Drive an Electric Vehicle and Never Buy Gas Again
(Page 4 of 9)
April/May 2006
By Bill Moore
GEM currently is the dominant NEV manufacturer with more than 30,000 vehicles sold in five different models, including short- and long-bed cargo carriers (see photo). Once considered a vehicle only for the Sun Belt, GEMs have gradually worked their way as far north as Minnesota and Maine. GEM is based in Fargo, N.D., and was purchased by DaimlerChrysler in 2000. According to Mike Kalberer, the company’s marketing manager, GEM has about 150 dealerships in the United States. It also sells add-on options, such as cabin heaters, removable fiberglass doors with roll-down windows and canvas-frame doors for cool weather.
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Many people have found NEVs handy for around-town errands where a gas car is unnecessary. One such GEM owner is Lew George, who lives in downtown Atlanta and drives his 2001 e2 every day for all his short errands and trips, from getting groceries, visiting the doctor and dentist, to going to the movie theater and eating out at restaurants.
“Living downtown means a lot of start-stop traffic, which the GEM is great for,” George says. “I own two gas cars, but sometimes they don’t even get started for two to three weeks at a time.”
In Atlanta, George says that recharging the batteries in his GEM is easy — even on the go — because he’s able to plug into public places, such as parking lots, garages, retail stores and supermarkets, and recharge his batteries for free. This gives George the benefit of driving farther — he doesn’t have to save half his battery charge to get home.
If you live in a Northern state, extremely cold weather can affect the performance of an NEV’s batteries, says Ken Smalligan, an automotive sales manager who sells GEMs in Muskegon, Mich. Smalligan suggests GEM owners who live in colder regions upgrade to gel batteries, which offer increased performance and life span. The cost of upgrading the GEM’s six lead-acid batteries to gel is about $300 ($50 for each battery).
Perhaps because of its origins in the cool climate of British Columbia, Dynasty Motor Car decided to develop an enclosed NEV that more closely resembles a car. The IT — variously pronounced “eye-tee” or “it”— is available in the United States in five models, including a four-passenger compact (see photo).
Other players in the NEV market are B.I.G. Man, Cart-Rite and Columbia ParCar — all of which have an open-air cab approach. (See “Electric Vehicle Resources,” below, for contact information.) Some golf cart manufacturers and small automakers in South Korea and China also are eyeing the U.S. EV market.
New EV Options
The weight and expense of batteries have been the biggest technical barriers to creating EVs comparable to gas-powered vehicles. But the recent development of more powerful, lighter-weight, faster-charging lithium-polymer batteries looks like a major breakthrough.
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