Car World

Martin Luther King had said I have a dream. Everyone has dreams, even just one dream. Have you ever dreamed that you could drive a car by yourself to travel around the world? Or when you was a child, and when you sat in a car, would you want to go around everywhere by yourself? When I was a child, I went to amusement park. I remembered I had played the electric car at that time. It was so fantastic and exciting. Because even you crashed into car of others, you are still safe. And the most important was you can drive freely in that cycle. That was fun!

Electric cars have many types and each of them has different influences. In one thing, it is for children. They are popular in amusement parks. They can make children feel fun and happy. They can make the dreams of children come true and let them satisfied. In the other thing, it is for businessman. Now that children are interested in them, then they can help operator of the amusement park to manage the park well.

However, with the development of the technology, electric cars are not only used in amusement parks. They can be applied to lives. We can easily find them on the roads.

The first trolleybus was invented by German, and electric cars enjoyed popularity between the mid-19th century and early 20th century. Nowadays, trolleybus had been used widely in the world except some European countries. They are still using trams. Shanghai began to use trolleybus in 1914. So far, trolleybuses are used widely in Beijing, Tianjin, Wuhan and such these big cities. In recent years, we increased more concerns in environmental protection. The electric cars can help to reduce the toxic gas from cars, such as CO, CO2, SO2, H2S and so on. They can protect our atmosphere and provide fresh air for us. Then our lives will be more and more beautiful. Of course, there is no need to afraid of the safety and the speed of them because they had been tested by experts.

According to these advantages, electric cars are accepted by more and more people. And their future also will be obvious. According to some materials, by the year 2020, an estimated 30% of the cars driving on the road will be battery, electric or plug-in hybrid. That is a trend of the car development.

Vehicle manufactures are in the process of launching electric cars fairly soon. What are electric cars like to drive and can they be fun?

We all know that petrol cars can be fun, they can have a character and be a talking point, but can the same be said for an electric car. The answer to this is yes. We have experience in both owning and testing electric vehicles.

Most battery powered cars are heavier than the petrol equivalent. The weight of the batteries is the main reason for this. The batteries tend to be fitted below the floor and near to the centre of the vehicle. This helps it to feel more stable on the road. This set up can make an battery powered car handle very well – especially if it also has a sporty steering and suspension set up.

The drive chain of an electric car removes all the jerking and vibration that you get in an internal combustion engine vehicle. When you drive an battery powered vehicle you notice how smooth it is, especially when stuck in traffic. This makes driving an electric car a much nicer experience.

Some people buy a petrol car for its speed, but would you buy an electric car for the speed? An battery powered vehicle provides maximum acceleration from zero revs, so whenever you put your foot to the floor the car pulls away instantly. The fastest production battery powered car is the Tesla Roadster Sport which goes from 0-62mph (0-100km/h) in just 3.7 seconds. Put your foot down and it reacts instantly and accelerates quickly. The Tesla is Lotus designed and the handling is amazing.

What about the speed of a family sized car? The Mitsubishi i MIEV is a good city car that is big enough for the average family. Pulling away from the lights is instant and quick. It has a top speed of 81 mph and can certainly keep up with the traffic although fast acceleration does have an impact on range. Mitsubishi certainly believe electric cars should be fun – they are planning to launch a sports coupe version of the i MiEV in 2012.

One of the most popular electric cars in the UK is the Reva G-Wiz. It’s a basic vehicle with quirky looks but with bags of character. Take the G-Wiz in the city zipping around and it is fun to drive thanks to its suspension setup and rapid steering. Once you are on the dual carriageway the experience is not as good as the performance is very limited.