Electric cars are advertised as a wonderful alternative to not-so-environmentally-friendly gasoline or diesel automobiles, but how exactly do they run?

It all begins with the motor; an electric motor replaces a gasoline or diesel motor in an electric car.

This electric motor is run by a controller, and the controller gets its power from an assortment of rechargeable batteries.

Since there is no gasoline the muffler, catalytic converter, tailpipe and gas tank are removed.

Upwards of fifty 12 volt lead acid batteries are added, as are electric motors to run things such as the water and power steering pumps, and a vacuum pump for the power brakes.



A charger is added so that the batteries can be recharged. There are usually two charging systems; one from a regular 120 volt or 240 volt wall outlet and the other from a magna-charge indicative charging paddle.

All of these motors and batteries do the work the gasoline component did in the former version. The battery delivers power via the controller.

This component is the middleman between the batteries and the motor. The accelerator pedal is linked to a pair of variable resistors; these resistors relay a signal that tells the controller how much power to deliver.

The weakest part of the electrical car is the batteries. There are noteworthy troubles with the current lead acid battery setup.

The car batteries are heavy and bulky; they are slow to charge and have a restricted capacity; they have a brief life span and are costly.

There are some solutions for a few of these issues. The lead acid batteries can be replaced with NiMH batteries which would increase their life span, but the downside to these is their price tag: $20,000 to $30,000 each instead of $2,000.

The electric car is not a flawless alternative to gasoline cars.

Electric automobiles still use a complex system to propel the vehicle just as a gasoline system does; complex but not mystifying.