environmentally friendly virus batteries might look more promising and they also offer similar specific energy, but for now they are still in early stage of development.

Because of all these shortcomings Audi has already given up on the pure electric cars, and they are instead trying their luck with hybrids via their e-tron technology which is expected across the range within a decade. Crucially Audi are pursuing ways to make the current fuel-efficient diesel cars more appealing and even more economical, and to eliminate the reliance on oil for car fuel as that is a more pressing need than CO2 reduction.

Another promising type are the Molten salt type of batteries, and one of the newest designs in this category is the Zebra Battery that operates at 250°C. Unfortunately if their temperature drops bellow the nominal they tend to loose their charge, what makes them rather expensive for occasional usage, but ideal for vehicles that needs to run pretty much round the clock, like buses or taxies.
Some Zebra Batteries used in buses are designed to function in ambient temperatures ranging from -40°C to +50°C.
We assume that is achieved by the following design:
- The battery pack heats up itself during the normal operation, due to losses
- Thermal insulation around the battery pack prevents the heat escaping to the surroundings
- Thermal control device regulates the internal temperature at the optimal level by dissipating the excess heat to ambient.

An example Zebra Battery product is described here.

Unlike Zebra Batteries the Lead Acid Batteries are not quite capable operating in rapid recharge mode, or if they do the batteries wear out quickly.
This is important aspect because all electric cars utilize the principle of regenerative braking, meaning that the batteries are recharged by electricity generated from energy recovered during vehicle deceleration, or in other word every time the car is slowing down or stopping. In typical city stop / start type of driving some 33% of the energy can be recovered this way. So with this repeated acceleration / deceleration, such as in a typical city driving scenario the Stop & Start technology is said to in practice reduce the carbon emissions by about 10% and the fuel consumption by about 15%. Literally all major manufacturers released by now at least one Stop & Start model or will be releasing them by next year.
An important parameter of all electrical power sources is their internal impedance, and since batteries are DC devices it could be approximated as internal resistance. The article at the following link shows the internal impedance as Ra + Rm on the Battery Equivalent Circuit.
During their operation the batteries suffer from energy loss twice, once when are charged and once when discharged.
In both cases the losses are proportional to battery internal resistance which is naturally better if is lower. If the electric vehicle uses Lead Acid Batteries it has to be a Deep Cycle Battery type rather then the common starting battery type.
The Lead Acid Batteries have low internal resistance at room temperature, but under heavy load (like any other Batteries) they considerably heat up, and their internal resistance then degrades. There is also some energy loss due to self-discharge, but that is negligible if the car is driven soon after charging.
The internal resistance of Zebra Batteries is high, but they are still good performers as under heavy load the excess heat (due to losses) helps to maintain the battery's relatively high operating temperature.

Here is a good overview of various batteries used for powering electric vehicles.
The future battery will however need to have the power to weight ratio of the Lithium battery and the price of the Lead Acid battery in order for electric vehicles to gain widespread acceptance.

On the other hand the Ultracapacitors are devices that could potentially outperform any type of batteries, simply because they charge very quickly, not in hours but in minutes or even seconds. Actually to be more precise they could recharge in seconds only if the charging unit could handle such a high power demand. They also perform well the regenerative braking task and as such they are ideal for hybrid cars.
In recent years these Ultracapacitors were not able to store quite enough energy, but the latest products of this type may change that.
With certain modifications the batteries also have a potential to charge quickly enough to be used in electric cars. For example MIT developed a such fast-charging battery technology, and it appears that Shelby SuperCars will use the same kind of technology in their Ultimate Aero.
Another company who also developed such fast-charging battery technology is Kang and Ceder.
There are some signs that in USA the electric wheels maybe rolling a bit sooner than here in UK, thanks to the Quick Electric Car Battery Charging Station that charges to 50% power in no more then 3 Minutes.

Finally driving an 100% electric car means that there definitely won't be any tailpipe emissions (CO2 or any other gases), and in a broader sense even that a such car is by definition a zero-emissions vehicle or ZEV. In the big picture however a serious problem still remains, since the energy is currently provided (at least partially) from fossil fuel plants, and that means that the complete power cycle is still polluting.
So right now with electric cars we are polluting the planet comparatively less then with their traditional fossil fuel powered counterparts, and although that won't save the planet as such, at least we can have reduced negative impact.

There is a lot of talking recently about the Plug-in hybrid cars (half electric / half fossil fuel) as the first commercially viable compromise, which unlike the older hybrids have more powerful batteries offering grater commuting range without turning the engine on. The following article talks about the associated economic calculations, and a specially interesting bit is the response from Dan Kammen at the bottom of the page: Plug-in hybrids could become competitive.

As a side note,iIn public transport the 100% electric buses are not feasible at the moment, because their batteries would be quite expensive and wouldn't provide enough power throughout the day from a single charge. The way forward right now is the same as with the cars, i.e. to use hybrid buses.

For all those who are keen to enter the future sooner, rather then later, here is the full list of currently available electric cars in UK.