Cars are known to be the most favored means of our transportation on the roads, for their comfort, mobility, speed and great looks. Whether it is in the days of steam powered engines or in this age of most modern segments, the cars still rule supreme on our roads for transportation of passengers.

While this is an accepted fact in the entire world, the usefulness of cars has been greatly marred by the negative impacts they make on our environment. The carbon emissions from the cars are known to cause almost one third of the total air pollutions. Hence despite their usefulness, the cars have also been identified as the health hazards in the environmental context.

Efforts that continued to manufacture more eco-friendly cars have led to invention of electric cars in the field of transportation. However, several earlier versions of electric cars had existed in the past, in competition with the gas run vehicles, but they could not withstand for long. After invention of electric cars by Cadillac, the mass production was started by Ford.

But it is only in the recent past that the electric car industry grew further by developing more popular models. Most of the electric cars run on the roads were those converted from old cars with the spares. It was possible for any car owner to have converted his conventional type car into and electrical one, by spending a few hundred dollars.

The idea of conversion further gained momentum and many people were caught up with this and longing for such conversions. There were various publications readily available in the market conveying this idea and giving Do-It-Yourself (DIY) guidelines. It soon appeared on the world wide websites also, that became easily accessible to all.

Steadily, more number of web sites has come up for electric cars, offering all types of information to all categories of customers. Most of such sites are selling DIY electric car kits, guides, spare parts and full- fledged models at a best negotiated price. The information sharing on the internet became very easy, prompting even a beginner to go ahead with conversion process, without very elaborative knowledge on the electric cars. Such cars were known for their fuel efficiency and their positive impact on environment.

Electric cars have as edge over the other cars, as the entire energy stored in the batteries is used for their operation, while the conventional types use only 20% of the energy from a liter of gasoline and the balance go wasted as the hazardous emissions and potential energy!

The electric cars always maintain a silence in running and are generally welcomed by any quiet neighborhood. Unlike the conventional cars, the absence of engine is a great positive feature of an electric car. The vehicle runs almost with a silence and causes no sound pollution. The car runs with the power derived from the batteries for the operation of the motors that are attached to the controllers.

This concept of energy made practicable makes such cars totally eco-friendly. Therefore it will be quite ideal for any car owner to go ahead with converting his car into and electric vehicle as soon as possible. It will not only be beneficial to the users, but will also go a great way to help keep our environment pollution-free.

The motor draws electricity from the car’s rechargeable battery. If the battery is fully charged, the car can run from 150 to 250 miles. Then the battery gets exhausted and must be recharged again.

You can recharge the battery either at your home or at battery recharge stations. For the convenience of electric car drivers, a number of battery recharge stations are being set up across the country.

To encourage the use of electric cars, the UK government is planning to provide subsidy to those who opt to buy EVs. The time a battery takes to get fully recharged depends on the power input capacity of the socket.

On an average, it takes one hour or less to recharge an electric car battery. Since electric cars don’t burn petroleum products, they don’t produce exhaust fumes. This is the reason why electric cars are considered to be environment friendly.

But indirectly, EVs also play a part in the production of carbon dioxide because the electricity needed to recharge the car battery comes from the power plant where fossil fuel is burnt. The regenerative braking mechanism incorporated into an electric car minimizes the loss of energy.

How Safe Are Electric Cars On The Road?

An electric car is in no way less safe than an ordinary automobile. In most cases, an electric car is heavier than other cars and the weight of the car keeps the passengers safe if there is a car crash. Depending upon the make and design of the car, the safety features of electric vehicles can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Another area of safety concern is the electric circuit and electric shock to the passengers. An electric car has all the necessary safety measures in place to prevent electricity from passing on to the chassis of the car. The passengers are therefore safe even under wet conditions.

An electric car doesn’t function at all if the chassis of the car comes into contact with the electric circuit. There are circuit breakers and fuses to ensure that no short circuit takes place within the car. Since electric cars are heavier than their counterparts, it is better to choose cars with power steering and power brake.

The main drawback of a pure electric vehicle is its silence. An electric car runs silently and people on the road may not notice the car coming. Lack of sound poses a risk to pedestrians, especially to those who have poor vision.

