Urban Mobility and the electric car

Millions of people in industrialized nations live in suburban and rural areas with limited access to public transportation. Those who have to commute outside of their communities rely on cars to get to and from work, school and shopping. With more than 250 million vehicles on the road in America the need for alternative-fuel cars is becoming increasingly important. Currently, our options are limited when it comes to mass-produced vehicles and how we fuel them. How do our existing options add up?

When talking fuel, the average full-size sedan gets 24.7 miles per gallon (mpg), whereas the average hybrid gets 41. However, the cost difference between the two vehicles doesn’t always even out. Experts now argue that to get your money’s worth you must own a hybrid vehicle between 10 to 15 years to recoup the energy savings cost. Flex-fuel vehicles, on the other hand, run on both standard petrol and a cleaner burning ethanol blend called E85. Flex-fuel vehicles have been produced since the 1980s, however the major barrier toward widespread adoption of these vehicles has been the limited number of fueling stations across the U.S., with less than 3,000 fueling stations nationwide in May 2011. Another disadvantage to the flex-fuel vehicle is its fuel efficiency, getting 25 to 30 percent fewer mpg than a standard-fuel vehicle.

The electric car seems to be the best investment, by far, in terms of energy costs, as it requires no fossil fuel, just plug-in, charge up and drive off. The major caveat to owning one of these cars, though, is exactly what makes them desirable: the battery charging process. Currently, the top electric car designs on the market can only go a maximum distance of 100 miles on a single charge, and reaching a maximum charge takes six hours from your home 220-volt outlet (which is too bad if you live in an apartment or park in the street) or 25 minutes for a “rapid charge” at a charging station which only gets you an 80% charge.

In the Loop City design, the Bjarke Ingles Group incorporate electric car charging stations into the communities. Stations like these set in urban and suburban areas would be beneficial to drivers of electric cars who can leave their vehicles for an extended period of time to charge while shopping, working or eating. But what about those people who work in more rural settings? What is their best option? How would you change the ways we currently address fueling our vehicles?