Where is my electric car?

I’m waiting for an electric car I can buy. I don’t think any of the ones in the works fit the bill… so sorry Prius plug in hybrid, Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, Mini E, Tesla S, etc, etc… my problems?

1) They are too small! That’s a problem because of a) carpooling… I need to be able to haul at LEAST 5 kids to and from school. We’re talking mini-van or SUV I guess. b) safety. Check the numbers at HLDI.org. A prius is still about twice as dangerous in terms of injury and death rates as our Saab 9-5. I want to save the planet, but I’m not will to risk my family. This is no joke… as I’m sure you know… the chances of dying in a car crash are in the neighborhood of 1/8000 a year or 1/5244 in 2 years

2) They are too quiet! I am hoping this gets resolved somehow, but I am just not willing to risk killing a pedestrian because they didn’t hear my car coming. Apparently folks will be figuring out what to do about this at some point, but until then, I am seriously considering sitting on the sidelines.

OK, so what other problems did I forget? There are other (non?) issues, … There are probably answers to these…

1) Effective MPG hurts a bit (maybe only a bit?) because there is no waste heat to heat the car in the winter. And it’s cold here.

2) Cradle-to-cradle environmental impact / full-life-cycle of the cars: Are the batteries a concern or not? I heard that there are some crazy rare earth metals that are needed for them that is decimating china, etc. NYTIMES My guess here is that it pulls down the green-ness a bit, but maybe overall still worth it vs internal combustion engines.

3) Is this is a solution for everybody? Can the electric-grid handle it? My answer here is that it seems like if people install several kW solar arrays on their roofs, they might do quite well for covering their commuter miles at least.

4) We are already a 1-car family. So it’s a little odd to buy a second car. Would we then sell our other one? But then what about long trips that are outside the range of an electric car? Rent?

5) Bang for the buck. Is buying a brand new car to cut our fossil fuel use in half a good use of money vs other ways of “saving the planet”? (we already average 26MPG in our Saab 9-5… closer to 30+ on the highway or local carpool if I hypermile…)

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