What Happened to the Electric Car?

So what is so unobtainable that Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks and Peter Horton were unable to buy one? It's not a baseball team or a tropical private island. The one thing that no amount of wealth can purchase is a GM, EV1 electric car.

In the late 90's several auto manufactures began to lease all-electric vehicles that could go 100 miles between charges. They were large and comfy enough for a family of 4 and could keep up with any gas guzzler on the highway. Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks and Peter Horton all leased EV1's. But when the car companies and the oil companies decided to trash the vehicles not even these high profile people were able to purchase their vehicle - at any cost.

GM had made the decision to lease the vehicles, instead of selling them, just so they would have the power to destroy them later on. And that is exactly what they did. When people offered to pay far more than the $25,000 sticker price for their already used cars GM refused. Instead the cars were all taken back, at the end of each lease period, and shredded.

Until recently the last EV1 known to exist was on display at a Smithsonian Museum. But GM decided that people didn't need to be reminded that electric vehicles were a possible answer to the fuel crisis. They want the public to forget that the technology already exists so they had the car taken off display. Why? Because from 1997-2003 the leased car became the most requested vehicle on GM lots. GM soon realized that the electric vehicles were so reliable that they didn't need to visit service and parts departments as often as gas vehicles. And that meant loss of revenue for auto manufacturers. It all came down to greed overruling public desire and environmental health.

And what happened to the diesel vehicles of the 80's that were getting an average of 60 mpg? I owned a diesel VW Rabbit that got 60 mpg even in mountainous terrain. It needed frequent maintenance, as did many of the diesel cars of the period, so that wasn't an issue for the manufacturers. In fact it was the oil companies that began to panic. Diesel at the time was about 19 cents a gallon which was about 1/3 the price of gas. And the incredible gas mileage the cars got meant that fewer gallons of fuel were being sold. As soon as the oil companies saw that the diesel car was becoming a high demand vehicle they raised the price of diesel to rival and even surpass the price of gasoline. Again, it was all about greed.

We have the technology for electric vehicles, fuel operated vehicles that get 60-plus MPG and even solar cars, but government and big business is more interested in maintaining their outrageous bank accounts than in providing environmentally friendly transportation. We, the people have been prevented from having a voice for so long that we are becoming complacent and passive to the point of non-action. What will it take to rile us up enough for us to stand up and take our power back? What ever happened to the idea of "Power to the People?"