Who Killed the Electric Car?

I recently seen the movie, Who Killed the Electric Car?, about GM's EV-1 model electric car released in 1996. This car was made by GM as an answer to California's Zero Emissions Act, which said a certain percentage of cars sold in California would need to comply with a stricter emissions, and eventually Zero Emissions, and that percentage would increase every so often. This was due to the fact that California had the worst air quality in the nation, and hydrocarbon emissions from cars were a leading cause of this.

 So GM made the EV-1, an extremely well made car, all electric, and zero emissions. Everyone who drove this car fell in love with it immediatly. But alas, this entire venture was set up to fail from day one, this car was marketed very poorly, it was only leased to it's drivers, and subject to cancellation whenever GM felt, most of the state never even knew about the car, until the last version of the car, substandard batteries were installed, vastly decreasing the total amount of miles it would get per charge, and the list could go on.

Why you might ask would a car manufacturer deliberatly sabotage one of it's lines? The short answer is $$$$$$$$. Both for the replacement parts for internal combustion engine designs, maintenance, oil, and gas. Maintenance on the EV-1 was very simple, with little constant replacement parts needed. Also, fuel economy is kept poor on cars intentionally so that big oil in the US can keep raking in the billions in profits yearly, the oil lobbies are the most powerful on Capitol Hill, and pressure on auto makers by government and these lobbies can be intense. Kinda funny that just 2 days ago, Toyota for the first time ever over took an American car company, Ford, in monthly sales. Could it be that Toyota's get twice the fuel economy US models do? Hmmmmmmmm. Or could it be that they make Hybrid cars that also save it's drivers money in the long run in these times of increased gas prices? Hmmmmmm. 

The US auto manufacters might not all be on the verge of bankruptcy if they would have capitalized on the huge headstart in technology it had back in 1996 with alternatives to the gas guzzler, and Toyota, Honda, and the other foriegn auto makers would have been playing catch up, having already lost the lionshare of the market. But no, GM decided to kill the whole thing after it, and the other US auto makers, along with the federal government sued the state of California and succeeded in repealling the Zero Emissions Act. Then had the audacity to collect all exsisting EV-1's from all it's owners, and had every one of them crushed. They wanted to eliminate them from the earth apparently, no other model car has ever been subject to this type of treatment.

For you history buffs, the only time in history that fuel economy has been regulated by the US government was in the Carter Administration during the energy crunch in the late 70's. Carter made auto companies almost double the fuel efficiency of it's vehicles due to the oil shortage, and long lines at the pumps. Interestingly enough, very, very soon after that annoucement, OPEC announced it was drastically cutting the price of oil, and would be increasing total production. Sounds like they just wanted to keep the world on the oil tit for as long as possible, paying as much as possible, and to this day, not much has changed. We have the technology now to more than double the fuel efficiency of cars, and the electric car is an even better option, no emissions, and no need for gas! Check out this link for what can be done.... http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/07/20/tesla-roadster-unveiled-in-santa-monica/

If someone in our government would have the b@lls to force the auto makers to vastly improve the fuel economy of it's vehicles, and stand up to the oil lobbies, this $3 plus dollars a gallon gas wouldn't nearly be as big a problem. Sure those oil companies wouldn't be raking in record profits anymore, cuz we'd all be consuming less than half of our current needs. But I'm sure that will never happen, cuz if it did, OPEC would probably drop the bottom out of the oil prices anyway, to keep it the best viable option until all of that unrenewable resource is gone. And just think, all of those problem middle eastern countries wouldn't be worth all problems they seem to be, thanks to their rich oil reserves.

In the end I would recommend everyone see, Who Killed the Electric Car? It is really an eye opener in the fact that the people who make big money really don't like to have their means of income undermined by any cheaper, better alternatives!!!!!!!