Booming, Zooming Electric Cars

Aptera

Watch out, Detroit. A plethora of electric-vehicle startups intends to put a dent in the Big 3 by using advanced engineering and styling.

Steve Fambro didn't get into the car business to save the world. He did it to go faster on freeways. Fambro was driving 36 miles a day, during rush hour, to and from his biotech job in La Jolla, Calif. As traffic slowed to a crawl, motorcycles whizzed past in the carpool lane, a CNN release said.

He wanted to do the same, and after trying a motorbike and becoming worried about his safety, he decided he wanted to do the same in an enclosed vehicle. He purchased a hybrid, but as an engineer he still yearned for a vehicle that got even better fuel economy, the report continued. 

That left electric cars. The selection was discouraging: tiny, boxy vehicles with a short range that took a long time to charge. "Anything you could buy looked as if it was designed in the 1970s," said Fambro.

Fambro decided to start his own auto business. In November 2008, he will begin selling the Aptera (means "wingless" in Greek). The car is a sleek 2-seat, 3-wheel electric vehicle with a top speed of 95 miles an hour. The Aptera comes in 2 versions: all electric and hybrid. Made of a Space Age composite material, the hybrid gets 300 miles per gallon, while the electric goes 100 miles on a single three- to six-hour charge. 

So why the sudden change of heart? While other ventures failed, why is there a positive vibe at present?

The entrepreneurs and investors behind the firms stressed 4 factors: consumer desire for measures to address global warming, an abundance of investment capital, new breakthroughs in fiber composite body material, and the availability of cheap computing power and software that help simulate design challenges long before new cars hit the road.

For a moment, let Acura CL ball joint slip your mind and think of electric cars. What good do they make? Are you willing to embrace the technology?

Where the electric car market is booming:

Commuter Cars

- Aptera Motors, Carlsbad, Calif.
- Think Global, Palo Alto*
- Zenn, Toronto
- Zap, Santa Rosa, Calif.
- Commuter Cars, Spokane
- A.C. Propulsion, San Dimas, Calif.

Fun Cars

- Tesla Motors, San Carlos, Calif.
- Wrightspeed, Burlingame, Calif.
- Universal Electric Vehicle, Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Work Vehicles

- Azure Dynamics, Oak Park, Mich.
- Phoenix Motorcars, Ontario, Calif.

Battery Makers

- A123Systems, Watertown, Mass.
- Altairnano, Reno
- EEStor, Cedar Park, Texas
- Valence Technology, Austin
- Odyne, Hauppauge, N.Y.

[via: CNN]