Who Killed The Electric Car? Page #6

was such a sense of mission.

I was here this morning

from about 5:
45 A.M.,

and it's pretty quiet.

Finally, on day 15, we did this

announcement of this offer.

As the EV activists recorded the

VIN numbers of the cars in storage,

Chelsea led a last ditch

effort to buy the cars from GM.

"Okay, General Motors contends

that no one wants these EV1's here."

"Would anybody be willing to buy them

for the residual price of the lease?"

And within 48 hours,

over 80 people had signed up.

There were only 78 cars in that lot,

and already we had a waiting list

for a car that wasn't available.

It was a tremendous dj vu moment.

At this point we thought

it would be appropriate

to some full circle.

Join me in holding this check

offering 1.9 million

dollars to General Motors

to put these cars back on the road.

Despite the offer,

GM did not respond.

The fate of the last

A small group of activists

would continue their vigil,

to keep the dream

of the electric car alive.

Who controls the future?

Whoever has the biggest club.

In more ways than one.

One they can bash you with,

and one they can belong to.

Gentlemen! Gentlemen!

I know you're all worried,

and I agree.

There's plenty to be worried about.

Like this solar power plant

already operational

outside Los Angeles.

Photovoltaic cells,

they converts sunlight

directly into electricity.

Fluorescent, lasts ten times as

long as a conventional light bulb.

uses only a quarter of the power.

Superwindows, insulate as

well as ten sheets of glass.

An electric car, partially

powered by solar panels.

But the truth is, gentlemen,

I'm not worried about

any of these things.

Because no one is ever

going to know about them.

There's all these conspiracy theories

out there about who killed the electric car.

So really, who killed the electric car?

Unfortunately, I can't

summarize that in one sentence.

What killed the electric vehicle,

very simply, I think,

is lack of corporate wisdom.

In my opinion it's big oil

that killed the electric car.

Alan Lloyd killed the electric car project.

I was there when he did it.

The California Air Resources Board

killed the electric car

under huge pressure

from the auto companies.

They were an accessory

to the murder,

but the murder was commited

by the General Motors.

I don't believe that for a minute.

GM would sell you a

car on pig sh*t if it sold.

Carmakers argue that there was not

enough demand for the electric car.

Claiming to have spent millions

of dollars on advertising,

they said buyers weren't interested.

But did consumers even know

that the car existed?

Did you ever see this

car advertised?

Never. That's what I'm trying to say.

It's totally under the scope of the radar.

I don't know who drives

an EV1 actually.

- You don't know anybody?

- Anybody.

Maybe Fernando. I know Fernando...

Did you ever drive an EV1?

- I've heard of them.

- He's heard of them.

They're not making these

cars in California anymore?

No. They're not

making them anywhere.

That's really too bad.

We need those cars.

Why are they getting rid of it?

They said that there was

no demand for the car.

Are they insane?

That's a no-brainer.

Of course there's a demand.

Save gas, save people, save air,

save oxygen, save the world.

All sounds good to me.

We've been selling

vehicles for a century,

and as you might imagine,

we've figured out what people wanted.

If you ask them, they say:

"I want a 300 mile range."

"I want to be able

to go 85 or 90 mph

"I want to carry four passengers

and have a big trunk. "

Which is basically

what we were already selling.

I've said this

time and time again.

People will buy anthing

you convince them to buy.

Feed people enough, and

they believe that's a diet.

Consumers, they

couldn't see the difference

between electric car and

the car they're already driving

because they don't

read environmental impact.

They don't read political instability

caused by oil production

in the Middle East.

All they read is does this car

work and how much does it cost.

What really killed EV's,

is American consumers

because they did not accept this

idea, did not embrace it,

that vehicles could have

these limited ranges

and still be functional,

useful, practical.

Did the electric car die

because of the battery technology ?

Did EV's really not

have enough range?

Did car companies use

the best batteries available?

Battery technology at that

time was lead accid batteries

and allowed the car to go 60 miles.

If you started out on a trip knowing

that you were going to go dead in 60 miles,

you'd be nervous about

making the trip.

People think that they need

a car that will go 300 miles

and be able to charge it up

or refuel it in five minutes.

For virtually 90-95% of your driving,

you really don't need that.

You need a vehicle that will go

at least 60 miles or so,

and that way your daily

commute is covered.

For those who wanted greater

range from an EV, a 100 miles or more

a better battery already existed.

Developed by a well known

inventor working in Troy, Michigan,

about 30 miles from

General Motors headquarters.

- I'm Stan and...

- And lris Ovshinsky.

I think you shouldn't do that.

You should say you're Stan Ovshinsky,

and I'll say I'm Iris Ovshinsky.

Don't do that. It's funny.

With over 200 patents to his name,

Stan Ovshinsky had pioneered a new battery

and GM purchased

controlling share of his company.

We were chosen over

like Westinghouse and others,

who wanted to win the

race to make the batteries

that would be used in pure electric cars.

And we were chosen

because we had a battery.

And to us,

putting it into a car

was not the most

gigantic thing.

What were we supposed to do?

But you did expect

champagne and roses.

I expected

champagne and roses.

When I said that we were going to

put a paragraph into a newspaper,

that said we had achieved this,

I really expected

congratulations to flow in.

And then I knew that something was

different when the opposite happened.

Ovshinsky was censored for publicizing

his battery advances without permission

and asked not to run

advertising in national publications.

The EV1 debuted

with a weaker battery.

It would be another 2 years

before Ovshinsky's batteries

were installed in the EV1.

The first version of the EV1

had defective Delco batteries,

and they kept failing.

That was GM's failure,

on those batteries.

Once they put good batteries in,

they didn't have any problems.

Ultimately, GM sold its

share in Ovshinsky's company

to an unlikely buyer.

Then, when the Ni-MH

batteries were improved,

so that they're now lasting longer than

the life of the car and cheaper than an engine,

Chevron Texaco stepped in and

purchased control from General Motors

of Ovshinsky technology.

The oil companies do not feel

threatened by battery technology,

because they

effectively crushed it.

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