What Would Big Oil Invest In? Written By: Miranda Marquit 2008-10-02 13:17:39 Does Big Oil see which way the wind is blowing (and where the sun is shining)?
Who is Killing the Electric Car? Written By: Mark Bershatsky 2008-08-04 11:59:00 Photo: urbanjacksonville, Creative Commons, Flickr
With the race to launch the world's first commercially viable zero-emission vehicle now in full swing, it would be kind of fun to take a short trip down memory lane to see the genesis of this race and how we can formulate our expectations going forward.
Who Killed the Electric Car? Written By: Michelle Haimoff 2006-12-11 15:36:20 Who Killed the Electric Car? is pretty much what you’d expect – a 90-minute infomercial about the electric vehicle crossed with a scathing expose of the evil oil and automotive industries.
The protagonist of the film is a bright-eyed redhead named Chelsea Sexton, who joined the marketing team for GM’s prototype electric car, EV1, fresh out of college. Other good guys include scruffy-faced celebrities like Peter Horton and Ed Begley, Jr., who you may recall from the Simpsons episode where he drives a go-cart powered by his own sense of self-satisfaction. In this cameo, he eulogizes the EV1 at a staged funeral for the car in 2003, where activists dressed in black placed flowers on the hood.
The film traces the history of the electric car, from its inception at the turn of the 20th century to its demise at the turn of the 21st. The main focus is the cars’ surge in popularity in recent years with the 1990 Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate, and its abrupt disappearance when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) modified the mandate, prompting car companies to recall and destroy all existing electric vehicles. Although there were waitlists for EV1s at the time of the recall, GM claimed that there was little demand, and EV1 drivers were prohibited from purchasing the vehicles, despite their best efforts.
This is a story of selfishness and greed, of self-centeredness, envy and the ignorant folly of a person too short-sighted to realize she should count herself lucky because her college education didn’t have to be paid for with the milk of a goat.
The tale could be called: I Can No Longer Afford to Drive My Car.
