Living Like Ed by Ed Jr. (whitelam books .txt) 📗

is 13 miles away. Acton, where I often had to go for film shoots, was 38 miles each way. I could make it there and back, but I couldn’t go any farther. If there was roadwork and I had to make a detour, I’d end up charging somewhere.

So yes, an electric vehicle’s finite range is somewhat of a limitation, but it has increased dramatically since my very first electric car, which could go only 15 miles between charges. And battery technology continues to improve. Today, many companies are focused on increasing the amount of energy that can be stored in ever smaller, ever more durable batteries—even batteries that use greener materials. On the one hand, it’s part of an ongoing trend toward miniaturization—things like computers and radios and calculators and cell phones getting ever smaller. And it’s also part of an ongoing trend toward better, smarter batteries that can hold more energy and that don’t need to be fully charged—and fully discharged—each time you use them. You’ve seen improvements like these in your cell phone batteries, digital camera batteries, and laptop computer batteries. Those advances in battery technology mean electric vehicles’ range will no doubt get even better in coming years.

                  So what’s it like to drive an electric car? You turn it on and you hear nothing. It’s a go-kart. It’s very quiet. You get accustomed to the sound of a gasoline engine, so when you turn on the electric car and it just goes click, you wonder, “Is it on?” Many times, when we’ve left the car with the valet, they go click, click, click, and try to make that vroom sound. When we get our car back they say, “It’s broken!” You have to be extravigilant about pedestrians because they can’t hear you coming—there’s no indicator—no beep, beep, beep. That’s the danger of it. But it goes fast. I like it. It’s fun.

And I’m all for Ed’s new electric car. It’s great. The only downside is how far you can go on a charge.

A QUICK HISTORY

Some people think electric vehicles are a new idea, but they’ve been around for centuries. A Scotsman named Robert Anderson invented the first crude electric carriage powered by a nonrechargeable type of battery between 1832 and 1839. Thomas Davenport is credited with building the first practical electric vehicle—not a horseless carriage, but a locomotive—in 1835. Jump ahead to 1891, and William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa, built the first successful electric car in the United States.

Recently, I got to ride in a 1909 Baker electric car owned by Jay Leno. What an amazing vehicle. It was way ahead of its time. Back in 1909, cars didn’t even have electric starters. They had gas headlamps. But this car was fully electric. Interestingly, it was designed for women, for them to go shopping, since it was clean and quiet and quite elegant inside, with a vase for fresh flowers and a mirror mounted on the door to check their makeup. It’s incredible just how advanced this car was.

Sadly, by the 1920s, electric cars had lost their allure. Cheap and plentiful gasoline—and the longer range of cars with internal-combustion engines—temporarily made electric cars all but unsalable.

Then we had that first gas crisis in the early 1970s—and, about the same time, people became concerned about pollution—and all of a sudden, there’s an interest in alternative fuels again. The government got involved, too, and began pushing the companies that manufacture automobiles to make vehicles that would get better gas mileage and create less pollution. In 1976 Congress passed the Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Research, Development, and Demonstration Act. Its goal was to encourage development of new technologies, like improved batteries, electric motors, and other hybrid-electric components.

Electric vehicle development really got a boost in 1990, when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) passed the Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate. It required 2 percent of the vehicles in California to have zero emissions by 1998, and 10 percent by 2003. Unfortunately, CARB was not able to enforce its policy. In 2002 General Motors and Chrysler—along with the Bush administration—sued CARB to repeal the mandate. By 2003 CARB had weakened the mandate to the point that automakers could get zero-emission vehicle credits for non-ZEV vehicles.

Now there’s almost no incentive for automakers to develop electric vehicles, which is why GM, Toyota, Ford, Honda—companies that offered electric cars just a few years ago—have all gotten out of the electric car business. They’ve got some interesting pure-electric concept cars, but not one of these companies offers a pure-electric vehicle that you can buy today.

So what are your choices, if you want to drive an electric car? Several smaller companies have been developing electric vehicles on their own. After doing a lot of research, I’ve gotten involved with a company called Phoenix Motorcars. I now drive the company’s sport utility truck (SUT), and I’m a big fan. It’s a five-passenger vehicle, and its new battery technology has increased my range to more than 100 miles per charge. I’ll let my friend Dan Elliott, the company’s CEO, tell you more about it.

Ed’s Green Friend: Phoenix Motorcars

Electric vehicles are giving drivers across America hope that their days of dealing with soaring gas prices are coming to a close. Many consumers question electric vehicles, simply because they aren’t informed as to what exactly a battery-run vehicle is and how it can positively affect their lives.

Electric vehicles (EVs) produce no exhaust fumes and, if they’re charged using most forms of renewable energy, minimal pollution. Many are capable of acceleration that is equivalent to—or, in some cases, exceeds that of—conventional gasoline-powered vehicles.

Simply put, EVs reduce dependence on petroleum. They help to reduce global warming by alleviating the greenhouse effect. They are significantly quieter than internal-combustion vehicles, and they do not produce noxious fumes.

So how does an all-electric vehicle work? Electric vehicles are powered by an electric motor that uses rechargeable batteries rather than a gasoline engine. Electric motors have the ability to convert