Who Killed The Electric Car? Page #9

Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

While it is predicted that

the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

could supply America with slightly

more than one year's supply of oil,

simply raising fuel economy

standards to 40 miles per gallon

could save the same

amount of fuel within 15 years.

The oil industry and

the automobile companies

are resistant to change.

The American people need to be reminded

that it took a law to get seatbelts in the cars.

It took a law to get airbags in the cars.

It took a law to get the mileage up

from 12 to 20 miles per gallon.

It took a law to get catalytic

converters to control the pollution.

I think clean cars are too important

to be left to the automobile industry.

The California mandate forced

automakers to make electric cars.

When California changed it,

the cars vanished.

Why did California retreat

from the bold law it created?

Having visited all the car

companies, they were saying:

"Look, we can't produce

these increasing numbers of the

battery electric vehicles."

And I became convinced that...

What are we supposed to do here?

Is our job to clean the air?

Or is it to force a certain number of a

type of technology out on the road?

Alan Lloyd failed in his

leadership to really steer

the zero emission vehicle mandate

toward a successful outcome.

Oh, I know Alec very well.

I know Alec very well. And we had some...

heartfelt memos come back.

And it pained me, because I

have the utmost respect for Alec.

And it pained me to be accused

of basically abanding

the battery electrics.

In addition to his role as

chairman of the Air Resources Board,

Alan Lloyd had another position.

Just four months before the

meeting that killed the electric car,

Lloyd accepted the chairmanship

of the California Fuel Cell Partnership.

I've been involved with

hydrogen since the early 90's.

When I became chair of ARB ten years

later, I knew a lot about hydrogen.

So for me, I'm very much

fact-technology driven.

Maybe you can say that's an asset

or a handicap in the terms of hydrogen

because I knew what could be done.

Excuse me while I watch

my baby get off here.

Carmakers convinced California

that the facts supported the

development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

Were they a better

option than electric cars?

Toyota's national manager of

advanced technologies, Bill Reinert,

took their prototype hydrogen

fuel cell SUV on a press tour.

One of our customers didn't really like this

car anywhere nearly as much as the EV1.

And the reason was not because it

would have anything bad about the car,

the reason was because his EV1,

he could charge it at home,

charge it at work,

and even though it provided limited range,

he didn't have to worry about

getting his car charged up.

With this car, with a limited access

to a hydrogen filling station,

he said he'd spend his whole day

planning how to get hydrogen

in the car and how to get back.

It's growing humbly.

The more you know, the more you realize

you really don't know what

issues are going to be put forward.

The number one worst question is:

"When can...

When will that be on the market?"

When will that be on the market?

That's the worst question.

Consumers are probably

going to want to know

how long it would be for

this to be mass produced.

That's quite a ways off.

We've got some real technical issues

we've got to solve, with hydrogen storage

with durability,

with cost reduction.

Is it a practical solution at this point?

The cars have a limited range,

the durability of the car isn't very good...

Let me see, what else?

They don't do well in cold weather.

Other than that, they're great.

Have you ever been to a dog race?

There's the mechanical

rabbit that's out in front

and the dogs never quite reach it.

Well, the fuel cell is the equivalent

of that mechanical rabbit.

We're going for it.

For the last 15 years they've been telling

us the fuel cells are 10 to 15 years off.

You're an oil company.

Your business is to be selling a fuel.

They think that it's a long time off, 30 years,

and they want to have a product that sells.

From that point,

they're protecting themselves

but the other side is that

they're protecting the status quo.

We see in Scientific American

a double page ad by

General Motors and Shell both

touting both the fuel cell

that General Motors is doing

and also Shell as a potential

supplier of hydrogen.

If hydrogen can do a better job

as an energy carrier than electricity,

then by gosh, it should

be the carrier of choice.

The problem is, it's not even close.

How far would this car ride

on environmental fuel?

It's approximately about a 100-125 miles.

Good. Interesting.

A fuel cell car powered by

hydrogen made with electricity

uses three to four times more

energy than a car powered by batteries.

This is the beginning of a fantastic technology,

and thanks for having us out here.

We're going to look at

some other vehicles in a minute,

but, hydrogen is the way of the future.

Today, there's a lot of

enthusiasm for hydrogen cars

but, I wrote the whole book

"The Hype About Hydrogen".

I think it's pretty clear that hydrogen

is a much tougher alternative fuel

than any other alternative

fuel we've ever pursued.

These are the five miracles that you need

for a successful hydrogen

car in the marketplace.

First, your average hydrogen

car costs a million dollars.

That's got to drop.

Second, no known material to humankind

can store enough hydrogen onboard the car

to give you the range people want.

Miracle number three.

The fuel is wildly expensive.

Even hydrogen from dirty fossil fuels

is 2 or 3 times more expensive than gasoline.

Fourth, you have to have

the fueling infrastructure.

We have a 180 000 gas stations.

Someone's going to have to build at least

before anybody is going to be very interested.

Miracle five is - you have to hope and pray

that the competitors in the

marketplace don't get any better.

Because right now, the best car in

the marketplace just got a lot better,

the hybrid vehicle.

Still runs on gasoline,

you can fuel it everywhere,

it has twice the range of a regular car.

Current hybrid vehicles

depend on gasoline,

but use an electric motor

to increase their fuel economy.

And if battery technology

keeps getting steadily better,

than the best hybrid, and then

plug-in hybrid in the year 2020

will be vastly superior

to the best hydrogen car.

You guys have filmed me long enought to know

that I'm not going to

dance around the issue.

And these could be a

long ways out into the future.

Toyota says:
"Fuel cell

cars, 30 years away."

Then I get the calls from the Department

of Energy and the State of California:

"What the hell are you doing?"

And all the other fuel cell manufacturers:

"We're trying to make a living here..."

It's awful.

Just because a lot of people

want it to work, it's no guarantee.

That's Disneyland, you know -

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