One of the most common criticism of electric vehicles, even among their proponents, is "there's so little out there!". And for the most part, this criticism is valid. While there are dozens of types of NEVs -- "Neighborhood Electric Vehicles", which are low-range, low speed, and low performance -- one who wants a longer range, highway-speed vehicle has been largely restricted to bidding exorbitant amounts for some of the few remaining such vehicles from the 90s CARB era, such as the RAV4EV. This has led to the erroneous assumption that there are few to no EVs coming out in the immediate future.
The reality is just the opposite. In fact, almost every major automaker (with just a few notable exceptions) has announced solid plans to produce at least one production model. What follows are 33 new, modern EVs (both BEVs (battery-electric vehicles) and PHEVs (plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) that will be hitting the streets in the next few years.
Read on for more details!
This list is not intended to be exhaustive. In fact, it's quite incomplete. I've limited it to cars, trucks, and SUVs. The many electric scooters and conventional motorcycles (a number of which are already on the streets), as well as the upcoming electric commercial vans and semis, are not included. Concept vehicles are not included. Vehicles from new companies who haven't shown compelling evidence that they're progressing toward production (such as Venture Vehicles' fascinating VentureOne) are not included. Major companies that have announced that they're considering producing EVs and PHEVs, but haven't committed to it, are not included. And so on. That said, let's get to them!
| Manufacturer | Model | Type | Seats | Price | Electric range (mi) | 0-60 (sec) | Top speed (mph) | Battery type | Fast charge? | Est. release date | Refs |
Aptera Typ-1 | Aptera | Palomar | Probably both EV and PHEV | 4 |
|
|
|
| Unknown li-ion |
|
| * |
Typ-1e | EV | 2+1 | $27k | 120 | <10 | 85-90 | LiP | Currently no; undecided on faster | December 2008 | * |
Typ-1h | Series PHEV | 2+1 | $30k | 40-60 | <10 | 85-90 | LiP | Currently no; undecided on faster | Early 2010 | * |
Volkswagen Up! | Audi | (EV version of the Volkswagen Up!) | EV | 4 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Before 2011 | * |
BYD E6 | BYD | E6 | EV | 5 |
| 186 | 10 | 99 | LiP | 80% in 15 min | 2010 | ** |
BYD F6DM | F6DM | Series PHEV | 5 |
| 60 | 10 | 99 | LiP | 80% in 15 min | 2010 | ** |
Chevrolet Volt | Chevrolet | Volt | Series PHEV | 4 | $30-40k | 40 | <8.5 | 120 | LiP or spinel |
| Late 2010 | ** |
| Chrysler |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2011-2013 | * |
Smart Fortwo | Daimler AG | Smart Fortwo ED | EV | 2 | Probably battery rental | 90 |
|
| Unknown li-ion |
| 2010 | * |
Silence PT2 | EBW & Silence | Silence PT2 | EV | 2 | $42k | 125-250 |
| 125 |
|
|
| * |
Fisker Karma | Fisker | Karma | (?) PHEV | 4 | $80k | 50 | 5.8 | 125 | Unknown li-ion |
| Late 2009 | ** |
Eliica | Hiroshi Shimizu | Eliica | EV | 4 | $255k |
| 4 (for the "speed model"; the "acceleration model" should be faster) | 230 (speed model) | Unknown li-ion |
|
| **** |
Lightning GT | Lightning Car Co | Lightning GT | EV | 2 | $220k | 150-180, can be increased | <4 | 130 | Titanate | Full in 10 minutes | 2009 | ** |
Loremo | Loremo | EV | EV | 2+2 | $48k | 93-124 | <15 | 105 | Unknown li-ion |
|
| *** |
Mazda 5 MPV (drivetrain mule) | Mazda |
| Series PHEV | 7? |
| |
|
| |
| | * |
| Mercedes-Benz |
| Parallel PHEV? |
|
| 105 |
|
| Unknown li-ion |
| 2010 | ** |
Miles XS500 | Miles | Javlon XS500 | EV | 4-5 | $35k-$39k | 120 |
| 80
| Unknown li-ion |
| 2009 | ** |
Mitsubishi i-MiEV | Mitsubishi | i-MiEV | EV | 4 | $20-35k | 100
