The Rise And Decline Of The Electric Automobile
Without a doubt, pollution due to smog emissions has caused significant damage to our planet
, environment and natural resources. We can clearly see the derogatory effects of our oil dependency in the current global warming situation, which is rather alarming and cause for serious concern. Despite the International Oil Embargo in 1973, the United States is still continuing to increase its import of oil volume wise. We Americans have become quite accustomed to driving our big SUV's and cars. Luckily there is a solution in sight for this dilemma and that is the mass production of the electric auto.At the turn of the early nineteenth century, electric cars were actually more popular when compared with combustion engines vehicles. Unfortunately, what gave way to this preference was the cheaper price of combustion engine vehicles and the lower price of oil; both of which were championed by the major automotive companies in the United States.
Pretty much all of the vehicles built in the twentieth century all had combustion engines. Experts and scientists have recently confirmed that humans are largely responsible for the planet's global warming and a large part is due to our cars averaging nineteen pounds of carbon dioxide emissions for every mile driven. However surprising it may be, around the nineteen eighty's the large car manufacturer GM had begun gaining attention for its focus on alternative energies in light of this looming threat. During this time, there was further pressure for auto companies to design and manufacture "clean" products. For example, the state of California had passed its "Zero Emissions Mandate," which required there to be a certain percentage of cars manufactured that emitted significantly less carbon dioxide and pollutants. And in the 1990's GM assigned Saturn to market the EV1, the first electric car ever built for mass consumption on a large scale.
Saturn's marketing campaign for this vehicle focused on a threefold consumer question: how far? how fast? how much? From the very start the car attracted what seemed to be major interest. In fact, there was a long waiting list of people who were interested in purchasing this car. Interestingly, GM did not put these cars up for purchase and were only willing to lease them. Nevertheless, the drivers were euphoric about the EV1 as it produced zero CO2 emissions and was fast and fun to drive. Clearly, these drivers actually preferred electric over combustion, despite the car only averaging 60 miles per charge. Thus, the clean, quick and sleek electric car was more desirable than its "nuclear time bomb" counterpart. Are you curious to find out what happened to this environmentally friend vehicle?
General Motors insisted that there was no strong consumer interest despite having put millions into campaign ads, and that the waiting list was not a viable source for proving actual demand. Eventually, the hype was killed with GM removing all leased EV1s from the streets and turning them into demolished cubes. In defense of these roguish actions, among many other discussions, the auto industry argued that electric cars, because they were charged with electricity produced by coal, were even more detrimental for the environment. On top of this, the oil industry supported arguments against this emerging technology, and President Bush pushed for the inefficient and impractical fuel cell and hydrogen technologies to be the wave of the future and replace combustion engines.
The truth is that this energy efficient electric car was repressed by the car industry on purpose. The government and oil industry also played a large role in this. We as consumers did our part to support such actions by passively watching the advent of the electric car slip through our fingers. Luckily it is not too late to get this technology back and mass produce it. The EV1 was incredible and any car enthusiast would enjoy taking it out on a spin. It is not too late to reinvent this technology for use in the future.
by: Jacqueline Cao