Electric Vehicles Quiz

Vrrrrrmmmmm! Vrrrrmmmmm! Electric vehicles have seemed like the wave of the future for decades now...so why aren't we all driving them? Test your knowledge of plug-in cars with this quiz.

What's the toughest part of building an electric car?

The body

The wheels

The battery

You chose: You chose:

The battery. Most of the other stuff is pretty much the same as any car, but batteries are big, heavy, and expensive.

There's no gasoline engine in an electric car, so what runs that thing?

An internal combustion engine

An electric motor

Hamsters

You chose: You chose:

An electric motor. It's powered by batteries that are charged with, you know, electricity.

The $109,000 Tesla Roadster is a real, live electric car. How do you charge it?

By adding gas

At any outlet

At the power plant

At a special Tesla electricity station

You chose: You chose:

You can plug it into any old outlet. At home, you'll want to use a higher-voltage outlet. "You" being people who can afford one. (Future electric cars should cost less.)

True/False: Electric cars emit no tailpipe pollutants.

True

False

You chose: You chose:

True. This moves emissions away from the street (where you and I breathe them) to the power plant, which most people would argue is an improvement. Most electricity in the U.S. still comes from burning fossil fuels, mostly coal.

Which of these is a problem electric car makers are trying to solve?

Electric cars aren't noisy enough

They don't produce enough sulfur dioxide

They don't cost enough

You chose: You chose:

They aren't noisy enough. This is a serious danger for blind pedestrians, so electric car makers need to figure out what sounds to put on their cars.

True/false: Electric cars are harder to heat than gas cars.

True

False

You chose: You chose:

True. Gas-powered cars burn gas, releasing plenty of heat that can be used to warm up the car. Electric cars need heaters.

Which of these is a real electric car?

Nissan Leaf

Toyota Puppy

Mitsubishi Twig

Ford Plug

You chose: You chose:

Nissan Leaf, although I think all of those would be excellent names for cars. I'd love to drive a Toyota Puppy. Some Nissan Leafs (Leaves?) are supposed to appear in the U.S. in 2010.

We've been talking mostly about electric cars here, but which one of these is also, technically, an electric vehicle?

A Washington, D.C. subway train

A nuclear submarine

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy

They all are

You chose: You chose:

All of these vehicles run on electric motors. In the case of the nuclear submarine and the Coast Guard ship (and a lot of other ships), that electricity just happens to be generated on board, rather than at a far-off power plant.

Correct

Hm. Maybe it's time to bone up on your electricity knowledge. Take the Electricity Quiz and then come back and see if you can improve your score!

Correct

Not bad. Now that you know something about EVs, try your luck with the Solar Power Quiz!

Correct

Wow! What are you, a genius? Take our Tesla quiz and go head to head with a real mad scientist!

Future Energy

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