For the last couple of years, the electric car DC batteries have been put to different design tests to check out the optimum efficiency. The prototypes were built to test the designs which were offered for sale after making certain designs adjustments. It is fair to say this is an exciting time for electric vehicle (EV) enthusiasts.

Today the world has greatly improved battery storage technology which has aroused great interest in the practicality of pure electric cars. Before, no one gave a lot of interest to EV when gasoline prices were relative low and batteries were not up to the mark.

Now, the situation is very much different. With the rising gas prices and battery becoming smaller, lighter and able to last longer, the humble electric car is getting much attention these days and is gaining popularity.

When EV was introduced to the mass market, there were problems with earlier models because they were powered by Direct Current (DC) energy source. The older batteries which supplied the power were very heavy in weight and have proved ineffective due to battery life.

The biggest issue was that these cars required highly powerful electric motor to move the vehicle because the weight of the batteries was very high. Such a drawback limited the range and increased demand for more batteries. More battery means more weight to the car. Can you see how this is a perpetual negative cycle?

The main goal of EV manufacturers was to reduce the weight of the batteries and have it last longer before needing a recharge. Engineers were desperately trying to find an alternative to DC batteries. Luckily, they have made novel designs improvements on electric cars making it less demanding on the batteries.

One system which engineers used was to put a small generator that uses gasoline to charge the batteries. This method proved very effective as this system kept band of batteries enough charge to run the cars on electric motor thus extending its mileage.

Other system which was being explored simultaneously was to have Photovoltaic (PV) solar panels to charge the batteries as the EV is being driven during day time. The additional charge from the PV panels will definitely keep the batteries juiced up when it is on the road.

This system worked very well on sunny days but ineffective during night time. Although not perfect, the range of electric trial cars got broadened.

Due to the technology improvements in the recent years, the public interest on pure electric cars has increased tremendously. As battery designs have become smaller and lighter, the life span of a charged battery is also improving. With the constant improvement in battery technology, it is only a matter of time before the practically of EV out strip a car using an internal combustion engine.

The only problem now is the cost of such batteries which makes electric cars more expensive. With the advancement in the technology and mass production, prices are expected to come down. There is a hope such cars will be available in the market in next couple of years.

As a matter of fact, you can already purchase road ready pure electric cars from BMW, Chevrolet, Nissan and Ford. Understandably, EVs are not as good as their fossil fuel burning brothers. But give it some time, technology will make it better.

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.

Use of renewable energy would become more fascinating if there is an option of charging our electric car when being driven. At present these electric vehicles (EV) can have a running range of 30 to 200 miles; it solely depends upon the type of batteries being used in the electric car.

There is a limit of using these cars due to the range, as these cars whether being used in city limits or highways need to be parked and slowly recharged overnight before starting again. The short range limits the users to use EVs to commute to work and back on same day or may be short highway trips, and nothing more than that.

The big question arises, is there a way so that auxiliary batteries charge the car while the car is moving? The renewal process can be similar to the gasoline run cars where 12V batteries get charged with the electric circuit simultaneously.

There could be different mechanism, but what are the options? What kind of generators can be used to power the batteries of electric car when in motion?
There are few concepts but the three options which can be used or considered are:-

1. Fly wheel generators.

There could be an option of adding relatively large lightweight frictionless generators to the wheels or axles of the car; these can be fixed on the rear wheels especially for the cars which have front wheel drive. These wheel generators can recharge the batteries without parking the car or can automatically add electricity to the car.

2. Small wind generators.

These generators will be different than the traditional windmill type fixed on the top of the car. Though it seems somewhat awkward, but can be explored. It can be large squirrel-cage fan installed transversely under the hood parallel to front wheel drive motor. On the each end of the axle will be a frictionless rotating generator which will have same functions as wheel generators.

These changes are quite possible due to the size of electric engine which is quite small as compared to gasoline engines, this will provide extra space under the hood, and this can be possible only if the bulky power batteries and the electronic speed controller are fixed in some other part of the car.

The use of radiator cooling system and also in some cases transmission may not be required in the electric car which gives extra space under the hood for such an arrangements.

3. Self-feeding electric motor generator.

There can be possibility of fixing powerful generator to the electric motor itself. This can ensure recharging of the batteries if the car is moving fairly in good speed, or alternatively it feed electricity back into the motor. The drawback of differing rotational speeds occurring at the differing lineal speed of the car will have to be addressed to.

This arrangement can be used mostly on highways rather on city roads due to speed restriction. The main point here is that generators will not activate before the car has reached at the preset speeds. These are only thoughts but these thoughts are worth exploring and it has to be decided by the automobile engineers if such arrangements can really work.