Marshall Brain's Blog

GM tried introducing a real electric car in the United States. It was called the EV1. This car had advantages (it was a real car, you could charge it at home, there were places to get a charge away from home, electricity is much cheaper than gasoline, etc.) and disadvantages (short range, pretty expensive ($35K), etc.). It was a valid experiment and many people loved the EV1, but ultimately GM pulled the plug.

In London, there is a company that is trying to make another attempt at a working electric car. The company is called GoinGreen and they have released an Automatic Electric Vehicle. Here are some of its features:

• The car is relatively inexpensive (about $13,000)
• The car is small
• The car is being primarily sold in one locale (London), where the car receives preferential treatment (e.g. - free parking)
• There are places to charge it in town
• It has a max speed of 40 mph and a range of 40 miles
• It costs about 2 cents per mile for electricity (if gas is $2/gallon and your car gets 30 mpg, that is 6.6 cents per mile).
• Because it is a zero-emissions vehicle, it gets certain tax breaks.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this project is the fact that it is primarily confined to a single locality (London). That means that GoinGreen can, perhaps, reach critical mass in that locality in terms of service, recharging stations and special dispensations (free parking, tax breaks). It is also interesting that, to keep costs down, the car is being sold over the internet, without any dealer showrroms, brochures or advertising. It should be a fascinating experiment to watch. Visit GoinGreen for details.