Chrysler Introducing New All Electric Peapod
Chrysler recently unveiled it’s new all electric Peapod vehicle out of it’s Green EcoMobility (GEM) division. It used to be called Global Electric Motorcars, but was updated with this new generation of cars. This vehicle will be a new generation of vehicles produced from the GEM subsidiary of Chrysler that hopes to hopes to makes a more user friendly car that is eco friendly.
Today’s GEM is the nation’s No. 1 zero-emission electric vehicle, with 38,000 produced and in use. GEM vehicles are used in settings such as city centers, planned communities, military bases, college campuses, corporate and commercial centers, and city, state and national parks.
Past GEM vehicles were fairly inefficient as they were not aerodynamic and usually were partially open. This made them extremely impractical for daily use. This new generation of electric vehicle is not only fully enclosed, but is much more technologically advanced.
Peapod Specs
- Dimensions: 12 ft. long X 5 ft. 10 inches high X 4 ft. 8 inches wide.
- Car Weight: 1,290 lb. total weight ( no people inside )
- Interior Capacity: 910 lbs
- Person Capacity: 2 person max.
- Range: 30 miles
- Max Speed: 25 miles/hour
- Low Speed: 15 miles/hour
- Battery: 72 volt battery system with on-board charger.
- Recharge Time: 6 to 8 hours
As you can tell from the specs and the earlier quote, this is not a vehicles for highway use. Since it can only go a maximum of 25 mph, it is not street legal in all states. This model can only fit up to 2 people back to back, but there are larger 4 or 6 seater vehicles.
It has a modern look with newer battery technology and even has a plug-in for iPhones or iPods. I actually like the look of the inside as it is extremely simple, but still looks very nice.
The big questions I had about this vehicle are: Where can I charge it at and how long will it take? The answer to the first question is it can be charged in any standard 110-volt outlet. The appropriate time to recharge completely six to eight hours. I still wanted to figure out how much it would cost per charging of this vehicle. Since the normal outlet is typically 15 amps. In order to use my energy calculator, we need to convert volts to watts. The wattage for this device is
72 volts * 15 amps = 1080 watts.
Plugging this value in to my calculator you get a cost of about $331.13 per year to operate this car. I also did an article the average gas cost of a car per year that showed a small economy car uses about $1,868 of gas per year. That means that an electric cars could cost you 1/5 of the amount to run.
At an approximate price of $20,000, do you think you would every buy this electric vehicle? What about other options like the Aptera or Tesla?
Aptera: A New Generation Vehicle
The Aptera Typ-1 is new concept vehicle being made by the California based company Aptera. It’s actually a vehicle, not a car and technically classified as a motorcycle. The vehicle looks a little weird at first as it only has 3 wheels, but I dug a little further to find out more information about it.
The Typ-1 will come in two varieties, the all electric version and a plug-in hybrid-diesel version. The electric model has an approximate range of 120 miles when the battery is properly draining. That is not bad considering the average daily commute for Americans is under 20 miles per way. The plug-in hybrid version get 300 miles/gallon when traveling 120 miles in a day. That incredible compared to the current hybrid cars available. Since the average person only travels closer to 50 miles per day, the mpg raises to about 500!! That’s what i call truly gas efficient.
After hearing about this car on the radio several times, I am convinced that it will succeed. You can hold up to 15 bags of groceries. One really awesome feature about this car is that it has a fan that will maintain the temperature of the car to the temperature outside. This is done through a fan that will automatically start when you leave you car and is completely controlled through a solar panel on top of the car. The problem with a lot of cars that are available that get really high mileage or are electric is the price. This car ranges anywhere from $27,000 - $30,000 depending on the model you buy. That really makes this car much more affordable for the average person.
There are a few downsides to this car. The biggest is that it is not yet available to the entire nation because Aptera is such a small company. Also, the car can only fit two people and an infant. If you have a big family, this car is out of the question. You also have to charge the battery nightly that will cost you about $1-$2 of electricity to do so. That still saves the huge gas costs we are currently paying.
If you really want to get a hold of this car and live in the state of California, you can reserve one for only $500 at https://aptera.com/reserve.php. It would be awesome if this car was made available to all states in the next few years and the priced dropped a little further. Even though the more practical model of the Aptera still uses gasoline, I think it is the first step to eliminating our reliance on gasoline.
