The rise and fall of the electric car
Back in my elementary and middle school days, I remember watching informational videos at school (these were usually shown whenever we had a substitute) that would always highlight those new bits of technology on the horizon that just never seemed to materialize. According to those videos, everybody’s cars should drive themselves by now, making car accidents non-existent.
One of the more promising inventions was the electric car, which would give off zero air pollutants. Whatever happened to it though? This BBC article explains:
The General Motors EV1 had a top speed of 80mph. It had a range of over a hundred miles. It could do 0-60mph in under eight seconds. And it was an electric car.
Not a milk float or a rinky-dink little two-seater runabout, but a normal car, and a milestone in the development of the electric vehicle, something that could swing the battle against air pollution in California.
And yet the ignominious demise of the GM EV1 is charted in a new film, Who Killed the Electric Car? In his documentary, film-maker Chris Paine, says cynical and conspiring car makers and oil firms, as well as apathetic consumers and weak government and regulators, helped end the electric dream in California.
There was a law made in 1990 (in California) that aimed to get all cars sold in that state to give out 0% air pollution, but GM and others sued until the law was rendered useless. Combine this with strong lobbyist influence, and all work on electric cars have come to a complete stop.
Be sure to read the comments posted by readers at the bottom of that article. They add in good insight on the other side of the story.
Related posts: Geek Heaven: an apartment building filled with gadgets, Matthew McConaughey’s 1971 Corvette convertible on ebay
