• Electric vehicles will be the conveyance of the future.gas or electric image by Tammy Mobley from Fotolia.com
  
  Electric vehicles will more than likely be the future of the automotive industry in the world. Their systems run clean, on renewable energy, and provide the consumer with many options in models and makes. Technological improvements to the engines of electric cars are enabling them to work just as hard and drive just as fast as internal combustion engines, thus narrowing the gap in a once very wide field.
  
  

Range of the Vehicle

• Range is another word for "battery life," or how far you can drive an electric vehicle on a single charge. The spectrum of life for all electric vehicles ranges from the 200+ miles available with the Tesla Roadster, to the 50 to 60 miles a driver may see with the EDrive systems of the plug-in Toyota Prius. The length of charge largely depends on the efficiency of the electric engine (Tesla being a high-performance vehicle) and the weight of the vehicle. The Prius is considered one of the heavier plug-in electrics, weighing almost 3,000 lbs.
  
  

Horsepower and Performance

• A popular complaint about the electric engine is that it lacks the horsepower and performance of its gasoline-powered cousins. The horsepower of the Tesla Roadster sits at 288, which is not far off from the 2010 Ford Mustang, at 315 hp. When you factor in the cost of fuel (an electric vehicle does not require "refueling") and the max rpm of each vehicle (the Tesla Roadster is a max 14,000, whereas the Mustang caps between 5,000 and 7,000), the electric motor begins to show its value over the internal combustion engine.
  
  

Speed

• Speed has also come a long way in electric car engine design, which boasts much higher speeds than several years ago. The Toyota Rav4 EV has a top highway speed of 80 mph on a 50 kW permanent magnet-based engine. The Tesla Roadster, running a 185 kW AC-based eclectic engine, has a top speed of 130 mph. The top speed of the EDrive system in the Toyota Prius is 34 mph, though this is a bit deceptive, as it is designed for city use only. That is not to say these speeds are the maximum the engines may put out. All of the vehicles incorporate governors to cap their speed similar to those used on internal combustion engines.