Who Killed the Electric Car?
By Ed Spivey Jr., Sojourners
They say you're not paranoid if people are really out to get you. The same can hold true for conspiracy theorists who walk the earth in constant vigil against the dark collusion behind every thwarted effort for human good. Those twitchy bands are no doubt high-fiving the release of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" a documentary that, at least in this one case, proves them 100% correct.
In 1992, after a billion dollars in research, General Motors produced 200 EVs, an all-electric vehicle that would comply with California's mandate that a zero-emissions car comprise up to 10% of the total fleet sold in that state. To those lucky few who were able to lease one, the car quickly became an object of love, smugness, and downright obsession. As promised, the car could travel at highway speeds for up to 100 miles on a single charge, more than enough for the average daily commute. The drivers reported nothing but passionate praise for their new rides, and environmentalists saw this as the first wave of a technology that would dramatically reduce air pollution and dependence on foreign oil.
They were wrong.If the film is to be believed (cue conspiracists), GM soon realized the EV would compete against its gas-fueled cars. Additionally, the company worried about dealers losing their primary profit centers—periodic maintenance and replacement parts that electric cars would never need.
Servicing the EV meant occasionally rotating the tires and replenishing the windshield washer fluid. A car company that had for decades built planned obsolescence into its vehicles had inadvertently produced a car that owners might never need to replace.
For their part, oil companies financed a multimillion dollar lobbying campaign against California's air quality regulations. Chevron purchased the patents of a superior battery that would have given the EV even more range, and then kept that technology from the marketplace. The pro-oil Bush administration weighed in by promoting hydrogen technology and then pressured a California regulatory agency to kill the zero emissions requirement in favor of this unproven fuel. In hopes of delaying the proven electric technology, other automobile manufacturers—including the now-green Honda and Toyota—hopped on the hydrogen promotional bandwagon despite the fact that production and infrastructure is decades away, if not a complete pipe dream.
Eventually, GM recalled all 200 of its electric cars and crushed them, sometimes within view of their heartbroken owners, many of whom were arrested for attempting to block the action. An aerial view of dozens of flattened EVs in a desert storage area bears mute condemnation of the corporations that purposely kept an innovative and environmentally conscientious technology from reaching the public.
They say you're not paranoid if people are really out to get you. The same can hold true for conspiracy theorists who walk the earth in constant vigil against the dark collusion behind every thwarted effort for human good. Those twitchy bands are no doubt high-fiving the release of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" a documentary that, at least in this one case, proves them 100% correct.
In 1992, after a billion dollars in research, General Motors produced 200 EVs, an all-electric vehicle that would comply with California's mandate that a zero-emissions car comprise up to 10% of the total fleet sold in that state. To those lucky few who were able to lease one, the car quickly became an object of love, smugness, and downright obsession. As promised, the car could travel at highway speeds for up to 100 miles on a single charge, more than enough for the average daily commute. The drivers reported nothing but passionate praise for their new rides, and environmentalists saw this as the first wave of a technology that would dramatically reduce air pollution and dependence on foreign oil.
They were wrong.If the film is to be believed (cue conspiracists), GM soon realized the EV would compete against its gas-fueled cars. Additionally, the company worried about dealers losing their primary profit centers—periodic maintenance and replacement parts that electric cars would never need.
Servicing the EV meant occasionally rotating the tires and replenishing the windshield washer fluid. A car company that had for decades built planned obsolescence into its vehicles had inadvertently produced a car that owners might never need to replace.
For their part, oil companies financed a multimillion dollar lobbying campaign against California's air quality regulations. Chevron purchased the patents of a superior battery that would have given the EV even more range, and then kept that technology from the marketplace. The pro-oil Bush administration weighed in by promoting hydrogen technology and then pressured a California regulatory agency to kill the zero emissions requirement in favor of this unproven fuel. In hopes of delaying the proven electric technology, other automobile manufacturers—including the now-green Honda and Toyota—hopped on the hydrogen promotional bandwagon despite the fact that production and infrastructure is decades away, if not a complete pipe dream.
Eventually, GM recalled all 200 of its electric cars and crushed them, sometimes within view of their heartbroken owners, many of whom were arrested for attempting to block the action. An aerial view of dozens of flattened EVs in a desert storage area bears mute condemnation of the corporations that purposely kept an innovative and environmentally conscientious technology from reaching the public.
posted by pop at 8:32 PM
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