Electric Cars Gain Users As Carmaker Tesla Tackles Range Anxiety

Electric cars have been made more attractive to potential owners by Tesla’s Model S, which can be driven up to 500 miles on a charge at slow speeds. Tesla projections reveal that improving battery technology could extend the range to 600 miles in 2016, and 746 miles in 2020.

According to Engadget, Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk touts these projections based on battery refinement progression at a rate of five to 10 percent a year, to give his electric cars a satisfactory range advantage over a relatively short period of time. Even with enthusiastic drivers floor-boarding their accelerators, the range based on Musk’s calculations comes up to a realistic 382 to 483 miles.

In a surprising development, Quartz reports that Apple has cranked up development on its own electric cars, to be offered by 2019. The Apple slice of the electric cars pie is expected to be fully realized by 2020. The computer software and electronics manufacturer will put itself in waters already claimed by big sharks General Motors, Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, and Bavarian Motor Works (BMW), aside from the aggressive young upstart, Tesla.

With $200 billion in capitalization funds, Apple is primed and ready for mass marketing electric cars, targeting low-end economy sedans and stylish luxury models for the discerning buyer between 2017 and 2020. An experienced hand at turning a quick buck, the computer software and electronics icon is aiming for similar success in selling electric cars.

Another contender is small-car specialist Volkswagen. While mired in an emission cheating software scandal, the multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany, is still a force to reckon with. Quartz notes that Volkswagen bypassed Toyota in July to become the biggest carmaker in the world.

Unfortunately for Volkswagen, U.S. regulators found its diesel engines emitting up to 40 times the amount of nitrogen oxides acceptable. Whether the disclosure that it has misled millions of customers worldwide will knock the German carmaker out of the running remains to be seen.

According to NDTV, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a tour of Tesla Motors in San Jose, California, on Saturday, September 26, 2015. Shown around in a battery-powered cart by Tesla C.E.O. Elon Musk, the Indian prime minister was given an overview of how electric cars can be better than fossil fuel-powered cars.

The Hindu reported that Musk gave Prime Minister Modi a presentation on the revolutionary technologies being developed by Tesla, likely to change the face of the motor industry with wider implications on developing countries, like India, on renewable energy.

Tesla spokesperson Ricardo Reyes made the following press statement about Prime Minister Modi’s hour-long visit to view the electric cars in their home setting.

“Tesla C.E.O. Elon Musk and Prime Minister Modi discussed Tesla’s developments in battery technology, energy storage and renewable energy, and the positive implications of this innovation for India.”

An enthusiastic advocate of renewable and alternative sources of energy, Prime Minister Modi represents millions of potential customers who would consider electric cars in a country where carmaker penetration is still relatively low.

Green Car Reports indicate that tax incentives and zero emission mandates by U.S. policymakers are meant to put as many electric cars on the road as possible. The grand target on the firing range is the displacement en masse of gasoline and diesel cars.

With this foreknowledge, Tesla Motors is using its public company status to trade doggedly on the NASDAQ stock exchange after its first quarter triumph in 2013, posting profits for the first time in its history. Tesla gained widespread attention with the Tesla Roadster, heralding the coming of age for the first fully electric sports cars, followed by the Model S, a fully electric luxury sedan, and then the Model X and Model 3. Sales for the Model S electric cars worldwide surpassed the 75,000 unit mark in June, 2015.

[Image credit: Sean Gallup / Getty Images]