Living Like Ed - (Page 70) 70 Toyota RAV4 EV, was 80 miles under average driving conditions. And that was round-trip—unless I had plenty of time and a charger on the other end (because it can take up to 8 hours to charge an electric vehicle’s battery from empty to full). Practically, I could only go 40 miles each way in that car. That was enough to get me to most places I would normally drive. For example, it’s a 17-mile drive to Los Angeles International Airport. The other end of the Valley, Chatsworth, is also about 17 miles away. Hollywood is just 7 miles away. Downtown is 13 miles away. Acton, where I often had to go for film shoots, was 38 miles each way. I could make it there and back, but I couldn’t go any farther. If there was roadwork and I had to make a detour, I’d end up charging somewhere. So yes, an electric vehicle’s finite range is somewhat of a limitation, but it has increased dramatically since my very first electric car, which could go only 15 miles between charges. And battery technology continues to improve. Today, many companies are focused on increasing the amount of energy that can be stored in ever smaller, ever more durable batteries—even batteries that use greener materials. On the one hand, it’s part of an ongoing trend toward miniaturization—things like computers and radios and calculators and cell phones getting ever smaller. And it’s also part of an ongoing trend toward better, smarter batteries that can hold more energy and that don’t need to be fully charged—and fully discharged—each time you use them. You’ve seen improvements like these in your cell phone batteries, digital camera batteries, and laptop computer batteries. Those advances in battery technology mean electric vehicles’ range will no doubt get even better in coming years. RACHELLE’S TURN living like Ed So what’s it like to drive an electric car? You turn it on and you hear nothing. It’s a go-kart. It’s very quiet. You get RACHELLE’S accustomed to the sound of a gasoline engine, so when you TURN turn on the electric car and it just goes click, you wonder, “Is it on?” Many times, when we’ve left the car with the valet, they go click, click, click, and try to make that vroom sound. When we get our car back they say, “It’s broken!” You have to be extravigilant about pedestrians because they can’t hear you Transportation Statistics, the average American drives 29 miles per day—well within the range of
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