Even though pure electric cars have been around for many years, there are only few designs which have met the expectation of the people. Many models which had prototypes designs were sent to market after making some adjustments and alterations.

In earlier times when gasoline was cheap, nobody thought of improving the battery pack used on electric vehicles as they were not good at all and that is the reason why such technology never became popular. Recent technology advancement has changed the entire scene and now more efficient and lightweight batteries are available in the market.

The most common problem seen with older batteries was it used to power the vehicle with DC power source which had a limited technology and the batteries were too heavy and were quite inefficient. When bigger and more powerful electric motor was used as the power plant of EVs, the effective driving range was limited because the batteries do not have sufficient charge to supply to the motor.

What’s needed was to create a system which works and makes the car power source lighter and could hold more electric charge. There was great reduction in the demand for lighter batteries after researchers created new designs for the electric car power system.

The glaring example is usage of hybrid technology which is based upon a small scale generator that runs on gasoline and produces the electric power required to charge the battery pack which in turn used to run the electric motor. This is really an efficient system because the generator continuously keeps on charging the small group of batteries that is used to power the vehicle.

Other designs which have been tried are using Photovoltaic (PV) solar panels to charge the batteries with a hope enough power can be generated to run the vehicle. This technology worked very well especially during sunny days but after sunset and change in the weather, the technology proved to be very inefficient. Alas, more research and development is needed to make solar hybrid electric car practical.

Research and experiment do help and such experimentation has really boosted the effective driving mileage of pure electric cars. The recently developed technology pertaining to batteries has really spur interest in the electric car segment. Batteries are now smaller, lighter and capable of holding much more electric charge meaning it could last longer in between recharge.

However, the biggest problem with these batteries right now is the cost. They are quite expensive as compared to normal batteries, thus this will add up to the cost of the electric car. But once manufacturing technology gets improved, the price reduction is quite imminent.

Several car manufacturers are working hard and planning to put pure electric cars in the market in the next couple of years which are more efficient and have a longer driving range. You can simply plug in these cars in your garage power outlet for charging. The best thing is, you can drive these cars similar to an automobile with an internal combustion engine.

The range will also be increased and you can drive modern EVs for around 200 miles in a single charge. Understandably, these cars will cost more but you can recover your investment quickly because you will save lot of money on gasoline.

As a cheaper alternative, you can convert your present car into pure electric vehicle using an EV conversion kit. You have the options either to wait till new technologies for EV are available or convert your present car into electric one. With the passage of time and technological advancement, it is only a matter of time before electric car is used by the mass market.

There is an increasing awareness among people these days about pollution-free environment and they are also more conscious on ways to save on their gasoline bill.

With that, more and more people are constantly on the look out for eco-friendly cars that not only cause less harmful impact on the environment, it will also help them to be less dependent on fossil fuel thus countering the effects of soaring fuel prices.

There are broadly two types of vehicles that are categorized as eco-friendly:

• Plug-in-hybrid vehicle
• Pure battery powered electric car

Finding the ideal eco-friendly car is not easy as it requires a very fair knowledge about various types of energy saving vehicles and their advantages and disadvantages.

They are many reputed manufactures that have now put eco-friendly cars in their production lines, with companies like Ford, Nissan, General Motors and Toyota being at the forefront in this market.

The following paragraphs will explain the features of the two popular types of eco-friendly vehicles and their advantages and disadvantages.

Plug-in-hybrid Vehicles

These types of vehicles run either on gas, battery or both. You cannot drive long distances on battery alone. However, there will not be any need to stop at a gas station for fuel often.

One of the well-known names in the market for plug-in hybrid type of vehicles is Chevrolet. Chevrolet has designed one of the most popular models of this type of vehicle known as Chevy Volt.

Chevy Volt can easily get a distance of 40 miles drive powered exclusively by a battery per single charge and an amazing 500 miles per gas fill-up. This type of vehicle is ideal for a person who is concerned with clean environment and does not want as yet to dispense with the internal combustion engine.

