who killed the electric car

[29a]

Found this interesting

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

It,s probably old news but it was new to me

Anyone got any info/links

 

[knightmb]

A documentary from PBS about the movie.

http://www.7gen.com/blog-entry/electric-car-documentary-from-pbs/2074

 

[knightmb]

I just watched this documentary, was very impressed with it and depressed at the same time. I had no idea that all car manufactures literally killed all their EV programs with no way for anyone to purchase them. The irony of a lot of things was oil and car companies buying up other companies that would have aided the electric car. Anyway, great movie, go rent it from your local video store :wink:

 

[gman]

I have a copy if any one is interested, I have shared with several people. It takes about 6 hours to transfer using Yahoo messenger.
Let me know if you want a copy.

Gman

 

[Reid Welch]

Thanks George, but

eh, it's not legal to transfer that way---you know--- rules*.



*copyright law

 

[sean]

It was the Butler in the Library with the candlestick!!!

 

[Lock]

`Case anyone hasn't seen the movie yet, another copy has surfaced here:

http://electricandhybridcars.com/index.php/pages/whokilledtheelectriccar.html
Not sure how legit that is...

Original google vid link (full screen):
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-2548496593303272917&hl=en
tks
Lock

 

[andys]

current gas prices may just end up raising it back from the dead. Nissan is working on one, and I have read about others in the works besides the Volt. If gas was this expensive a decade ago, we may have tens of thousands of electric cars on the road right now instead of the gas guzzlers the American car manufacturers made instead..

 

[Jeff]

If anyone is interested:
One of the segments in the movie covered the end of the vigil at the GM training facility in Burbank CA, where the last of the EV1's were being stored before being shipped off to Mesa for destruction.
Below, I posted some images taken during the last days of the vigil when GM began hauling off the cars. I was there with my son and three of our S-10EV electric trucks, parked in front of the GM facility, with the trucks being used as advertising banner holders.
Lots of press folks were there. In these images are the arrest scene of Alexandria and Collette, blocking one of the Pilot transport trucks attempting to haul out a load of EV1's to Mesa.

The vigil went on for a month, 24hrs a day, until the news got ahold of it, and then GM removed the cars in crisis mode.
FYI, GM was so spooked over the mess that the entire fleet of 77 cars were destroyed within a few days of arriving at the desert proving grounds in Mesa.

My how times have changed. GM has been struggling to reassemble the EV1 brain trust to support the Volt effort.

Jeff

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end of file

 

[Lessss]

Jeff, no they are not having trouble putting the brain trust back together. They have no interest in electric cars, never will have. They are dangling candy, very EXPENSIVE candy, in front of people to brign them in then switch them to a cheap gas car. The only electric cars that will be on the road in the next decade will be foreign produced ones.

The truth is that is North America was SERIOUS about alternate energy transport the roads would be electrified similar to the way they do for trollies(no expensive battery needed).

 

[Lock]

Amazing pics Jeff, thanks. All very sad but musta been an education for your young guy.
BTW, links to pics 183,228,229,231 and 232 appear borken
tks
Lock

 

[AndyH]

Fantastic pictures Jeff. That's one sadly empty parking lot.

GM gave a journalist full access to the EV1 development process. It resulted in:

The Car That Could
The inside story of GM's revolutionary electric vehicle
Michael Shnayerson
August 1996
ISBN-10: 067942105X
ISBN-13: 978-0679421054
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/067942105X/ref=dp_olp_3

Another great EV development read is the story about James Worden, founder of Solectria.

Charging Ahead
Joe Sherman
1998
ISBN 0195094794
http://www.amazon.com/Charging-Ahea...94/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1223540585&sr=11-1

 

[AussieJester]

The only electric cars that will be on the road in the next decade will be foreign produced ones.

I just watched the nightly news and it had a segment on the Sydney motor show, showed the Chevrolet Volt an electric vehicle to go on sale in Australia in 2012 for $US40,000 ($A56,000) Pics of the car-->

On sale in North America 2010 so they said.

 

[Jeff]

Jeff, no they are not having trouble putting the brain trust back together. They have no interest in electric cars, never will have. They are dangling candy, very EXPENSIVE candy, in front of people to brign them in then switch them to a cheap gas car.

Lessss, they are pouring a lot of resources into the volt program. And I suspect they're secretly working on achieving a "significant" federal rebate against the cost of the Volt in order to bring in more customers. Now that the price is teetering on $40k, that basically wipes out all of middle america buyers without the kickback.
I suppose we can only hope that GM isn't drinking their bathwater, again. I know that GM has requested another $18B in government welfare courtesy of you and I to keep them afloat, and that's beyond what congress already authorized last year. And I don't see any signs of their executive staff (Wagner, Lutz) offering to give up their parachutes. :wink:

Jeff

 

[Jeff]

Amazing pics Jeff, thanks. All very sad but musta been an education for your young guy.
BTW, links to pics 183,228,229,231 and 232 appear borken
tks
Lock

Thanks Lock. Our son has been traveling in an EV all his 9yrs, and so he did not realize EV's was somewhat of an oddity in our society until he witnessed the emotions exhibited by GM at the vigil. Besides the usual tension directed to the vigilers by the GM employees, he'd often play on the grass border between the sidewalk and the curb. Frequently, employees at the facility would turn on the irrigation for a few seconds to shoo him back into the street.
Nice huh.
Many of the folk volunteering at the vigil are friends, so it appeared more like a big get-together for him. He also enjoyed his 15ms of fame for the few frames he appeared in the WKtEC movie vigil segment.

I forgot to remove those missing image links from the file list. I was asked by GM legal back in '05 to remove 14 specific images in the files shortly after I published the entire content on the 'net (only a portion of the image database was listed here on ES).

Jeff

 

[Jeff]

Fantastic pictures Jeff. That's one sadly empty parking lot.

Thanks Andy. I'm glad to know you see the irony in it.

All of the foregoing started when a former EV1 lease customer was driving his son to a hockey practice at an Ice Rink located next door to that lot, which at the time was chock full of parked EV1's.
In the beginning there was no chain link fence between the ice rink parking lot and the GM facility lot, so you could wander around in there opening doors (if you could guess the door code). After he saw the cars, he posted a message to the EV1 driver list server to tell everyone about the cache of parked EV1's. That started the discussions about trying to save the last of the cars, since everyone already knew that GM had crushed the majority of them in Mesa. The vigil grew from those discussions.

Jeff

 

[Lock]

Amusing footnote:
http://www.usedvictoria.com/classified-ad/7110597

 

[Jay64]

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, Sundance channel has been airing the movie "Who killed the electric car?"

 

[LockH]

[burp] "Who Killed the Electric Car? asks AltCar Expo":
http://www.smobserved.com/story/201...d-the-electric-car-asks-altcar-expo/1765.html

On Saturday, September 17, Filmmaker Chris Paine will present journalist Dan Neil with AltCar's first annual Disrupter Award, followed by a discussion about how creative influencers are impacting the next generation of EVs. AltCar will also celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Who Killed the Electric Car with a free screening. The presentation and screening will start at Noon in the East Wing of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.