Gasoline Prices!

May 12th, 2007 by SCG | Filed under Main.

Holy crap. My small 2 seater pick-up truck, just a little old Ford Ranger, nothing big, was bone dry yesterday. I hadn’t fueled up in weeks. Figured I would fill it up. This is the result:

I repeat myself. Holy crap. Almost $50 bucks for a tank of gas??? Granted, with my 4 cyl engine and a stick shift, that tank of gas will last me a hell of a long time. But still…….$50 freaking dollars????

It made me go searching for electric cars again.

So, here is what I found:

The Tango, above and to the right, is a two seater, one behind the other, a tad wider than a motocycle, but otherwise a real car. Data: Zero to 60 in about 4 seconds. (Remember, no transmission or gears – all electric, so you have just one gear – forward! Top speed is about 130 mph. Just about fast enough for I-95. Price? $18,700 nup to over $100K. Available? Not yet.

OK that is nice, but won’t help me today. So, I turned to Xebra. Cheap at $10,000 but top speed of only 40 MPH which wouldn’t even get me through a school zone in Miami. And the range is 25 miles, so, I could just almost make it to and from work. Not practical.

What I really wanted was something I could actually buy and drive today! Preferably before I need to get gas again. So, I found the NMG which stands for No More Gas. And it is available now! It is priced about $25,000 which is about twice what my truck cost with new. But think about it, no gas. Ever! Top speed is about 75 MPH, about 10 less than my crusing speed on the Florida Turnpike in the mornings on the way to work, but I could drive in the slow lane I guess. The range is a tad better, but not by much. Just 30 miles. Hmmmm…$25,000, range of 30 miles…I don’t know. Plus, its pretty odd looking and small.

There are numerous little zippy odd looking electric cars in Europe and Asia, but I’m not sure if and when they will make it to America. The Telsa looks really good, with a range of over 200 miles, top speed over 135MPH and Zero to 60 in 4 seconds. But at over $100,000 not one I am bound to pick up this weekend.