With smart cars getting more and more out there into the public eye I feel the need as the ACF to tell my readers what they are and what benefits the provide you and the environment.

The latest smart car the deemed the “Smart EV” is all electric with a non cumbustable engine. The engine a 30 kW/41 bhp magnetic motor which is located at the back of the car produces no carbon dioxide and is sealed in a high temperature resistant underbody and is drive by a high temp. battery. When the battery is empty it can be rechanged with a 240 socket and can be recharged about 1000 times. The battery also lasts for up to ten years. It takes about eight hours to charge it to full capacity.

Smart cars also recieve many tax breaks given the state and for that matter the country that your in almost all states offer them. Some are only a couple hundred dollars while others range into the low thousands Kansas offers a 2500 dollar incentive.

Coventry City a metropolitan district in central England will be allowing their employees to use these smart cars and will be allowed to keep their personal cars at home. The city got 100 of the smart cars in 2007 and will be doing their part in the ever changing roll of global warming and how it effects us and our use of foreign oil.

And those of your worrying about the performance aspect of these smart cars here’s the nuts ans bolts of the matter. It can reach up to 70mph and it goes from 0-30 in 6.5 seconds. So no gearheads you can’t race anyone but in the same sense you can get from point A to B in a fast enough time and is ideal for city travel.

Though you and I aren’t driving these cars just yet the Ford Sync and the GM OnStar is a step in the right direction as the big 3 or big 4 make their move into this realm. We’ll be taking a close look or both of those systems in a later article.

ACF