To ensure the safety of pedestrians on the road, some governments are planning to make it compulsory for electric cars to produce some sound.

Are Pure Electric Cars Popular?

Electric cars haven’t got the popularity they deserve yet. They were popular at the beginning of twentieth century when oil price was high. But when the oil prices fell later, they lost their popularity too.

Some governments have even started offering incentives to buyers of electric cars. It is hoped that electric cars will become more popular in the near future.

Having electric cars is an excellent long term solution to control expenses on the highly expensive gasoline. Though the EVs are slowly but surely gaining popularity, it is still yet to gain momentum because of the higher price and lack of battery recharging stations.

In many places, the local governments have waived off congestion tax and making these cars more lucrative purchase for the car owners. The best part is that owning an electric car though costly at first, will prove to be quite economical in the long run.

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV and Peugeot iON are the new electric cars which are about to be launched soon. It would be quite interesting to know, how much it would cost to have a pure EV versus a conventional car with an internal combustion engine. It would be wise to analyze it as per kilowatt-hour, the maintenance cost and running expenses of the cars.

Let us analyze the cost of gas, as the car runs at 30 MPH; the gas cost would be £1.84, the car will run on gas costing £6.1 per mile. If we see the efficiency of hybrid cars, these cars get energy from gasoline at an efficiency of 25%. Most of the energy is lost in auto dynamics, engine heating and resistance.

If the car uses its full potential, the same car will run 140 miles on one gallon, rather than 30 miles. The battery of an electric car will charge and discharge by using the power grid functioning at the capacity of 90%. The performance of the cars which have rear engine depends on the size as it translates the electricity in energy, also using 90% capacity.

Both Mitsubishi i-MiEV and Peugeot iON operate at over 80% of mechanical energy. Therefore, the performance of an electric car is three times more effective than gasoline powered cars. The total energy in a gallon of gas is 32.95 kilowatt-hours of energy and the usual cost is £6.1 which makes a trip of 100 miles worth just £2.

Compared to gasoline powered cars, electric cars run on less energy and drive the same distance and the cost of the fuel is much less. This is the biggest advantage of green vehicles in general and electric car in particular.

The running cost of an electric car is much economical when compared to petrol or diesel cars. It would not be wrong to say that you can actually run your electric car just by spending two pence per mile. The road price of Mitsubishi i-MiEV is £24,045, in addition the grant which value around £5,000.

The immediate competitor of the i-MiEV is the Nissan Leaf, which as per the statics is the market leader with the online price tag of £23,990. The manufacturers provide a personal contract buying structure, with an initial down payment of £3,850; you can own the vehicle with monthly installment of £397.

The cost will come to total of £28,204, which is more by £4,214 as compared to hundred percent payments at the time of purchase. Nissan has more functions and additional facilities as compared to i-MiEV.

Costing wise, owning a pure electric car is still on the high side compared with a conventional vehicle. But I’m sure with the economy of scale, the cost of EV will come down sooner or later.

Though electric cars date their history back to the 1850s, it is only very recently that they started getting the attention they deserve. There are different reasons that make an electric car a better choice over a gasoline powered car.

Firstly, it is eco-friendly. Unlike a car that uses fossil fuel, an electric car doesn’t emit any exhaust fumes and pollute the environment. Secondly, there is the fear that the existing reservoirs of fossil fuels may get depleted one day. If the oil wells get dried up, all vehicles that use petroleum products as their fuel will come to a standstill.

High cost of gasoline is another reason for an increased interest in electric and hybrid cars. Over the years, many people have already converted their gasoline driven cars into electric cars. Most of the electric cars you see on the roads are not manufactured as electric cars; they were once gasoline powered cars and their owners converted them into electric cars.

Electric car conversion can be carried out by the car owners themselves if they have basic knowledge about working of a car and electricity. It is surprising to see that irrespective of the numerous benefits an electric car offers, only very few of them are produced in factories.

The importance of electric cars was clearly understood when the venue of Olympics Games in Beijing was shrouded in smog some years ago. Smoke and fog get mixed up to form smog. Smog is a common phenomenon in large cities and industrial areas where large amount of smoke is produced by factories and vehicles.

Smog not only makes visibility poor but has serious repercussions on the people’s health too. Respiratory and eye problems are common among people who live in large cities and towns.

