I Killed The Electric Car

So, who really killed the electric car? Sadly, I think I did. Here's why:

Rick Wagoner was interviewed the other day and said - "The future of GM and the American Automotive Industry is in electric cars". The ABC News report mentioned something about a failed prior attempt called the EV1.

Well, as much as Rick may being honest about his hopes of saving GM - the 100 year old automaker has had more than a few years of a head start to pay attention.

Let's jump back.

The year was 1979. And I was looking to buy my first car, a senior in high school.

And here's my subscription to Electric Vehicle News (EVN).

First, did you know there was a magazine called EVN almost 30 years ago?

Second, long before Al Gore made the conversation about the climate crisis a dinner table conversation - why was a high school kid able to figure out that replacing gas with electric was a good idea?

And what happened in the intervening 30 years to stall, obscure, and some would say torpedo the innovation that should have allowed the the EV industry to flourish.

Here's a clip:

While the film hints at some dark conspiracy - and there's certainly some reason to believe that a company with a huge infrastructure and that has a sunk cost in the combustion engine doesn't benefit from a shift to radically new technology - the question remains: Who killed the electric car? And, can we really expect significant innovation now - and fast enough - to make a real change in both the economy and the ecology around the automobile industry?

Think for a moment about what the world would be like if EV News was a must read for every automotive executive back in 1979, rather than high school students and hobbyists. What would battery technology look like today if GM had put their huge R&D efforts behind electric storage and delivery? But that didn't happen. Looking to quash innovation and stall new technology, GM bought themselves 30 years of healthy gas burning profits. And here we are today.

So, I don't own an electric car. I own an SUV. And six months ago, my family and I decided it was time to get rid of it. So we went searching for a hybrid. My first stop on the shopping trip was GM. I wanted to drive the Ford Escape. But, in New York City, and in one of the largest company-owned showrooms in the nation, I was told that they didn't have any, didn't expect any, and that I could maybe drive a one-year-old white (used) hybrid with 'low miles.' My family and I got as far as sitting in it. It had a plastic interior. It was cheap and ugly. We were told the vehicles they had were built to be converted into taxi cabs. We passed.

We tried Honda. We drove a Prius. We liked Toyota a bunch, but they had a super-long waiting list and frankly the gas mileage wasn't any better than I remember my Dad getting with our red Volkswagen hatchback back in 1974.

In the end - it was a tipping point for my family and me. We're getting rid of our car. For good. We'll bike. We'll ride the subway. We'll rent when we need to take long trips. But we're removing ourselves from the automotive owners club. It's hard, frankly. It will limit some things we can do. It will fundamentally change the way we live. And we're ready for that.

So when Rick Wagoner stands and confidently predicts that the Volt will save GM - I think it's time to sell your GM stock. GM had a 30 years head start to see the future, and evolve the company to meet it. They waited too long, and now it's too late. Some feisty entrepreneurs may build a great new electric car.

here's the Reva, the MiEV, and the Zapp

So why do I think I killed the electric car? Because, back in 1979 I got it. I knew what I needed to do. I was 17 years old, and there was no talk of Global Warming. It just made sense, cars were going to hurt the planet. And I wanted to buy one that didn't burn fossil fuel. I ignored my EVN subscription and my gut. Years later I could have invested in a company that was building them (or investigating battery technology). I could have bought stock. I could have made a film. I could have gone 'car free' when I moved to a city with great public transportation more than 10 years ago. I didn't do any of those things. Sure, big companies are going to hold their ground and stifle innovation - we know that.

But entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists we can turn the tide. We can embrace bold new ideas. We can buy new products and rally early adopters. Sure the Tesla Roadster is neat, but come on - guys - that's not what's going to change the world. When I see Jason Calcanis blogging about his Telsa, well frankly, that's really not going to help the environment a bit. Now, if Jason were excited about a SMART car, or the Tata - then thought leaders will be really leading.

