I've Always Wanted a Flying Car...But an Electric One is Almost as Good: Green Vehicles Articles: Eco20/20

I've Always Wanted a Flying Car...But an Electric One is Almost as Good

Let's be honest with ourselves here. The idea of riding around in a floating car is the leading reason as to why people are so excited about the electronic car revolution. Look at television shows like Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly, the Jetsons and Futurama. Those are just shows off the top of my head but when you take into account the other TV shows as well as motion pictures that have followed the overall theme, you can see where I'm going with this. For the longest time, humankind has striven for advancement, and electronic cars are the mark of the next step in our technology.

It won't be long before we're flying through the air on our very own hovercrafts or zipping down the street on antigrav skateboards. Don't believe me? Well there's plenty of proof to back the claim. Take for instance the changes and advances that have taken place in EV technology over the years.

Believe it or not, electronic cars have been around since the 1900s. In fact, back then, electric vehicles were more popular than gasoline powered cars. Not only were the gas cars hard to start up (there were no keys or ignition), they also belched out a lot of black smoke and they were extremely loud. Which meant that no one wanted to deal with them unless they had to. However with the arrival of cheaper gas, mufflers, and a little thing known as the electric starter, the electric car soon faded from memory. Back in the day noise and air pollution was the newest fad, so the 50,000 or so electricity run vehicles that were chugging along the roads of the united states were soon extinct thanks to the arrival of something 'new and more efficient'.

I'll give you a brief moment to appreciate the full irony of it all.

Anyway, now that we're in the age of global warming, wonky atmospheres, and oil spills, automobile companies have decided to take one giant step forward by taking one giant step back. Electric cars are now back on the roads and even better than ever. Many electric cars allow you to plug the car directly into your wall outlets at home. Just a few years ago, the idea of driving through the street in a car powered by batteries was just a Tonka toy inspired pipe dream. Then people began fiddling with the possibilities in their garages. Small companies and then brand name car companies decided to give it a whirl, and low and behold just a few years later we're that much closer to the Jetson and Futurama lifestyle. Pretty soon we'll take a real step forward and upgrade from electric to solar powered cars, but for now we're just having fun with experimenting with just how much horsepower we can stuff into an engine that runs completely off of AA batteries (not really AA but you get my point).

With electric cars that can reach 468 km/h, why shouldn't our next step be flying through the clouds in a solar powered (insert favorite model of car here).