Electric Car Essay

Ever since the first automobile was invented they have been running on gasoline and polluting the environment. In the beginning, the EV1 was the first trial for General Motors to find an alternative to combustible engines and make the air cleaner. The EV1 was first launched as lease only in 1996. They were only available in California and Arizona and GM had a great demand for it. The EV1 was powered by a lead acid battery at first and later GM transitioned to the nickel-metal hydride battery. The car had to be charged for about six hours and had a limited range of 60-70 miles per charge. In the later models however the cars had better miles per charge and shorter charging time. Then, GM’s EV1 failed for many reasons and had to be crushed. The oil companies, government, and the California Air Resource Board were at fault for the destruction of the EV1s.

The oil companies played a vital role in the destructions of the EV1s. According to Paine’s documentary, “The oil companies were one of the suspects that pushed the hardest to get rid of the EV1s.” This was because the oil industries knew that once the consumers started buying EV1s they will lose business. Since the EV1 was an all-electric car it would end the need to buy gas. In fear of electric vehicles being the number one type of car bought by consumers the oil companies supported all efforts to bring down California’s Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate. According to wikipedia, “The oil companies bought patents to prevent modern NiMH batteries from being used in the electric vehicles.” Finally, oil companies like Exxon- Mobil set out to criticize the electric cars by using full page national newspaper ads.

The Federal Government was also a factor in the cause of the death of the electric car. First, they were doing good as they were trying to protect the environment by passing the Zero Emission Vehicle mandate. Then as many companies started going against the electric car they decided to kill the mandate. This wasn’t fair to GM because it put all their hard work to waste. The government had the power the keep the mandate going and save the electric car and reduce pollution, however it went along with the other companies and destroyed the cars. According to Sony Pictures Classics, “The Bush administration joined the lawsuit to kill the ZEV mandate.” As a result of the mandate going down it caused the electric cars to go down with it.

The final suspect that caused this situation was the California Air Resources Board, headed by Alan Lloyd. The CARB was the last suspect that was guilty of killing the electric cars. Alan Lloyd had a great chance to steer the ZEV mandate to success. However, he did not, he let the oil industries and politics make his decisions for him. According to Sony Picture Classics, “CARB ultimately helped the oil industries by eliminating electric car production of the mandate.” As a result of the CARB going with the oil industry and repealing the ZEV mandate caused the slaughtering of the EV1s.

Many people thought that the batteries of the electric car caused the failure of the EV1s because they had a limited range of sixty to seventy miles per charge. This is incorrect because the new models of the EV1s had a better battery that doubled the miles per charge to 110-160 miles. Another suspect in this tragic story was the consumers. They were the ones that really liked the car and did everything in their power to save the cars. According to the documentary, “the consumers protested outside GM to get their cars back and some even got arrested.” So the consumers weren’t guilty for the disappearance of the EV1s.

Another suspect that was wrongfully accused was the hydrogen fuel cell. The hydrogen fuel cells were distractions used by companies for profits and to buy time. The fuel cells couldn’t have killed the car because the cells would use more electricity than the electric cars. According to the documentary and wikipedia, “A fuel cell car powered by hydrogen made with electricity uses 3 to 4 times more energy than a car powered by batteries.”

The finally, suspect that was incorrectly accused of killing the electric car was the car companies. Some people thought it was their fault because they never put the cars up for sale, had bad marketing skills and couldn’t supply the demands of consumers. This was held untrue because GM put so much hard work and money into this project. According the Sony Picture Classics, “GM spent $1 billion to market and develop the EV1. So, it wouldn’t be their fault because why would someone that spent a fortune on a project try to cause it to fail.

After the failure of the EV1s, there seemed to be no future for electric cars. However, now another company, called Tesla Motors is coming out with an electric car called the Tesla Roadster. This is exactly like the EV1 that GM made however much better in performance and more reliable. This shows that there will always be a future for electric cars in the market and with the record high gas prices everyone is going to start supporting electric cars.