Electric Car Pleases Drivers but Range Worries Some : Automobiles: Testers say GM’s Impact met their daily driving needs 83% of the time.

The first real-world tests of the General Motors Impact, Detroit’s most advanced prototype of a commercial electric car, show that Los Angeles-area drivers were impressed by the car’s performance but worried about running out of juice because of the restricted range, according to data released today by the auto maker and two sponsoring electric utilities.

Seventy-nine drivers in Southern California used the electric car as their primary vehicle for from two to four weeks at a stretch and reported that it met their daily driving needs 83% of the time.

“The car is very easy to drive; it’s not frightening. And it made me feel very clean--there’s no oil, no smell, no sound,” said Mark Caplow, a West Los Angeles real estate developer who drove a car lent by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Caplow and other drivers believe that more public charging facilities would make up for the limited range.

Recharging costs were 3.75 cents a mile and as low as 1.44 cents, if charged at night when electricity is cheaper to generate. That is significantly less than gasoline, which was an average of 5.3 cents a mile in March, 1995, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California. The fuel figure does not include the cost of replacing the electric vehicle’s battery pack, however.

The generally optimistic results bear on one of the central arguments raging between the big auto makers and California regulators, who have mandated that beginning in 1998, 2% of the new cars offered in California showrooms by seven companies must be zero-emission--almost certainly electric vehicles.

Car makers question whether there is a market for electric vehicles, considering their limitations. The Impact, which has the acceleration and handling of a sports car, has a 70- to 90-mile range. Proponents have argued that consumers would even pay a premium for electric cars.

Doris Ehlers, a partner at Woodland Hills-based J.D. Power & Associates, the auto-industry research firm, said the results raised questions about whether battery-powered cars could serve as the sole family car.

“Most consumers depend heavily on their automobile,” she said, “and if something only meets their needs 83% of the time, does that mean we are only looking at a second vehicle?”