Electric Cars are here NOW...
but is it all a little BEWILDERING??

Maybe you are curious about electric cars, or maybe you've been thinking about getting an ELECTRIC CAR or PLUG IN HYBRID for your next car, but you have questions.

• Does it drive like a regular car? (Yes, only WAY more fun.) 

• Where do I charge up, and how long does it take? (Home, usually, while you are fast asleep and electricity is on sale. You could also do as I do, and get a subscription that allows you unlimited charging on any station in the network for only 20 dollars a month.) 

• Are they all funny looking? (No. Most of them look so regular-car normal now that you have probably driven past some of my friends and never knew it.) 

• Can I trade in my Hummer for a LEAF? Just like that?? (Yep. Just like that! Or you could trade in your giant truck, or your Prius, or last year's Mercedes. Whatever happens to be in your garage.) 

• Can I get an electric car cheap? (Yeah. I have a Nissan LEAF that's a few years old, and it was SO cheap. I almost felt guilty there for a minute.) 

• Does an electric car need a lot of maintenance? (No, not much to it. The tires need to be rotated. The washer fluid needs filling. The cabin air filter needs changing. The 12v accessory battery will probably need to be replaced after a few years.)

So...why doesn't my local DEALERSHIP know this stuff?? 

(I know, right? When I went to the dealer to get my LEAF, they did NOT have the answers. After hemming and hawing a bit, they tried to steer me toward the hayburners in the front of the lot. Has this ever happened to you?

Well, after a little thought I decided that the dealers are probably partial to hayburners (or gas guzzlers, gas gulpers, and gas gobblers – you get the idea!) because they make a lot of their money on aftermarket parts. Electric cars are a money loser for them in that sense: our cars don't tend to break down and they sure don't need much maintenance. 
Good for you and me, but not so good for the sellers of grease and goo and auto parts.

Automakers are still making wads of money the old way, selling yesterday's cars.  Why would they want to change?

Several years ago now, a documentary filmmaker named Chris Paine showed us how the automakers and oil industry had conspired with politicians to "kill the electric car", to deprive us of even the OPTION of buying our beloved cars, and what we saw in his film made us really mad. Lots of us got busy and fought back.

If you saw Who Killed the Electric Car? and got mad, too...come on in. You're in good company.

How to Get Your Own Electric Car

Ready to take a test drive? Happily, now there are a lot of ways for you to get your hands on an electric car.

• The regular automakers, including Tesla, Nissan, Ford, BMW, Mitsubishi and Chevy are offering quite a few electric powered cars now; some are all electric, like the Nissan Leaf, while others like the Chevy Volt also use gas so that if you run out of charge you are not out of options.
• Conversion shops across the country are offering their services to turn your gas-gobbler into an electric vehicle.
• You can build your own electric car. Lots of folks with no prior experience or special skills have built or converted their own electric cars.
• There are electric car kits available using fiberglass bodies (think Porsche Spyder replica – delicious!), AC electric motors, and lithium batteries. These are brand new cars, not conversions, and they are built by small local businesses.

Come on in and have a look around, take your time. You'll find lots of reliable electric car information and interviews with my friends at conversion shops, electric vehicle motor and lithium battery suppliers, automaker spokespersons, and folks who have built beer-budget electric vehicles in the backyard.

Electric Vehicle Conversion Corner

Interested in converting your gas-gobbler to electric, and wondering where to start?
This is where you'll find:

• an extensive library of conversion questions and answers,
  
• info on electric car motors, like the merits of AC or DC systems, and how many horsepower you'll need;
  
• a discussion of electric car batteries, and the best kind of batteries available today;
  
• the best electric car conversion kit for beginners, where you can get it, and what you'll need to go with it...
  

...and other conversion-related things. Don't be shy, jump right in!

One More Thing...

Did I mention that electric cars are fun??

Our best kept secret is that they're really, REALLY fun to drive. Try it once and you'll never want to give up the keys.