Who Killed the Electric Car?

[Le Pirate]

Anyone seen it?


I just watched it, and thought it was pretty good. Sad story about what the auto industry did to what looked like a pretty good car. I never saw one in real life, and never new that they actually made it past the concept car phase. I guess that was pretty much the premise of the film though...they killed it before it got off the ground.

[Timmy Tucker]

Anyone seen it?


I just watched it, and thought it was pretty good. Sad story about what the auto industry did to what looked like a pretty good car. I never saw one in real life, and never new that they actually made it past the concept car phase. I guess that was pretty much the premise of the film though...they killed it before it got off the ground.

I haven't seen it, but I'll add it to my list.

I've never understood why the major maufacturers could never really get their collective shit together and make a viable electric car. When I was a senior in high school (grad in 94) we built a fully functional electric car and raced it. We obviously had sponsors to fund it, the main one being VA Power, but we engineered and built the thing from a '71 240Z ourselves in about 4 months or so. The car kicked ass too. Our engineering teacher was also an SCCA racer so we approached the car from that angle. Everyone else showed up w/ Escorts and Chevettes, we brought a Z.  ;:| You could do burnouts in it.  :e:v We dominated the drag race and slalom course the first year. And, IIRC, it would run for about 3 or so hours at 65 mph. Not shabby for about 15 high school kids.

These pics are from '97 or '98, I got them off the schools website. All my pics are old school and I have no scanner.

[Le Pirate]

the premise of the whole film is that GM built a wonderful electric car....then killed it off  :bang


i highly recomend it

[red baron]

A buddy of mine had an electric Ford Ranger and loved it.


Ford made him give it back.

[darylbowden]

the premise of the whole film is that GM built a wonderful electric car....then killed it off  :bang


i highly recomend it

Yes, it's a good movie, however, it gives a very skewed view of the situation.  If you do some research on the subject, there is definitely another side to the story and the film doesn't do it justice. 

*not that I would ever by a GM (and I'm kinda shocked I'm defending them), but the film does a poor job of explaining GM's position.

[Le Pirate]

Yes, it's a good movie, however, it gives a very skewed view of the situation.  If you do some research on the subject, there is definitely another side to the story and the film doesn't do it justice. 

*not that I would ever by a GM (and I'm kinda shocked I'm defending them), but the film does a poor job of explaining GM's position.

I kinda figured it was...

the guy who made it owned one of the EV1s, so i'm guessing he was pretty biased

though, it didn't seem Micheal Moore skewed 

I plan to do some more research on the subject, just because EVs are something that I'm intrested in. It just made me a little sad that they destroyed all those cars. I mean, if you don't want to make more, fine...but why destroy them.


btw--TT, that race car is shweet!

[Ducatiloo]

Until most power doesn't come from Coal electric cars only move the pollution from the tail pipe to 300 miles down the road.
Out of site out of mind. 

[Timmy Tucker]

btw--TT, that race car is shweet!

That project was so much fun. It totally consumed 3-4 months of my life. We worked on it during class and every day after school till 9-11 PM. Matter of fact, I almost didn't graduate because I neglected all my other schoolwork to do that.

That car was a total rag when we got it. Typical Z car rust. We replaced the floor pans, trunk pan, rockers, frame rails and and one rear quarter. But, it was free. My job was brakes and suspension. I wish I remembered half the shit i learned from doing that. If I hadn't dropped out of college, I'd probably be working for a race team somewhere. The guy that was our "crew chief" went on to work for Hendrick Motorsports after college. Last I heard, he was on Jimmie Johnson's pit crew.

[NAKID]

the guy who made it owned one of the EV1s, so i'm guessing he was pretty biased

That's the thing, no one "owned" the cars, they were all leases and at the end of the lease period, GM didn't let anyone purchase them, even when offered ridiculous amounts of money for them.

[Ducatiloo]

That's the thing, no one "owned" the cars, they were all leases and at the end of the lease period, GM didn't let anyone purchase them, even when offered ridiculous amounts of money for them.

That's normally common practice with car manufactures.   Toyota did that with their first hybrids, and I'm willing to be that Honda is going to take back every since hydrogen car they are leasing.  The info the gain from studying these cars after they had been used in the real world is priceless.

[aaronb]

also IIRC GM gave 50 of the cars to engineering universities, i know University of Wisconsin has one.  in fact last summer you could see it on their SAE garage web cam  if they were trying to kill the technology, that is about the worse way to go about it. 
 

[Popeye the Sailor]

There's a long list of reaons why electric cars aren't all that feasible. Especially given that our electricicty production would be incapable of handling the load, or doing it in a "green" manner.

[Mac_48]

If I had the money, I'd get a tesla...they look great and are fast
http://www.teslamotors.com/

[Le Pirate]

Until most power doesn't come from Coal electric cars only move the pollution from the tail pipe to 300 miles down the road.
Out of site out of mind. 

according to most of the stuff i've read, that isn't true. It does produce pollution down the wire, but it's still less than driving a car burning gas.

There's a long list of reaons why electric cars aren't all that feasible. Especially given that our electricicty production would be incapable of handling the load, or doing it in a "green" manner.

according to the movie, you could have 30-40 million of them on the road before you would have to do any work to increase the utilities infrastructure.


btw---I'd be driving a tesla too, if i had 100k to spend on one

[PizzaMonster]

Everything old is new again

Just ask Jay Leno   http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/jay_leno_garage/4215940.html