Who Killed The Electric Car? Page #4

the Bush administration

made another announcement.

Tonight, I'm proposing 1.2 billion

dollars in research funding

so that America can

lead the world in developing clean,

hydrogen-powered automobiles.

The federal government joined

the car and oil industries

to embrace a new

clean car of the future.

With more than a billion

federal dollars up for grabs,

over the next few years,

the campaign for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles

began to sway California.

Hello there and welcome

to the California Fuel Cell Partnership

where we're fuelling the future in

a new and enviromentally friendly way.

Automakers, energy

and technology providers,

along with government agencies

are voluntarily working together

to commercialize the

fuel cell for cars and buses.

Soon you may see some of these cars

cruising through your

very own neighborhood.

We will not just dream about

the hydrogen fuelling stations.

We will not just dream about the

hydrogen cars. We will build it.

The hydrogen Hummer is not a production

vehicle, it's a concept vehicle.

It's a way for governor

Schwarzenegger to have a property

at various events that ge

goes to when he unveils

a new hydrogen refuelling station.

At LAX for example.

I am going to encourage the

building of a hydrogen highway

to take us to the

environmental future.

While hydrogen fuel cells offered an exciting

alternative sometime in the future

what would happen to

the technology of today?

What would happen to the electric car?

It all came down to a decisive meeting

at California's Air Resources Board.

Citizens and industry alike

testified as CARB prepared to

vote on the fate of the electric car.

I'd also like to thank

all the other stakeholders,

particularly also,

the auto industry

who is going to have a major impact here.

I like the fact that

hydrogen might be in a position

to displace the petroleum products.

I share your optimism on fuel cells,

just not to the extent.

I think it's a bait and switch

strategy. I hope I'm wrong.

I'm concerned that we've picked numbers

that are based entirely on fuel cells.

What if fuel cells don't work?

It seems that most of the

recent changes to the mandate

have been designed to ease

the burden on the automakers.

You're part of the

environmental protection agency,

not the corporate profit protection agency.

I think that we've been a

contributor to this marketplace to...

I agree. But remember

there are many of you.

We're not giving more time

to the auto manufacturers.

Lou Browning had the job

to present the report,

and he'd been promised ten minutes.

- One of the things we've found is...

- Dr Browning,

I would appreciate if you could

summarize this in three minutes.

Okay, I thought I had ten, but...

Alan Lloyd cut him off,

whereas he had given the automakers

unlimited time earlier in the day.

The improvements we need in

fuel cells are mainly to get the cost down.

In addition, we have recently certified and

introduced the Honda FCX fuel cell vehicle.

Largely this work has been pushed forward

through the California Fuel Cell Partnership

which has been very valuable in

pulling together the diverse interests.

Any new information on

batteries that didn't mesh

with overall conclusions was just

shut out very fast by Alan Lloyd.

Let's get it clear. I'm not trying

to show any bias or anything here.

There were 80 people who came

to speak for electric cars,

and only two industry representatives

on the side to kill the mandate.

We have four people out of 78

who are supporting this proposal.

How did we end up with this?

This is a tough, tough program.

It's a revolutionary program.

It pushes the automakers hard.

And they don't like it,

and they push back hard.

As you deliberate today

on the fate of this program,

I urge you to summon

all of your political courage

to make the hard choices that you

know you need to make on this program.

Because when it comes to protecting

the health of the people of California,

there are simply no more

easy choices to make.

I saw this as losing

a wonderful opportunity

that we have really invested a great

deal in the infrastructure, in the technology...

It was like the rug was pulled out.

They gave it away.

And to me that is just sad.

It's a sad commentary on

the way our society

and our system in the United States works.

When GM introduced the EV1,

California was setting the toughest auto

pollution standards in the nation.

were to be zero emission vehicles.

But California dropped those standards

after being sued by automakers.

A lot of the vehicles, the Honda vehicles,

the General Motors vehicles,

were all leased, and

nobody had the option to buy.

So the automakers took advantage of

that and pulled all the cars off the road.

They weren't willing to

let people take the cars

and actually drive them and

keep driving them like normal cars.

When I noticed that GM was losing interest

was when I wanted to re-lease

my car, and they wouldn't let me.

I've never had a product

I've had to beg and fight

and cajole and persist so much to get.

And then I had to try and beg and fight

and find any way

possible to try and keep.

- They didn't give you the option...

- They didn't give you an option to buy.

They said:
"Thank you for leasing the car.

Goodbye. That's it."

"Turn it in by such and such a date,

or you're going to be held liable."

GM had very quietly gone about taking

cars back, without anybody saying very much

other than some of the drivers

that complained

having their cars taken away

but never in a big, organized fashion.

They had no choice but to turn them in

or face legal consequences of stealing a car.

To my knowledge all the cars were

turned in because people had too much to lose.

To this day, the automakers

have fought anyone understanding

how much demand there was,

and how much demand that there is.

So we decided we were going to fight them

in whatever way we could,

and we became organized.

Across California drivers held

protests to save electric cars.

"...it turned my head around

about electric cars."

"And it broke me of my addiction to oil. "

Unable to change policy,

activists staged a funeral

to raise public awareness.

It was the same month as

the first stage 1 smog alert

in southern California in five years.

I was an EV1 driver, still am, from

when GM will have to pry it

out of my charger's dead cold hands.

What the detractors and the critics of

electric vehicles have been saying for years

is true. The electric vehicle

is not for everybody.

Given the limited range, it can only meet

the needs of 90% of the population.

People used to ask me:

"Why do you do what you do?"

And I say, especially

after my son had told them:

"I figure if I do my job well enough,

"my son will never know a time before

there were electric cars on the road."

And he rode in an EV1 on the

way over here, and he said:

"I wish we could keep the EV1 for a long time."

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