I thought this may have been discussed on the board a while back but when I did a search, I couldn't find the thread.
A friend of mine lent me the DVD "Who Killed The Electric Car".
I've seen this documentary a total of three times over the last 3 days and the more I watch it, the angrier I get….. at General Motors, at American President George Bush, at CARB (California Air Resources Board) and in particular at Alan C. Lloyd, who was their chairman from 1999-2004.
In 1990, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted automobile emissions standard that were tougher than the federal standards. The tough new regulations were highlighted with the State's Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, under which 10% of new cars sold in California would have been electric, 10% by 2003. Only electric cars were deemed to have no tailpipe emissions.
It's more than a coincidence that Lloyd became the chairman of the California Fuel Cell Partnership, a consortium of automakers and public agencies that promotes the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and infrastructure, four months before the CARB meeting that effectively killed the electric car.
A Hydrogen fuel celled vehicle costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce and hydrogen fuel is very expensive and is currently produced using non-renewable fuel sources. A national H2 fueling station infrastructure must be built at an enormous expense before H2 cars are commercially viable. Even those that promote the Hydrogen Fuel Cell admit that the technology that is required is still 15 years away….
In the late 90's, GM had at least a two-year jump on the world's carmakers with its electric car technology. But instead of capitalizing on this lead with hybrids and more electric vehicles, it abandoned its program. Instead, most of the hundreds of electric vehicles that were manufactured were taken off the road and destroyed by carmakers.
GM's electric car, the EV1 was fast. A prototype set the land speed record for electric cars in 1994 at 183 miles an hour. EVI's accelerated to 30 mph in 3 seconds and to 60mph in under 9 seconds. California stars such as Tom Hanks, who leased one of the EV1s raved about the vehicle, how quiet it was, how fast it accelerated. One of the mechanics who regularly checked the vehicles confided that when they were brought it everything would be fine, he'd rotate the tires, fill up the windshield washer and hand the keys back. Their brakes never once wore out, and were used to recharge the batteries (similar to the hybrids).
As the price of a litre of gasoline hits $1.26 and threatens to top $1.40 to $1.50 before the end of summer, I urged everyone of you to either buy, rent, borrow, or upload this documentary. It will certainly be worth your time.
Here are a few of the facts that this documentary "drives" home…..
• A gallon of gas burned by a gas powered automobile adds roughly 19lbs of carbon dioxide to the air.
• One month after buying Hummer from AM General, GM said there is no particular need to continue building the electric car
• Battery electric cars never need any gasoline. They can often get most of their power recharging in the first 2 hours. Most people also charge them overnight, when electricity demand is off-peak and rates lower.
• Combined profits of Exxon-Mobil, Chevron-Texaco and Conoca-Phillips in 2003 was 33 Billion, this increase in 2004 to 47 Billion and hit 64 Billion in 2005. One can wonder what it was for 2007…..
• The United States consumes almost 9 million barrels of gasoline daily, which equates to 43% of total global gasoline consumption.
As I've noted, I highly recommend you somehow get this documentary and watch it and do your best to keep this thread alive…….
Please see: http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/
Or: http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/223/index.html
A friend of mine lent me the DVD "Who Killed The Electric Car".
I've seen this documentary a total of three times over the last 3 days and the more I watch it, the angrier I get….. at General Motors, at American President George Bush, at CARB (California Air Resources Board) and in particular at Alan C. Lloyd, who was their chairman from 1999-2004.
In 1990, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted automobile emissions standard that were tougher than the federal standards. The tough new regulations were highlighted with the State's Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, under which 10% of new cars sold in California would have been electric, 10% by 2003. Only electric cars were deemed to have no tailpipe emissions.
It's more than a coincidence that Lloyd became the chairman of the California Fuel Cell Partnership, a consortium of automakers and public agencies that promotes the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and infrastructure, four months before the CARB meeting that effectively killed the electric car.
A Hydrogen fuel celled vehicle costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce and hydrogen fuel is very expensive and is currently produced using non-renewable fuel sources. A national H2 fueling station infrastructure must be built at an enormous expense before H2 cars are commercially viable. Even those that promote the Hydrogen Fuel Cell admit that the technology that is required is still 15 years away….
In the late 90's, GM had at least a two-year jump on the world's carmakers with its electric car technology. But instead of capitalizing on this lead with hybrids and more electric vehicles, it abandoned its program. Instead, most of the hundreds of electric vehicles that were manufactured were taken off the road and destroyed by carmakers.
GM's electric car, the EV1 was fast. A prototype set the land speed record for electric cars in 1994 at 183 miles an hour. EVI's accelerated to 30 mph in 3 seconds and to 60mph in under 9 seconds. California stars such as Tom Hanks, who leased one of the EV1s raved about the vehicle, how quiet it was, how fast it accelerated. One of the mechanics who regularly checked the vehicles confided that when they were brought it everything would be fine, he'd rotate the tires, fill up the windshield washer and hand the keys back. Their brakes never once wore out, and were used to recharge the batteries (similar to the hybrids).
As the price of a litre of gasoline hits $1.26 and threatens to top $1.40 to $1.50 before the end of summer, I urged everyone of you to either buy, rent, borrow, or upload this documentary. It will certainly be worth your time.
Here are a few of the facts that this documentary "drives" home…..
• A gallon of gas burned by a gas powered automobile adds roughly 19lbs of carbon dioxide to the air.
• One month after buying Hummer from AM General, GM said there is no particular need to continue building the electric car
• Battery electric cars never need any gasoline. They can often get most of their power recharging in the first 2 hours. Most people also charge them overnight, when electricity demand is off-peak and rates lower.
• Combined profits of Exxon-Mobil, Chevron-Texaco and Conoca-Phillips in 2003 was 33 Billion, this increase in 2004 to 47 Billion and hit 64 Billion in 2005. One can wonder what it was for 2007…..
• The United States consumes almost 9 million barrels of gasoline daily, which equates to 43% of total global gasoline consumption.
As I've noted, I highly recommend you somehow get this documentary and watch it and do your best to keep this thread alive…….
Please see: http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/
Or: http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/223/index.html