So, today - I took the first step. I got rid of my gas guzzling SUV. Sold. Gone forever. And I'm not replacing it. So I may have killed the electric car, but I'm not going to buy one of GM's Volt either. I would have, but now I'm passed the tipping point, and I'm not going back.

Instead, I bought a bike.

***

Here's a page from EVN, 1977. Take a look at what they were thinking back then.

Follow Steve Rosenbaum on Twitter: www.twitter.com/magnify

Comments

[quasimojo]

Nobody killed it. It was lured into a dark alley, mugged, beaten and left for dead. Passers-by stepped over the body and went about their business until a handful of good Samaritans picked it up, brushed it off and gave it fresh start. It will soon be running down your highways and boulevards in droves while oil burners stagger and collapse in abandoned doorways like alcoholics on their last legs. Blah, blah, blah...

[perk]

Steve,
Great article. I hope that everyone will read it to the very end, though I fear some commenting here have not. You hit the nail on the head. We need to STOP DRIVING.

I didn't sell my old car, I just never drive it anymore.
I moved into an older, small town that was designed "pre-automobile" and left that way. I walk or ride by bike 2 blocks to the market and post office, one block to the library, and a whole host of things like cleaners, restaurants and doctors and dime stores are with a few blocks. I now work by telephone and computer and occasionally take the train to a big city one hundred miles away and will probably fly once or twice a year.

[kellygrrrl]

wake me up when Apple unleashes the iCar :)

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

Back in the 70's A.M. General was making electric cars and now they're making Hummers.

Now you know why I fight so hard against Corporatism and the collective ignorance, incompetency and greed that it is built upon.

[kellygrrrl]

yes, I know - and YOU know

lots don't know

and will never ever admit in this lifetime they were wrong

no matter what evidence you show them

We need to admit this to ourselves

[ClarkJensen]

You said you "could have made a film".
In the '70's I worked with a friend on a documentary covering a large wind and solar energy symposium in Palm Springs, CA.
We were the only crew there - CBS sent out a crew that was turned around to return back to Los Angeles at the last moment.
In the middle of the first morning of filming, men in suits knocked over some of our lights and the met the director/producer in the back lobby and told him that we should take our equipment out of Palm Springs as fast as possible.
The film never happened.

[jsarets]

Lack of investment killed the electric car, and this dramatic market failure to direct the flow of capital toward risky but potentially extremely profitable electric transportation ventures has been due to what I call the market stack effect.

The auto industry exists within a stack of interdependent industries, including oil producers, gasoline retailers, parts suppliers, emissions inspectors, etc. Automakers can only compete in the sense of classical market economics if they produce vehicles that satisfy the expectations of not only their consumers but also their partners in the stack.

From the perspective of the surrounding stack, a car is a product that consumes oil, depends on road-side filling stations, requires quarterly oil changes and yearly emissions checks, among other stack interactions. If an automaker dares to threaten any of these symbiotic relationships, it is no longer competing exclusively with other automakers, it is also competing with everybody else in the stack.

The question posed in the film cannot be answered by simply pointing fingers at the various components of the stack. It's the vertical integration of stack structures wherever they exist in our industrial economy that stifle innovation and progress in favor of efficiency.

I'm convinced that most economists are cheap hacks because hardly any of them seem to understand that any dynamic system must be evaluated in terms of both its steady-state and transient responses. Market capitalism approaches a maximally efficient steady-state that is prohibitively resistant to change in response to transient forces.

[ElectricLife]

I just recently became aware of the E-Bike phenomenon. Apparently 4 million were sold in China last year http://www.extraenergy.org/main.php?language=en&category=products&id=8300). E-Bikes sound like an excellent zero emission option for short distance commuting (and fun!), until there are more electric car options in the market.

There is also an alternate energy source discussed in this video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6552475158249898710&ei=-V2dSMi5JYOGwgPQ8ICMDQ&hl=en. Is it possible that this has been kept from the public, so we continue to consume oil?