Sports-car racing, form of motor racing involving cars built to combine aspects of racing and touring cars. Although there are many conflicting definitions of sports cars, it is usually conceded that in normal production form they do not resemble Grand Prix (Formula One) racing machines. Whereas the latter is a single-seat design carrying spartan cockpit furnishings and utterly functional equipment throughout, the sports car is usually a two-seater, sometimes a four-seater, characterized by its nimble abilities (if not speed and power) together with general suitability for high-speed touring on ordinary roads. Unlike a Grand Prix car, it is usually series-produced, seldom handmade. Some manufacturers of Grand Prix machines, such as Ferrari and Lotus, also make sports cars. Other makes include MG, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Austin-Healey, Triumph, Porsche, Lancia, Morgan, and Chevrolet Corvette. Although not usually designed exclusively for racing, sports cars are, nevertheless, able racing machines and are often entered in competitions with others of their class. Most of the world’s sports-car racing is conducted for amateur drivers by local and regional organizations. Some of the world’s most famous professional races are sports-car events, however, and may even be designated as Grand Prix. (When the term Grand Prix is used in this context, it does not refer to the type of car used but rather to the race’s being a major automotive event of the nation in which it is held.) The development of sports cars for racing, especially in such commercially important events as the 24-hour endurance race at Le Mans, where the reputations of participating manufacturers are very much at stake, brought about some prototype sports cars that are, in reality, little different in their power and speed potentials from Formula One machines. A world sports-car championship was awarded from 1953 to 1961. It was replaced in 1962 by a manufacturer’s championship, for which grand touring and prototype cars also compete, awarded annually to the make of car that achieves the best record in a specified series of races.

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electric car, battery-powered motor vehicle, originating in the late 1880s and used for private passenger, truck, and bus transportation.

Discover the impacts of electric vehicles on the electrical power grid and explore ways to reduce their carbon footprint

Discover the impacts of electric vehicles on the electrical power grid and explore ways to reduce their carbon footprintLearn about the environmental implications of the increased load on the electrical power grid that would result from widespread use of electric vehicles.

Through the early period of the automotive industry until about 1920, electric cars were competitive with petroleum-fueled cars, particularly as luxury cars for urban use and as trucks for deliveries at closely related points, for which the relatively low speed and limited range, until battery recharge, were not detrimental. Electrics, many of which were steered with a tiller rather than a wheel, were especially popular for their quietness and low maintenance costs. Ironically, the death knell of the electric car was first tolled by the Kettering electrical self-starter, first used in 1912 Cadillacs and then increasingly in other gasoline-engine cars. Mass production, led by Henry Ford, also reduced the cost of nonelectrics. Electric trucks and buses survived into the 1920s, later than passenger cars, especially in Europe.

Electric car prototypes reappeared in the 1960s, when major U.S. manufacturers, faced with the ultimate exhaustion of petroleum-based fuels and with immediate rising fuel costs from the domination of Arab petroleum producers, once again began to develop electrics. Both speed and range were increased, and newly developed fuel cells offered an alternative to batteries, but by the mid-1980s electric cars had not yet become part of the automotive industry’s output. Most industrial in-plant carrying and lifting vehicles, however, were electrically powered.

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Nissan LEAFLEAF, Nissan Motor Co.'s zero-emission electric vehicle, 2009.

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Interest in electric cars rose in the late 1990s, partly because of concerns about climate change. Toyota introduced the Prius, a hybrid capable of running both on battery power and on gasoline, first in Japan in 1997 and then worldwide in 2000. The popularity of the Prius led to the development of other hybrid vehicles, such as the Honda Insight (1999) and the Chevrolet Volt (2011). In 2008 Tesla released its first car, the completely electric luxury sports car Roadster, which could travel 394 km (245 miles) on a single charge. The success of the Roadster and other Tesla models led to other car companies designing their own all-electric vehicles, such as the Nissan LEAF (2010) and the Renault ZOE (2012). Many of the world’s major car companies planned either to make mostly or only electric or hybrid cars or to stop developing new car models with internal-combustion engines by the 2030s.