Agility Loop

I think it is pretty amusing that so many folks think that the electric car is the way we will get off foreign oil (and hopefully avoid more Gulf oil spills).  There is an article over at Earth2Tech entitled Battle of the Batteries: Comparing Electric Car Range, Charge Times that features a list of incoming EV cars, there published miles per charge, and the real world miles per charge. As one would expect, range of these cars very often does not live up to the hype.  The Chevy Volt is one example where ever former GM Vice Chariman Bob Lutz is referenced:

"Lutz told a reporter from the Dow Jones that he drove the Volt for a weekend recently during the cold Detroit winter, and found he got only 28 miles of electric range."

Fortunately for the Volt, there is a backup gas engine that will charge the battery.  However, if you look at other cars, many of their real world ranges are 50-75% of the manufacturers claims.  Is it just me, or does this sound a lot like your cell phone?  They promise days of standby, when in reality my Droid is lucky to last 18 hours.  So instead, I have chargers everywhere.  My house, my car, my office, and even at Sleekfest.  And even with all of those chargers, I make sure to modify my phone behavior as the juice decreases. So basically when we start buying EVs, I will have to make sure that I am never too far from my house, the office, or the Sleekfest grounds (power is a game changer) so that I have enough juice to get anywhere.  Maybe its just me, but it is a helluva a lot different if my cell phone runs out of juice and I can't check Twitter then if my car dies in SE when trying to get home from the Strasburg debut.