Tesla and BMW i-Series

One automobile company that leads the frontier of electric automobiles is Tesla.

It is one of the first companies to commercialize electric automobiles and has the biggest market share.

Many consumers are still hesitant to purchase electric cars due to its relatively short drive range and inconvenience of recharging the vehicle every night for at least five hours. Also, what would happen during an emergency situation in night when the car has not yet been fully recharged? The answer is simple: take taxi.

However, there are many upsides in purchasing an electric vehicle as a secondary car. It is very environment friendly due to its zero carbon emission; in other words, it does not consume any fossil fuels that makes huge hole in our ceiling. Moreover, its maintenance cost is very low compared to gasoline-based vehicles. According to Tesla, a driver who drives 300 miles everyday (which is very unlikely, but let’s just assume for the sake of fun), will only need to pay $11.84 every night. This is one-third of gas price that one would pay for average American car, such as Honda Accord that has 27mpg milage (gas price: $3.40 per gallon).

In addition, Tesla is continuing to increase their SuperCharging Station that offers free fast charging service and battery swap if necessary in United States. According to Tesla, the battery swap takes half the time of fully filling empty gas tanks. Hence, Tesla disproves the public myth that electric vehicles are inconvenient due to its hour-long recharging process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VH4JloWFEI – battery swap video

Another promising electric vehicle producer is BMW. This German company has a different approach to making electric vehicles convincing and marketable. Its brand new electric vehicle that has been just released in the European market is BMW i3. It comes in two different models: i3 and i3 with range extender. The range extender means extra gas tank that can be utilized when all the electric energy was consumed. Although this makes BMW’s electric vehicle some sort of hybrid vehicle, it is a nice way to complement electric vehicle’s technological weakness.

-SSW