Green Options

Getting the racing world to take electric cars seriously will go a long way towards acceptance by the general public as a whole. And electric cars have a lot going for them in that regard. Few moving parts, lots of torque, and all of that power is available at 0 RPM’s.

A British company called Westfield Sportscars, who builds kit cars designed for track racing, is dipping their toes into the water of electrified sports cars. They plan to produce the iRacer, a lightweight, rear-wheel drive electric race car with an asphalt tearing 730 ft-lbs of torque. Sounds vicious.

After a long process of on-again, off-again pseudo confirmations of potential sites, Norwegian EV company Th!nk has officially chosen Elkhart, Indiana, as the location of its U.S. electric car manufacturing facility. For a company that, as recently as a year ago, was swirling in the flushed toilet bowl of failed EV startups, this marks a major turning point.

Update 11/19/2009, 9:00 AM Pacific Time: According to Th!nk’s Twitter feed, Indiana has not been officially chosen, saying “We’re moving toward completing our US site selection — but it will take another week or two to finalize the location. Stay tuned…” Apparently other states, such as Oregon, are still in the running. Whether this is a genius marketing ploy to increase interest, or simply a misstep by Ener1, we’ll have to wait and see.

Norwegian electric car maker, Th!nk, has seen some rough financial patches as of late—having gone through a bankruptcy and restructuring—but they seem to be clawing their way back to relevance these days. With a long wait list and more demand for the Th!nk City than they can meet in Europe, think has once again turned their eyes on the U.S. market.

Norwegian Finance Minister, Kristin Halvorsen, and her Socialist Left Party have put forth a plan that would disallow the sale of new cars that run solely on gasoline after 2015.

Under the plan new cars such as hybrids, that run partially on gas, would still be allowed to be sold in the country, but any cars that only use gas as their power source would be illegal. Cars already on the road would be unaffected.

On the heels of a Nissan electric car press conference in Portland Monday, yesterday Norwegian electric car manufacturer Th!nk was wooed by Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and US Senator Ron Wyden as the place to site an electric car manufacturing facility.

Editor’s Note: This list represents the ten “best” electric and plug-in hybrid cars (as I see them) coming out in the next two years, but, after that initial culling, this list has been organized by release date, not preference.

With the onslaught of electric concepts and announcements coming out of the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, you’d think that the entire world is about to junk their old jalopies and rush out and buy electric cars tomorrow.

But, alas, as much as millions of Americans would love to pay 3 cents a mile on their daily commutes, our choices for electric cars are, at the moment, severely lacking.

Although the promise of the 2009 Detroit Auto Show reeks of desperation, it’s not all smoke and mirrors. Believe it or not, there are a bunch of noteworthy electric cars, both all-battery and extended range plug-ins, reaching US production sometime in the next two years.

So, if you’ve got the time to wait and you find yourself longing for the cheapest, quietest, and most earth-friendly commute you could imagine, take a gander at this list… electric bliss is closer than you probably thought.

Toyota’s next generation Prius, due out as early as next spring, will be outfitted with solar panels to help run the on-board electronics, according to a report from the Nikkei newspaper.

Smaller start-up car companies, such as Th!nk, have plans for solar power augmented cars on the books too, but the incorporation of solar panels on the Prius would mark the first time a major car manufacturer has done such a thing with one of its models.