It looks really cramped. I'd love to drive a 100% electric car with a nice range but it needs to be a bit larger.

@Courtney: I was about to jump down your throat for complaining about a lack of excess, but I looked back at those pictures and it really does look like that guy has his knees up against the dashboard.

Something to think about ... (from an Alaskan)

Most electric power in Alaska comes from fossil fuels, natural gas or diesel fuel ... I don't feel electric cars are a benefit until all power can be produced without any type of fuel source.

Alaska has more than 50 hydroelectric power plants and one wind power farm in Kotzebue that began operating in 1997. Alaska needs more than that to power the state. I hope that solar power will become an affordable power source soon.

Its worth looking in to where your power is truly coming from!

True - Lots of electric power DOES come from fossil fuels, but the thing is, it's done WAY more efficiently at the power plant than it is in a gasoline engine. Hard to believe, especially when you transmit it over long distances and run it through a few substations, but it's still true. The efficiency difference isn't trivial. Off the tip top of my head, I think the gas engine gets something like 25% efficiency from the tank to the crank shaft. Then there's the drive train losses, which sap away another 30% or more.

The co-gen power plant gets 80% or so efficiency. Back in the car, since you've got a minimal gear box, if any, you don't have much in the way of mechanical losses, and the conversion efficiency of the electric motor is quite high, 70% for a crappy motor on a bad day.

Sooo that being said, if everybody took to electric cars tomorrow and the power stations all had to start burning ten times more fuel to supply the demand, we'd still end way better off in terms of net fuel consumption and carbon output.

In the long run, there's a simpler answer to these questions, and it all boils down to cost. Everybody in the supply chain has to make money, every bit of energy needs to be accounted for, all the transport, all the everything. Less expensive = more efficient = less fuel burned. Obviously this rule is completely busted when you figure in human rights abuses and cheap overseas consumer goods, but in any given fair market, it's true.

Andy

@courtney

you want a bigger electric car? how about fast?

take a look at the kaz. top speed is 190mph
http://www.gizmag.com/go/3182/

its well that we are getting good electric options, but are we preparing for people to return their old cars to be recycled properly ?as most cars now are beyond 60% recyclable. The government should in build incentives such as scrappage allowance or allow speciifc hot charging zones in built up residential areas.. make it attractive. a lot of people now have cars that culd last years and will struggle to seel when electric is the car of choice.the miev is brilliant by design,