Who Killed the Electric Car Is No Mystery To EV World

EVWorld.Com has been following for nearly a decade the life and death -- as well as the expected resurrection -- of the electric vehicle now being chronicled in the Sony-released documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car?"

Omaha, Ne (PRWEB) June 26, 2006 -- When California filmmaker Chris Paine debuts his Sony-released documentary this week, movie goers will be plunged into the dark heart of a technological murder mystery, Who Killed the Electric Car? The suspects are legion, from carmakers to oil companies to an apathetic public.

But who killed the electric car isn't a mystery for Bill Moore, the founder and publisher of EV World (www.evworld.com), an online, Web weekly that has been tracking the life, death... and anticipated "resurrection"... of the modern electric car or "EV".

"It was a two-page advertisement for an electric bicycle -- I don't even remember the brand -- in Business Week magazine the summer of 1997 that alerted me to the advent of the California Zero Emission mandate then set to take effect January 1998, the same month I launched EV World. The ZEV mandate, as it was known, required ten percent of all cars sold in the state by the largest car companies be zero emission vehicles, and that meant at the time they had to be battery electric... tens of thousands of them," Moore explains.

The ZEV mandate was signed into California law in the early 1990s in an effort to combat the state's serious air pollution problems, much of it originating from mobile sources, including the state's millions of passenger cars and trucks. While critics pointed out that zero emission didn't really mean zero emission since the electricity to run the cars came from power plants in and out of state, proponents countered that California's mix of power sources, which include hydroelectric and natural-gas generation, is among the cleanest in the nation. Besides, they added, it would be easier to clean up the emissions of a handful of power plants than literally millions of cars and trucks.

As recounted in "Who Killed the Electric Car?", opponents of the mandate, including carmakers and their local dealers, vigorously lobbied the state to first compromise on the regulation and then to largely abandon it in favor of the promise of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, a move later supported by the Bush Administration in the president's 2003 State of the Union address.

While there are still several hundred electric cars -- mainly battery electric versions of Toyota's RAV4 sport utility vehicle -- in consumer and fleet operator hands, most of the estimated 4-5,000 electric cars that once operated in California, as well as smaller numbers in Arizona, Florida and Georgia, have since been recalled and destroyed, ironically just as gasoline prices hover in the $3 a gallon range in the U.S.

Contrary to the film’s title, Moore believes EVs are far from dead. "To paraphrase Mark Twain, the rumors of the death of the electric car have been greatly exaggerated. Not only have Subaru and Mitsubishi both formally announced they are working on battery-powered cars that should hit the market in Japan sometime around 2010, but I am hearing rumors that Nissan is working on one, as well. In fact, it appears there is a race afoot between fuel cell technology and lithium ion batteries to see which can reach the market first with an affordable, durable, reliable power source. At the moment, it's not entirely clear who the winner is likely to be," Moore noted.

Moore notes that the electric cars of the 90's has given birth to a host of promising, fuel saving, environmentally-cleaner electric-drive vehicles, including electric bikes, motor scooters, hybrid cars and buses, even an innovative solar and wind-powered hybrid ferry that will ply the waters of San Francisco Bay carrying tourists to Alcatraz Island.

Perhaps the most promising new innovation Moore sees on the immediate horizon is the plug-in hybrid, an evolved version of the standard gasoline-electric hybrid with a 10-30 mile electric-only driving range. It utilizes electric grid power stored in larger, more powerful batteries to help reduce gasoline usage. Early prototypes are getting better than 100 mpg.

"The plug-in hybrid is, in reality, an electric car with an internal combustion engine as back-up power. Some commuters could, conceivably, drive to and from work all week-long and never use a drop of gasoline. Instead, they could be recharging their cars overnight using American-generated electric power at roughly the equivalent of 50 cents a gallon. That's the kind of fuel savings that can help put an end to our collective 'oil addiction.'"

Moore sees a bright future for electric-drive technology and vehicles, be they hybrids, plug-ins, fuel cell or battery-powered. "There is a growing awareness of the geopolitical, economic and environmental costs of our oil dependence. At some point, some believe fairly soon, world oil production will peak and that will drive energy prices ever higher, even without on-going political tensions in the oil-rich Middle East. We are simply going to have to find cleaner, more efficient ways to power our vehicles and electric-drive is the way... though I wouldn't mind seeing a greater use of bicycles, scooters and public transit," he added.

Just for the record, Moore -- who turns 59 this September -- drives an early model Honda Insight that gets 55+ mpg around town, though he added that he also tries to run most of his close-in errands using an electric-assist bicycle.

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