A Tribute to the EV1 - The Killing of a Dream

I wish that I could have been part of the 1990's EV1 ownership experience. Imagine being the first person to own a vehicle pioneering the way society views transportation... the future was coming and it was unlike anything available anywhere in North America! 

This was absolutely fantastic! It was time to dream... late night inductive charging and zero emissions. WOW!

"...But then, as the new millennium arrived and US dependence on foreign oil became a hot political issues, something weird happened. The car companies who'd leased out electric vehicles began demanding them back. And they wouldn't take no for an answer..."

*(Quote from: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-plot-to-kill-the-green-machine-480645.html) 

What happened? 

*full movie with FR subtitles: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=5871495968130273402&ei=35yySYqlLoL8rgL2x5jtCA&q=who+killed+the+electric+car

All that's left is some basic electrical charging infrastructure and crushed remnants from a series of futuristic vehicles, and some stagnant archived websites. 

This is a total disgrace in the face of our current economic situation. 

What would have happened if the EV1 program would have been allowed to thrive? It is quite possible that instead of going belly-up, the car makers might actually be making money... well, we can at least dream, eh?

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/electric.html

By the way... Chris Paine is making a sequel to "Who Killed the Electric Car" - This should be interesting... Check out this link out and maybe listen to the Audio portion if you get the chance: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/09/27/altcar-2008-chris-paine-talks-who-killed-sequel-coming-in-2/

I would like to forward a big thank-you to people who have put alot of time and energy into documenting their EV1 ownership experiences. Here are a couple of examples:

http://ev1-club.power.net/
http://www.eanet.com/kodama/ev1/

http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~rcy/ev/index.html

Without your documentation there would be just that much less historical data available on the EV1.

It would be great to see a future with plug-in vehicles and MDI dual-energy vehicles developing along side them. Our world is in terrible need of changing our view of "transportation and mobility"...

Hopefully we can swing basic vehicle models to more sustainable energy technologies, no matter what energy sources are used.

AirCars and Electric cars... just imagine how different things could be in just a short time... plug-in, recharging electrical or pneumatic vehicles... WOW!

I think our children would appreciate this change for a better future... and it's really not a very complicated solution.