| 10 | 80 | Unknown li-ion | 80% in 30 minutes |
| ** |
Phoenix SUT | Phoenix | SUV and SUT | EV | 2 | $45k | 130 (extended = 200)
| <10
| 95
| Titanate, possibly spinel | 10 minutes | 2008 or 2009
| * |
| Pininfarina/Bollore |
| EV | 4 |
| 155 |
| 80 | Unknown long-life li-poly | No | 2010 | * |
Nissan-Renault Project Better Place sedan | Nissan-Renault | (Unnamed sedan) | EV | 4 | "Price of a regular sedan" + battery rental costs "less than the average monthly expenditure on gas" | 125-250 | 8 |
|
| Battery swap | 2010 | ** |
Saturn Vue Green Line | Saturn | Vue Green Line | Parallel PHEV | 5 |
| 10 | 7 |
|
|
| 2009 | * |
Ultimate Aero | Shelby Supercars | Ultimate Aero EV | EV | 2 |
|
| "Twin 500hp motors" | World's fastest EV |
|
| Q4 2009 | * |
Subaru R1e | Subaru | R1e | EV | 2 |
| 50 |
| 65 | Spinel | 80% in 8 minutes | 2010 | ** |
Tata Indica | Tata | Indica EV | EV | 4 |
| 125-250 |
|
| Unknown li-ion |
|
| * |
Tesla Roadster | Tesla | Model S | EV | 4-5 | $60k | 225 |
|
| Unknown li-ion |
|
| * |
Roadster | EV | 2 | $109k | 221 orig (231 w/powertrain 1.5?) | 3.9 | 125 | Traditional li-ion | No | Now | *** |
Th!nk City | Th!nk | City | EV | 2 | $28k plus $100-$200/mo battery rental | 124 | 0-50 in 15 sec | 65 |
| No | Now | * |
Th!nk Ox | Ox | EV | 5 |
| 120 |
|
| Unknown li-ion |
|
| * |
Toyota Prius | Toyota | Plug-in Prius | Parallel PHEV | 5 | | 7 initially, more later |
|
| NiMH initially, li-ion later |
|
| ** |
| EV | "Small urban commuter car" |
|
|
|
|
|
| Early 2010s
| ** |
Volkswagen Golf | Volkswagen | Twin Drive Golf | Parallel PHEV | 4-5 |
| 31 |
|
| Unknown li-ion |
| 2012 | * |
Wrightspeed X1 (precursor) | Wrightspeed | SR-71 | EV | 2 |
|
| 2.5 |
|
|
| Track-ready, late 2009; street-legal, early 2011 | * |
Nissan-Renault Project Better Place sedan | Nissan-Renault | (Unnamed sedan) | EV | 4 | "Price of a regular sedan" + battery rental costs "less than the average monthly expenditure on gas" | 125-250 | 8 |
|
| Battery swap | 2010 | ** |
Saturn Vue Green Line | Saturn | Vue Green Line | Parallel PHEV | 5 |
| 10 | 7 |
|
|
| 2009 | * |
Ultimate Aero | Shelby Supercars | Ultimate Aero EV | EV | 2 |
|
| "Twin 500hp motors" | World's fastest EV |
|
| Q4 2009 | * |
Subaru R1e | Subaru | R1e | EV | 2 |
| 50 |
| 65 | Spinel | 80% in 8 minutes | 2010 | ** |
Tata Indica | Tata | Indica EV | EV | 4 |
| 125-250 |
|
| Unknown li-ion |
|
| * |
Tesla Roadster | Tesla | Model S | EV | 4-5 | $60k | 225 |
|
| Unknown li-ion |
|
| * |
Roadster | EV | 2 | $109k | 221 orig (231 w/powertrain 1.5?) | 3.9 | 125 | Traditional li-ion | No | Now | *** |
Th!nk City | Th!nk | City | EV | 2 | $28k plus $100-$200/mo battery rental | 124 | 0-50 in 15 sec | 65 |
| No | Now | * |
Th!nk Ox | Ox | EV | 5 |
| 120 |
|
| Unknown li-ion |
|
| * |
Toyota Prius | Toyota | Plug-in Prius | Parallel PHEV | 5 | | 7 initially, more later |
|
| NiMH initially, li-ion later |
|
| ** |
| EV | "Small urban commuter car" |
|
|
|
|
|
| Early 2010s
| ** |
Volkswagen Golf | Volkswagen | Twin Drive Golf | Parallel PHEV | 4-5 |
| 31 |
|
| Unknown li-ion |
| 2012 | * |
Wrightspeed X1 (precursor) | Wrightspeed | SR-71 | EV | 2 |
|
| 2.5 |
|
|
| Track-ready, late 2009; street-legal, early 2011 | * |
About the lesser-known manufacturers:
Aptera Motors, formerly Accelerated Composites, is an automotive startup from Carlsbad, CA whose investors run the gamut from Google to a small oil company (Essenjay Petroleum). Their main funding comes from technology incubator Idealab. Aptera focuses on hyper-aerodynamic, low energy shapes, and has been leaching talent from the industry to quickly move their Typ-1 tadpole three-wheeler into production -- and later, their four-wheeled followup, codenamed "Palomar".
