Electric cars are continuing to rise in prominence, with a focus on new technology and a newfound range extension to help push them forward.
One of the latest electric vehicles to make a strong splash in the automotive industry is the Tesla Model S, which the company touts as the “first premium electric sedan,” a car capable of a maximum of 300 miles on a single charge while putting out zero emissions, according to Tesla Motors.
While a company like Tesla—which focuses entirely on electric vehicles with its Roadster and Model S—is expected to make such gains in technology to extend the range of their vehicles, many other car companies are also pushing hard to innovate in this category.
On Monday, Nissan Motor Company and General Electric announced a two-year agreement between the two companies that will see them attempt to speed up development of mutual technology aimed at creating what Nissan called “mass market adopting” of electric vehicles.
Nissan had already been pushing forward with an initiative to include solar panels on their Leaf model as a way to help extend the range of the battery, including a demonstration in July of the progress they had made so far.
These solar panels can also be used to aid in the cooling of such vehicles, according to Justis Fenndell of the Northern California Solar Energy Association.
“Cars don’t like to get overheated. So the solar array evacuates the heat from the car. When the battery becomes overheated, the solar energy starts the air conditioning and cools the car,” explained Fenndell. “Therefore, when all the other cars are hot from the heat outside in the parking lot, you have a cooled down car already set for you.”
Consumer concerns over the range of electric vehicles and situations that could lead to dead batteries have been noted as reasons for hesitation in the past on electric vehicles and have propelled new research into better battery technology from multiple car companies, including Tesla, Ford, Nissan and Toyota.
Marc Gellar, the co-founder of Plug-In America, doesn’t think these arguments hold weight anymore with recent technological innovations, and that the real problem instead lies with a lack of available models.
“The only thing that has been keeping any of us from driving EV’s [electric vehicles] were that the automakers weren’t simply making any of the damn things…I put a thousand miles a month on it, never once coming close to running out of juice,” stated Gellar in June’s issue of Solar Today.
With new models like the Tesla Model S hitting the market and a directed focus from automakers on improving existing technology, better options for electric vehicles are on the way for consumers.