An electric car is powered by electricity stored in its rechargeable battery. Since the car runs on electricity, there are practically no emissions.

But a gasoline powered car utilizes only a quarter of the fuel for its energy needs and the rest is wasted as exhaust fumes. An electric car doesn’t waste any fuel like a traditional car. It is also very cheap to drive an electric car as it doesn’t need any costly fossil fuel. It needs less maintenance compared to a traditional car.

An expensive part of an electric car is its battery and improvements in battery technology have made battery life longer. New batteries can store more electricity and they need less frequent recharging.

Another good thing about an electric car is its silent functioning. Since no internal combustion takes place in an electric car, it doesn’t produce any sound at all. By converting your car into an electric car, you can make the best use of your old car which otherwise would have become junk.

It is much cheaper to convert an old car into an electric car than buying a new one. Any car owner who has the basic skills, tools and knowledge can convert his/her car into an electric car. If you search on the internet, you will get all the information you need on car conversion.

Since electric cars have so many advantages, they will outnumber the gasoline powered cars in the near future.

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.

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.

Have you ever spotted an electric car on the street, it is quite impossible to identify such cars as these cars quite resemble gasoline powered cars? If you are an automobile enthusiast, you can probably spot easily an electric vehicle (EV) among many cars, the other way is to spot an electric powered car is the excellent level of silence that these cars have.

The beauty lies in the silence of the motor of electric powered cars which does not produce any deadly emissions. The technology of the gasoline powered and electric powered cars is totally different and all the difference lies in the hoods of these cars.

If you want to know the working of EV, you need to explore the hood by opening it. The gasoline powered car engine contains many boxes and pipes which looks like a complicated plumbing work but with pure electric cars, the features are totally different and looks like a complicated electrical work.

The car which is electric powered uses its motor to power the wheels which will be totally different than gasoline powered cars. The electric motor directly uses electricity and starts rotating, which means the power is instant and this power can be used from the get go.

The main problem with EV is when it climbs a steep hill. This energy system is not adequate to propel the car upward on hilly surfaces. This is one of the challenge EV manufacturers are working very hard to resolve.

Initially, the electric car motor were powered by normal car batteries which did not have long usage life, but now this issue has been resolved to great extent by using modern lithium-ion batteries that will allow you to drive your eco-friendly vehicle for a longer duration without having to be recharged.

The working principle in the electric vehicle is an AC charger which charges the battery unit. After starting the vehicle, the power is directly passed on from the battery bank to the electric motor. There is a meter which is known as voltmeter instead of gasoline meter normally found in gasoline run cars. The voltmeter shows the level of remaining battery charge which is an indication to get the batteries recharged.

Pure electric cars do not have clutches therefore you have limited control on the power output from the motor. Instead of an accelerator, it has a potentiometer that allows increasing or decreasing the torque generated by the electric motor.

If you are planning to use air conditioner in your car, there is an additional battery source used for onboard heater. The power windows and other accessories are also powered by this secondary electric power source.

As compared to an automobile powered by an internal combustion engine, increasing the speed on an EV will give you a lower mileage because more current is needed to power the motor. Understandably, the present pure electric cars in the market have many flaws. But with the passage of time and improvement in technology, these cars will become more efficient and most importantly become cheaper to buy. Pure electric vehicles are the best alternatives to gasoline which has contributed to the destruction of our environment.

You may have many questions in your mind before you actually go for an electric car, these question are natural. The first thing comes to the mind is how far the car can go and where to recharge the car.

This probably is biggest deterrent for the people who want to buy an electric car. In addition there are other issues like long distance commuting, cost of batteries and other problem. For those who have to use the vehicle for long distance, the electric car is not for you.

Electric vehicle (EV) are suitable for city driving and where recharge points are freely available. There are some vehicles like Tesla Roaster which have a range of 240 miles which seems to be a good distance covered by the electric car. The price is again a deterrent for Tesla Roaster which is around 100,000 dollars; the cheapest vehicles have very short running range and are not suitable for long distance and can be used for driving in city area.

