An electric car for the common man. One company is hoping to bring a $30,000, 80-mph battery-powered sedan to the market by 2009.
By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
August 13 2007: 12:45 PM EDT
money.cnn.com
Excerpts:
"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If all goes according to plan, by 2009 you could be sticking it to Big Oil by driving an all electric, Chinese-made sedan for little more than the cost of a Camry.
Electric cars are nothing new. But until now they've either been very expensive to produce or, if not that, then small and relatively slow - little more than glorified golf carts.
Miles Rubin, with his $30,000 Miles XS 500, is hoping to change all that.
...
According to Rubin, Founder of Miles Automotive Group, the XS 500 has a top speed of 80 miles per hour and a range of 120 miles at 60 miles per hour. That's about as fast as GM's late-90s era electric car, the EV 1. And the XS 500 will be a lot cheaper to produce, the company says.
Both the low cost and the high range can be attributed to China, where low labor costs keep the price down and state-sponsored research into battery technology yielded what Rubin said was an advanced lithium ion power pack produced by Lishen Battery.
Plug the car into a normal wall socket and, according to company literature, six hours later you've got a full charge." |