Chevrolet is concentrating on designing new models of plug-in hybrid vehicles in which higher capacity battery will be added to the vehicles to enable users to drive longer distances with a single battery charge.

The other principal manufacturer in the plug-in hybrid market is Toyota. Although the Toyota Prius appears similar to a standard Toyota Prius, the addition in this model is the port for charging the battery. While it gives only a low mileage range of 14 miles on battery power, it gets an incredible 50 miles per gallon, when in hybrid mode.

Pure Battery-Powered Electric Car

As the name implies, these types of vehicles are powered only by electricity supplied by battery and therefore, is not provided with a gasoline motor.

One of the principal manufacturers of the pure electric vehicle is Nissan. Nissan has developed the most popular model, Nissan Leaf. This vehicle gets an astounding 100 miles per charge and is the first automobile manufacturer to produce more than 10,000 pure battery electric vehicles.

With such an extraordinary efficiency, it is no wonder that the company has been receiving huge number of orders from both individual users and city and town public service institutions. The basic price of a 2011 Nissan Leaf is around $32,000.

Ford, another leading automobile manufacturer has also ventured into the all electric vehicle market segment with their Ford Focus Electric. Ford has already manufactured the maximum number of hybrid vehicles than any other manufacturer and is now trying to establish leadership in the electric car category as well.

The Ford Focus Electric, which runs only on battery, plans to compete with the Nissan Leaf. Just as the Nissan Leaf, the Focus Electric gets 100 miles per charge. Another advantage with the Ford Focus is that it comes at a lower price of around $20,000 as compared to Nissan Leaf.

Ford plans to introduce more number of models of Focus Electric cars to cater to the requirements of diverse range of customers.

The recent happenings in the car industry are worth watching, a major impact has been made by electric cars in the entire automobile industry. The car industry which was traditionally manufacturing gasoline-engine cars is thinking out of box to explore the possibilities about the launch of pure electric vehicles (EV).

The rising prices of traditional fuel, its side effects like carbon emission are really hard to bear. The alternative is to use neat and clean energy, which lies only in using green electricity and this seems to be a viable solution.

In fact, we must understand about the electric cars, where traditional cars use gasoline to run, electric cars run on electricity which is stored in plug-in-battery packs for acceleration, speed and easy maneuvering.

Another energy which can be used to run the vehicles is being explored and still in the experimental stage, this is solar energy. This will be another revolution in the car industry which can use power of Sun. Another vehicle which is already running in many countries is hybrid vehicle; this car can run both on gasoline and electricity.

The interesting point to note is that electric cars were already very popular in the late 19th century until 20th century. These cars were more popular than gasoline powered cars, this continued till the combustion process was developed. This is also true that electricity propulsion offers more comforts than the gasoline run vehicles.

The internal combustion engine (ICE) technology pushed back the development of electrical cars; this was only because of the quick refueling of the gasoline and the improved driving range. Eventually the further development of the technology pertaining to electrical cars suffered and slowly the market of these cars faded.

Now due to high emission level and the cost of gasoline has compelled the manufacturers to further develop the technology and remove all the hurdles which are associated with the electric car. These cars are eco-friendly and the running cost is also very low, the engine too is less complex as compared to gasoline powered vehicle.

The main deterrent in the purchase of an electric car is the initial cost, high cost of batteries and recharging the batteries. The manufacturers are working very hard to remove all the hurdles so that these cars can be used by masses. This too is a fact that electric cars are suitable only for short distances, but some of the governments across the world are offering tax incentives.

There has to be mass development of infrastructure like setting up of quick recharging stations, this will help in increasing the range of these cars. These cars are quite eco-friendly with no emissions, but these cars use electricity which is stored in the batteries, the conventional electricity comes from the power grids which produces greenhouse gases during the production of electricity.

One has to explore other sources like solar power, wind power, geothermal or water energy; such a move can solve the electricity problem and can be used even for homes and other electric devices including electric cars. This is a fact that the in future lies only in electric run vehicles, government has also realized it and is providing all the assistance possible.