Miles Automotive is offering a bounty to student unions that promote the use of electric vehicles. The company's "No Gas Required" PR campaign makes electric cars available for demonstration at school events, and the company will pay $500 to university "green groups" that convince their school to buy an EV.
Miles Automotive's perform similar to competing neighborhood vehicles that aren't allowed to go above 35 miles per hour and have a 50 mile range. Next year the company promises to offer a car capable of going 80 mph and traveling for up to 120 miles. Now that's something to get excited about.
While EVs make sense as campus security vehicles, the technology behind these cars has seemingly been at a standstill for nearly twenty years. I'm not sure that we want the next generation of car buyers to think that this is the EV experience. It might actually discourage more people from buying full-functioning electric vehicles in the future.
On the other hand, if Tesla Motors was taking its electric speed demon around campuses, it would probably inspire students to want to make enough money to afford the six-figure cars.
