Automaker Digs Own Grave
For those yet to see the movie, (without spoiling anything) the tale goes as such… Electric cars were some of the first, and most popular, automobiles available. But mass production and advances in fuel economy sealed the technology’s casket for the first time. Then come the 80's. GM designs and builds a solar powered racer. The design is so successful GM puts the same team to work developing a commercial electric vehicle. Their project, the EV1, debuts to celebrity customers, a fervent fanbase, and very little fanfare. Eight-hundred were leased, waiting lists thousands long quickly piled up, and California – realizing fossil-fuel alternatives were viable technologies – issued a zero-emissions mandate to automakers.
Flash forward. By 2004 the last known major repository of EV1’s was destroyed and recycled (because GM is so green). The Zero Emissions Mandate is defunct. Though the technology exists to make fully functioning, affordable zero- or low-emissions vehicles, the slternative hailed by automakers and the Bush White House is hydrogen, a pipe-dream decades from fruition. The reasons for the death of this promising miracle technology (electricity) are long and varied. The documentary covers them well, and more information can be found on Wikipedia. A cursory Google even turned up GM’s response to the movie. A definite recommended rental for that next smog alert. Stay indoors!
But news comes daily of the last laugh. Ford and GM’s market shares are dwindling in the face of eco-friendly overseas competition. Ford is in crisis. GM is “restructuring.” Toyota – seen as durable yet more cost-effective and environment-friendly – is kicking ass. In Canada, Toyota has stalled only to be beaten by Honda, a fellow Asian, eco-concious manufacturer.
posted by Damion at 12/03/2006 05:26:00 AM
2 Comments:
You may be right about the wrath of mother earth but keep in mind the movie was a documentary not a work of journalism. It comes from a point of view and preaches a point of view. I don't believe the movie represents itself anywhere as an unbiased view. And how great is the timing that you saw the movie in the same week that GM announced they will build the first plug-in hybrid while toyota continues to say "there are lots of obstacles" to developing a plug-in hybrid. I guess GM didn't really kill the electric car afterall and I would now suppose Mother Earth will allow GM to survive and set her sights on someone else....Of course I'm sure that wouldn't be Toyota who just showed in LA their new pick-up truck which among it's other class leading attributes includes that it will be the single largest pick-up on the road and with the worst or near worst fuel mileage of any full size light duty truck.
twj...,
All good points. I'd like to see this Toyota trucks fuel economy compared to, say, a Hummer, though. And, GM's introduction of a plug-in hybrid is awesome indeed, but I think I'd rather have the 800-some-odd zero-emission EV1's back on the road than whatever "low"-emissions vehicles may have been introduced.
I'm not saying Toyota, or any car manufacturer, is a shining example of what's right in the world. But, what has Toyota done? This new model is only a response to consumer demand, I'm sure. If people stopped buying cars with bad fuel economy, automakers would stop producing them. What angered me about the EV1 story was that GM pulled a viable technology with a large consumer base that could have potentially helped with many environmental problems that may be, even now, threatening our way of life.
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