for the longest time i’ve been waiting for a neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV). GM once had a vehicle called the EV1, but they never sold it (only leased), made around 1,000 units and then literally pulled the plug. GM, ford th!nk mobility, and bombardier all left the electric car market, because no one was buying. more to the point they were never offered for sale.
it was california’s great experiment in government regulation to require 10% of cars on the road to be zero emission vehicles. this challenge could only be met by electric cars or maybe hydrogen fuel cell cars. the big three north american automakers sued the CA air resource board, and they won. the decision was only the federal government could regulate emissions, via the CAFE standards, but ever since clinton and gore left office, the present administration has tied there own hands in regulating carbon emissions, or any emissions at all. we get blue sky iniatives that increase greehouse gas emissions, and hundreds of billions of dollars to fight a war in the persian gulf. still no NEV’s.
today, with finger sized MP3 players, GSM handsets, sub compact laptops, and other electronic devices, battery technology has made tremendous strides. the electric car should be on it’s third generation, but we are at an empty table with empty promises of hydrogen cars or fuel cell cars. the current president has called for intelligent design in the schools on par with evolutionary biology, and some pie in the sky fuel cell/hydrogen car technology. for eight years clinton and gore had the advanced car initiative, but then the current president canceled the program.
this type of research is not new. in 1981 during the “auto 2000” project, a 100 mpg diesel prototype was built, but never put into production. hell, nothing but gas guzzling trucks and vans have made it into the north american market. sure, manufacturers only give what customers demand, but the government could at least pretend to give a damn. we need at least 40 mpg cars, not 16 mpg. i’m looking into a NEV, perhaps coming to market in november 2005. what do you think?
do you like it?