The all-electric car—is Mitsubishi's "green" city car worth the cash?
Since the 1880s, the automobile and the internal combustion engine have shared a linked fate. The very earliest horseless carriages relied on other methods (obviously) for generating power, but once Karl Benz put a four stroke gasoline engine into a four wheel chassis, the template for the next 130+ years was set.
Henry Ford put his Model T into mass production in 1908 and suddenly the automobile was no longer the preserve of the Edwardian one percent. The adoption of the car by all sectors of society, first in the US and then across the world, has had a profound impact on our way of life. Much of it is overwhelmingly positive, but it hasn't all been good. Our dependence on hydrocarbon fuels in particular may well be our undoing, as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are skyrocketing, profoundly altering our climate.
As a result, car manufacturers have been looking at alternatives to the traditional way of doing things. We've seen various alternatives appear on the roads in recent years—most commonly hybrid powertrains that couple internal combustion engines with electric motors. But hybrids still emit carbon dioxide from their exhausts, so some argue that purely electric cars are the truly responsible route to 21st century motoring.
Examples of this breed are becoming slightly more common on the road. After General Motors' misstep with the EV-1, Tesla came along and made electric cars sexy with its Lotus-based Roadster. Now companies like Mitsubishi and Nissan offer electric cars for the rest of us.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/07/mitsubishis-i-miev-greener-ride-but-not-ready-for-the-daily-commute/
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