Many potential electric vehicles purchasers are not satisfied with the current electric car technology, but this is also a fact that many governments across the world are developing network infrastructure to install high current low time charging solutions. There are some stations which take 20 to 30 minutes for charging which seems quite reasonable as this time can be used as coffee or burger break.

Recharging from the household sockets may take several hours due to single phase 10 amp limitations of many power points. Some of the countries like Japan and the United States are exploring using 3 – 6 times the energy density of current lithium ion batteries.

Another option could be using Lithium polymer batteries which is considered to be future technology, with this technology range will not remain the issue. This mostly depends upon the number and type of batteries; you may also need a motor which matches the batteries.

The cars which have fast speed will be expensive as the consumption of batteries is more as the motors require more current to run. There are other concerns like exploding of Lithium ion batteries.

Another concern is the safety of electric car; these concerns are being resolved and are at the verge of being solved. The biggest risk is high voltage wiring in the electric car which is not there in the conventional petrol powered engine.

There has to be a safety device like accelerometer kills switches, which will switch off the power from the batteries in case of an accident. Generally electric cars are quite safe as there is no petrol or gasoline in such vehicles.

One has to be extra vigilant at the time of recharge as there is possibility of electric shock, finally the removal of gear box will help the driver to concentrate on driving instead of changing the gears. The vehicle should be able to take you to favorite holiday destination; such a driving may not be possible with electrical cars.

There has to be proper service stations where expert mechanics are available who have thorough knowledge of such cars. Since the technology is being developed, we may soon see all the obstacles removed for a smooth drive of an electrical car.

The safety of your car is very important, whatever model you have a Mercedes or a Mazda – the safest cars can also have a brake failure. And if the brakes of your car go down, the results might be extremely disastrous. The same issue with a conventional car will plague a homemade electric car also.

Obviously, brakes are the most crucial parts of your car. So acquaintances with a car brake system’s know how is always handy because you hardly know when your car brakes will let you down and it can happen when you are miles away from the nearest garage and who knows in midst of a dessert.

If you know how the brake system works you can:

- Inspect the brakes and find out what the problem is.

- Fully understand what will be required to repair the brakes.

- You can repair the brakes yourself if possible or explain exactly the situation to the person who is going to repair your car brakes.

To become proficient in performing the above functions, first of all you need a clear understanding regarding a car brake system.

A drum system uses a hydraulic pressure to push a pad against the brake drum to slow down and stop the car. The mechanism is like this:

- When brake pedals are pressed, the pistons in the master cylinder exert pressure through brake lines held by the brake shoe to the wheel cylinders inside the break drum.

- The brake shoe tightens against the drum and friction stops the wheel from moving. A brake drum is a flat-topped heavy cylinder generally placed in between the wheel rim and the drive wheel.

- When the brakes are pressed, the friction pad attached to the brake shoe is jammed against the brake drum. This slows down and stops the wheel.

- A wheel cylinder might have pistons that use hydraulic pressure from the master cylinder to exert tremendous pressure forcing the pad against the brake drum.

- The other system that’s called disk brake system uses the same hydraulic pressure to press the brake pads against the rotor to slow down the automobile.

The modes-operandi is as follows:

- When brake pedal is pressed, the master cylinder exerts pressure through break lines to the caliper forcing the friction pads to press against the rotor. The generated friction stops the vehicle.

- A rotor is just a circular plate attached to the wheel which is gripped by the brake pads.

- A brake pad is made with friction materials. When the brake pads are jammed against the rotor plate, the wheel stops turning.

- The brake pads are attached to the calipers and when pressed using hydraulic pressure these pads straddle the rotor.

- The brake pads are pressed using internal pistons to jam the rotor.

- To perform this process the braking system needs a brake fluid. The master cylinder is filled with such brake fluid and distributes the fluid under pressure to the braking system of the vehicle.

The above explanation provides a brief understanding regarding the two car braking systems. This is the basic knowledge you need to know for any troubleshooting and repair works for your car brake system.

Brake problem can occur in any model whether it’s a VW Beetle, a Ford pickup or the safest vehicle of the world. The internet is filled with huge resources that provide detailed explanation of all your needs regarding brake system problems in very vivid and systematic manner. I would advise you to go online and search for ‘car auto brake repair’. You will certainly be surprised by huge resources that will be displayed in no time.