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Biz_Electric_cars_0907[i++] = new Array("","Introduction","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090708-electric5-5a.hmedium.jpg","","Image: 1974 Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar", "", "", "", "", "", "Courtesy Rick Newman", "HighTechScience.org", "229", "423", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Electric_cars_0907[i-1].body = "<a href=\"http://www.msnbc.msn.com/\"> <img src=\" http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Sources/Art/source-msnbc-com-newlogo.gif\" border=0></a><P ALIGN=LEFT><i>By Dan Carney, contributor</i></BR><br><b><p style=\"font-size: 9pt; color: red\">Introduction</p></b></BR>In the next year or so, after only a century or so of trying, the electric car may break free of the lunatic fringe and become a mainstream transportation option for everyday drivers.</BR><br>Click on the arrows above to read about the evolution of the electric car.<br>";

Biz_Electric_cars_0907[i++] = new Array("","1922 Detroit Electric Model 90","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090707-electric4-4p.hmedium.jpg","","Image: 1914 Detroit Electric Model 47 Brougham", "", "", "", "", "", "", "Henry Ford Museum", "271", "423", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Electric_cars_0907[i-1].body = "<b><p style=\"font-size: 9pt; color: red\">1922 Detroit Electric Model 90</p></b><br>Electric cars are not a recent development. They were actually more popular that gasoline-powered cars in the industry&#146;s early years because of the difficulty of hand crank starting gas engines. Electrics were particularly popular with women for that reason, and because of that, according to noted automotive historian and collector Jay Leno, they suffered an image problem with men, who didn&#146;t want to be seen in them. Detroit Electric was the best-known and longest-lived American electric car maker, building cars from 1907 until 1942. Henry Ford&#146;s wife, Clara, had an aversion to her husband&#146;s cantankerous Model T, instead preferring a 1914 Detroit Electric for her own transportation, using it to visit friends and family, according to the Henry Ford Estate.";

Biz_Electric_cars_0907[i++] = new Array("","1974 Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090708-electric5-5a.hmedium.jpg","","Image: 1974 Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar", "", "", "", "", "", "Courtesy Rick Newman", "HighTechScience.org", "229", "423", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Electric_cars_0907[i-1].body = "<b><p style=\"font-size: 9pt; color: red\">1974 Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar</p></b><br>During the years following the first Arab oil embargo, Sebring-Vanguard benefited from consumers' interest in alternative forms of transportation, riding a boom that also drove moped sales. The company eventually sold about 2,200 of its diminutive CitiCars, which boasted a range of 50 miles and a top speed of 28 mph. An optional upgrade from the standard 3.5-horsepower motor to a 5-horsepower motor boosted the CitiCar's terminal velocity 38 mph. The plastic body was available in five different colors, and the little wedge-shaped machine could whip a U-turn in just 22 feet, about the length of Detroit's biggest barges of the era.";

Biz_Electric_cars_0907[i++] = new Array("","1996 General Motors EV1","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090707-electric1-11a.hmedium.jpg","","Image: General Motors EV1", "", "", "", "", "", "", "GM", "229", "423", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Electric_cars_0907[i-1].body = "<b><p style=\"font-size: 9pt; color: red\">General Motors EV1</p></b><br>During the early 1990s, GM poured billions of dollars into electric vehicle research, developing the EV1 as a planned production model to meet California's expected Zero Emission Vehicle mandate. The early models suffered short range because of their lead acid batteries, but updated models with nickel-metal-hydride batteries could go about 130 miles on a charge. California backpedaled on the ZEV requirement and GM found that it could lease the EV1 only with huge discounts. Facing the elimination of the ZEV requirement and having failed to discover some secret means of building a modern electric car at a price consumers could afford, GM canceled the program. Seeking to at least write off its losses, the company infamously had to destroy the EV1s under federal tax law.";

Biz_Electric_cars_0907[i++] = new Array("","2002 Ford Think City","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090707-electric2-11a.hmedium.jpg","","Image: 2002 Ford Think City", "", "", "", "", "", "", "Ford Motor Co.", "229", "423", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Electric_cars_0907[i-1].body = "<b><p style=\"font-size: 9pt; color: red\">2002 Ford Think City</p></b><br>Ford scion Bill Ford desperately sought to push his namesake company into greener territory after taking over as president in the wake of the Explorer/Firestone tire fiasco and used his checkbook to buy the Norwegian electric car maker \"Th!nk.\"  The company had previously built glorified golf carts, but with the City it moved into genuine \"real car\" territory, with a 50-mile range and 62 mph top speed. When Ford canceled the program, it shipped the cars that came back from lease back to Norway, escaping GM's EV1 PR debacle.";

Biz_Electric_cars_0907[i++] = new Array("","2008 GEM e4","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090707-electric3-11a.hmedium.jpg","","Image: 2008 GEM e4", "", "", "", "", "", "", "Global Electric Motorcars", "229", "423", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Electric_cars_0907[i-1].body = "<b><p style=\"font-size: 9pt; color: red\">2008 GEM e4</p></b><br>Chrysler invested in Global Electric Motorcars as its response to the planned California ZEV mandate and kept it perking along on the back burner ever since, as the company has found an audience for its \"neighborhood electric vehicles\" in sunbelt retirement communities, where the ability to drive from the condo's carport to the first tee is a significant benefit to many drivers. \"The Little Old Lady From Pasadena\" hot rod option upgrades the e4 from its standard 5 horsepower to a fire-breathing 7 horsepower \"for your more demanding applications.\" Chrome emblems are included with the upgrade.  ";

Biz_Electric_cars_0907[i++] = new Array("","2011 Chevy Volt","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/2009/July/090707/090709-chevy-volt-12p.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "Wieck", "Chevrolet", "271", "423", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Electric_cars_0907[i-1].body = "<b><p style=\"font-size: 9pt; color: red\">2011 Chevy Volt</p></b><br>The next major development in the electric vehicle space is expected in late 2010 when GM&#146;s Chevy Volt, a mass-market plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, is expected to go on sale as a 2011 model. The Volt, which can be recharged from a home electrical outlet, is designed to remain primarily in electric mode during the first 40 miles of driving, meaning that many Americans that use it as a commuter car are likely to use no gasoline at all.";

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