BYD Auto is a subsidiary of BYD Company; both are headquartered in China. BYD Company is one of the world's largest manufacturers of lithium ion batteries. Currently a low volume producer (~10,000 cars per month), BYD plans to significantly ramp up by branching into the electric vehicle market.
EBW (Electric Big Wheel) is a French-Canadian manufacturer of electric go carts. Silence is the manufacturer of the T-Rex tadpole three-wheeler, which helped bring about a new surge in interest in such a drive configuration. The two have partnered up to produce the Silence PT1, an electric vehicle based on the T-Rex.
Fisker Automotive is a joint venture between Fisker Coachbuild and Quantum technologies. Fisker Coachbuild is a world-famous sports car design house based in Orange County, California. Quantum Technologies is a performance automotive parts designer and manufacturer whic makes an electric drivetrain called the "Q-Drive".
The Lightning Car Company is a new British sports car manufacturer based in Peterborough.
Loremo, short for "Low Resistance Mobile", is a German company founded in 2000 designed around producing small vehicles with a very low drag area, with models powered by internal combustion engines or electricity.
Miles Automotive is a Los Angeles-based company that partners with Chinese companies to bring low-cost Chinese-made NEVs -- and soon, a full highway-speed BEV -- to US markets. Their XS500 "Javlon" sedan, initially considered a longshot due to overly ambitious stats, has since been revised and has now passed US-standard crash testing.
Phoenix Motorcars is a Ontario, California startup designed to produce fast charge all-electric SUVs and SUTs (Sports Utility Trucks). To compensate for their use of the most expensive, highest performance batteries on the market, they have an unusual business model involving selling the ZEV credits that they earn in California to other automakers.
Pininfarina S.p.A. is an Italian car design firm famous for its work on high-end vehicles, such as Ferrari, Maserati, Cadillac, Nash, Peugeot, Jaguar, Volvo, Alfa Romeo, MG, Cisitalia, and Lancia. Bollore S.A. is one of the largest diversified industrial companies in Europe.
Shelby Supercars is a maker of exotic luxury sports cars, most famous for their 1183hp, 257mph Ultimate Aero.
Tata Motors is India's largest automobile manufacturer (although production of the electric Indica is to be done in Norway). Tata is perhaps most famous for their plans to build the Tata Nano, the world's cheapest car.
Tesla Motors, of San Carlos, CA, is a company founded by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, and funded by Paypal co-founded and rocketry enthusiast Elon Musk. Tesla has earned a lot of esteem by bringing the first production electric sports car to market and is credited with almost singlehandledly changing the public perception of electric vehicles as poor-performance penalty vehicles.
Th!nk Global was owned by Ford back during the 90s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) -- a regulation that also spawned such famous EVs as GM's EV1 and Toyota's RAV4EV. When GM and other car companies got the ZEV mandate overturned, Ford quickly divested itself of Th!nk, who until recently has focused on making NEVs. However, they are rapidly approaching production of their Th!nk City highway-speed electric car, and have plans to continue on to produce the larger Th!nk Ox.
Wrightspeed, of San Francisco, CA was founded by former Tesla employee Ian Wright. The prototype of their production "SR-71" model, known as the X1, is based on the Ariel Atom and is famed for its ability to beat pricey supercars off the line. It has been described by one person who rode in it as feeling like being shot out of a cannon.
The Eliica is an unusual eight-wheeled car produced by a team at Keio University in Tokyo, lead by Professor Hiroshi Shimizu. Since the car uses an in-wheel drive, the use of eight wheels doubles its available power, making it currently the fastest EV in the world. They are taking orders and are improving the design, hoping to best gasoline speed records. On this front, they may have some competition from the 1000hp Ultimate Aero EV.
Pricing:
While electric vehicles currently can have problems from sticker shock (assuming no tax credits), their overall economic situation is quite favorable. This leads to a number of interesting financing options for purchases. While one can still buy most EVs straight out, groups such as the massively-funded Project Better Place are pursuing a wide variety of alternatives, including from long leases, battery rental, a surcharge on on-the-road electricity fills, and so on. The net result is that the owner buys the car for the same price they'd get an equivalent gasoline car, and their total monthly costs are still lower than what the average driver of a gasoline car would pay.
Of course, this all may soon become a moot point, as the prices of most automotive li-ion battery types are not close to being resource-constrained, and are instead production constrained. As a result, they've been falling relatively quickly as production and technology have scaled up. Ener1, for example, expects the extra cost of an EV using their batteries to have a payback as low as 2 years soon.
Read more about EV batteries in Going EV #4: The battery revolution will not be televised.