Test driving an Electric Car

Electric cars are almost here, and DoSomething.org received a special preview of one this week.

Our corduroy-clad journalism intern Jordan rode shotgun today in a prototype of an all-electric car called "Coda." Next summer you may be able to buy one of the first 14,000, or you can rent it briefly in a program called Connect by Hertz. The ride was super smooth, and as you can see from the photo, it looks just like a normal car.

Why it's environmentally friendly:

It has zero tailpipe emissions. Even if you were to charge it with coal-based electricity you'd still be a lot more efficient than a gas combustion engine vehicle.
As the electric grid uses more solar, wind, an hydroelectric power, the cars will be even more efficient.
If you charge the battery all the way, the car can go 120 miles. It can go more or less than that by a little bit based on how and where you drive. But at the very least, you get 100 miles.
The Coda is roughly twice as efficient as today's most efficient hybrid cars.
The battery is specifically built for vehicles to endure different temperatures and be durable in the long term. "We don't think that people should ever have to replace the battery when they own this vehicle," the Coda guy said. "It's not an option." That's great because it means that people won't have to dispose their batteries regularly and add to the world's technology waste.

How it works:

There are two ways to charge the battery. Normally, you use a "Level 2" charger, which resembles what you plug your washer/dryer into. When you buy the car you get a box that regulates the current in the car. That goes in your garage and plugs into the car. The second method is a plug in the trunk that you can put into a normal socket. That's for emergencies.

Other benefits:

Maintenance- There is 1/7 the moving parts in an electric vehicle compared to a combustion engine vehicle.The fewer parts you have the less the things that you have to break.
Cost- Nationwide, electricity rate is 11 cents per kilowatt hour. Taking that into account, this car would cost about $3.50 to charge all the way.

The difference between all-electric and hybrid:

A hybrid car runs primarily off an engine, and the battery is integrated a little bit. In an electric car like the Coda, it is 100 percent battery powered. There is no gas tank in the car.

Other important things to know:

The car costs $32,400 in California, including a federal tax rebate and state tax rebate. The government supports people who want to buy these vehicles.
The battery does not make noise. The light whine you hear when driving is the electric motor. With cars that run on gas, what you hear is usually not the engine, but rather the resistance of the tires. So for people who are concerned about accidents resulting from people not hearing a car coming, there is no need to fear.
40% of the components that drive the car are made in the US, the rest is made in China.
The top speed is 80 miles per hour. "It's still fast enough to get a speeding ticket on the highway," our guide told us.