When the thought of a complete electric car comes to someone's mind, it sounds like a totally science experiment. In this era of science and technology, nothing remains as experiment for too long. It becomes real very fast. A complete electric car which is going to be available to the ordinary customers by 2010 is named City Zenn. City Zenn is a two seated battery electric car manufactured by Toronto based Zenn motor company. It looks exactly like all other combustion engine cars running in the streets.
Speed of the car
The maximum speed of City Zenn is 125 kilometers per hour which is equivalent to 78 miles per hour. The range of this car is 400 kilometers (250 mi). City Zenn is powered by Electrical Energy Storage Units or EEStor which contains ultra-capacitors or super-capacitors. In previous years batteries have either been bulky with low energy density of prohibitively expensive. So if an electric car owner wanted to drive 20 or 30 miles, the car had to be loaded with 100s of pounds of lead-acid batteries.
Batteries and their durability
The new batteries offered by EEStor are affordable and can save massive amount of energy. This is because of this ultra-capacitors or super-capacitors. These capacitors use barium tinanate coated with aluminum oxide and glass which prevents the demerits of chemical batteries. These capacitors are more powerful than conventional capacitors. Because of the activated carbon at the cores, ultra-capacitors can absorb power or capable of sending charge faster than chemical batteries. Ultra-capacitors also have greater durability and better tolerance for extreme temperatures.
The most interesting feature of these batteries is they can be recharged in less than five minute by using a special charge station. Usually it takes 4 hours to fully charged EEStor powered City Zenn if you use normal household outlet with 110 volt supply and 2 hours if you use 220 volt supply. Operating cost of City Zenn is also very low. It costs 1/10th of a usual internal combustion engine automobile. This car is very much environment friendly as it emits 0% carbon dioxide which means 100% emission free.
Safety aspects
Safety is one of the major concerns of automobiles in spite of the fuel option. If the vehicle is powered by petrol, diesel, batteries or ultra capacitors the storage device should not burst into flames under extreme conditions.
According to many experts the year 2010 is going to be year for electric cars. As the gas price is going upward day by day you can only avoid the pump and emission by using electricity. The operating costs will be cheaper and will cause fewer footprints in case of global warming. The major bonuses of City Zenn are no noise and zero emission. The City Zenn is going to be a great option for an EV because of its better expected mileage than other available cars in the market.
Prices
The City Zenn is expected to be priced between the ranges of $25K - 30K. The car is expected to be launched in Europe first and after that in United States.
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