Basin Electric Unveils Electric Car

The Great Plains Energy Expo in Bismarck was the perfect place for Basin Electric Power Cooperati...  More »

The Great Plains Energy Expo in Bismarck was the perfect place for Basin Electric Power Cooperative to unveil its new project... This is the first 2008 Ford Escape to be converted into an electric car in the nation. Chris Vandeventer has been working on the project for eighteen months now. He says seventy percent of people drive less than forty miles a day and those people could definitely benefit from electrically-powered car. Vandeventer says the potential of this car is just being discovered... (Chris Vandeventer, Basin Electric Power Cooperative) As technology improves the lithium ion cells are going to get smaller and smaller and more efficient and high capacity and a lot safer. And you are going to be able to pack a lot more juice into the same space as you are in the battery today. Vandeventer says a typical electric car can travel about thirty miles on a full battery. He says it takes six hours for these cars to recharge.  « Less