EVs Are EVerywhere
Last updated 2002.12.13
One question frequently heard from detractors of quiet, pollution-free electric vehicles is, "If electric vehicles are so great, why aren't more of them already in use?" In fact, electric transportation is so common, we often don't even recognize it when it is right in front of us. Consider the following examples where electric power is a major, or even the dominant, power source for the application. While the numbers of on-road electric vehicles is still small, they are real.
Aircraft Tow Tractors
Airport People Movers - see Personnel Carriers
Baggage Trains and Loaders
Burden Carriers
Car Pushers
Conveyors
Delivery
Milk Floats
Earth Movers
Elevators
Escalators
Forklifts
Golf Carts
Golf carts are actually a fairly recent innovation, a post-World War II North American phenomenon. Their naissance seems linked with some specialized personnel and equipment carriers intended for industrial indoor use.
Club Car
EZ-Go
Pargo
Yamaha
Ice Resurfacing Equipment
Studies in Canada, the United States and Finland show that skaters suffer respiratory health effects as a result of the emissions from propane or gasoline powered ice resurfacing equipment in indoor arenas. The obvious solution is a zero-emissions ice resurfacing machine. These electric-powered units are available from the major manufacturers, Zamboni (Model 552) and Resurfice, maker of the Olympia line, including the Electric and the Cellect. Zamboni introduced its first electric unit in 1960. MG Service, a company based in L'Assomption, Quebec have produced a kit to convert gasoline or propane powered ice resurfacers to electric power. There is a rink in Truro, Nova Scotia that has converted a tractor to electric power to pull a Zamboni ice resurfacer unit.
Mining Equipment
Monorails
Pallet Movers
Railways
The majority of locomotives in regular commercial operation today are called diesel-powered, yet many people don't realize that the power that actually turns the wheels on the "diesel" locomotive is electric. That's right - electric motors actually power those huge trains; the diesel engines are used to turn generators which supply the electricity to the electric motors. The locomotives that are not "diesel-powered" are usually pure-electric.
Bullet Trains
GG-1
The GG-1 was a pure-electric locomotive developed by the General Electric Company for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PPR). Some 139 of these were built between 1934 and 1943. These engines kept running through the merger of PRR into Penn Central and then into Amtrak. The last of the GG-1 locomotives was retired from service in 1983. The GG-1, like most electric locomotives was powered from the grid.
Personnel Carriers
American Continental
Street Cars
Submarines
Subways
Trains - see Railways
Trolley Buses / Trolley Cars
Wheelchairs and Mobility Aids
When you look at this variety of electric transportation solutions, it appears that perhaps it is the internal combustion engine that has captured a niche market - the transportation of people and goods in applications where their poisonous emissions can be accommodated.
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