Thanks for this heads-up on a vital issue of corporate special interest and irresponsibility.<br><br>The EV-1 is a car this nation NEEDS. GM never marketed it properly, not even half-assedly, and then turned a deaf ear to enthusiastic EV-1 fans who pleaded for the company to either continue leasing the cars to them or selling them outright, waiving all liability issues. <br><br>There's a large, avid and booming Do-It-Yourself electric-car conversion community of folks communicating and sharing info on the net and on forums, proving that electric cars are practical, cost-efficient, fun and eminently do-able. For about $2000, someone with basic mechanical aptitude can buy a good-condition salvaged second-hand car or van or PU or SUV and convert it to electric, using off-the-shelf electric motors, switches, circuits, batteries and maybe 40 hours of labour. With super-careful bargain and surplus-parts shopping, one could probably build a decent electric-car conversion for around $500 -- or build something truly top-shelf or even hire a mechanic/engineer to build a custum conversion for $5000 on up.<br><br>At one point, I was keenly interested in the topic and even contemplated building my own electric or hybrid -- as much for the challenge as for the practical utility and experience. So I did a lot of reading and found quite a few forums where builders/owners shared technical advice and descriptions and photos of their projects. A Dutch company manufactures an innovative super-efficient internal-motor wheel that acts like an inside-out generator/motor (where the armature is stationary and the field-coil windings spin) -- with models for small vehicles up to large trucks and busses.<br><br>There are SO many practical options and design possibilities --for instance, a utility-vehicle hybrid whose powerplant can be used to provide crucial home power supplies or for emergencies (like storms and power-outages), or for rescue, humanitarian and (ugh!) even military or civil-service communication purposes.<br><br>The latest-generation lithium-ion batteries promise greatly extended ranges and reduced weight to make electric autos even more efficient and practical and versatile. A great range of DC and AC electric motors are available that will easily replace a car or truck's conventional gas engine, even using the standard transmission with or without clutch to simplify unstallation and use (although shifting isn't necessary -- usually 2nd gear is a very adequate gearing, with greater traction or torque available by using 1st or 3rd).<br><br>I actually think there's an enormous custom-conversion electric and hybrid auto-service industry potential, with small independant local shops providing well-built electric car conversions at competitive quality used-car prices (and drastically reduced operating and upkeep costs, with only batteries, tires and brakes being the main items requiring routine maintenance and periodic replacement -- as electric motors are VERY rugged, practically bulletproof, and drive-axles usually last the life of a vehicle, ie., several hundred thousand miles anyway).<br><br>I'd LOVE to build an off-road capable van hybrid, with electric motor powered by a small 3 or 4 cylinder turbo-diesel engine and batteries, perhaps with electrostatic capacitor-discharge cells to provide efficient 'burst' energy needs (charged by deacceleration).<br><br>Eventually auto makers will design and market electic and more models of hybrid cars to provide urban-commute transport needs -- I've seen details of some Chinese cars being developed -- at least once public demands overcome the massive Big Oil influence on automakers to protect their oil-franchise monopoly.<br>Starman<br>******<br>Anyway -- GodDAMN GM (and the Bastard Corporate bloodsucker parasites).<br>More on the wasteful travesty of scrapping the remarkable EV-1s:<br>***<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.saveev1.org/">www.saveev1.org/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>GM Destroyed the EV1, but Public Demand for Electric Cars and Plug-in Hybrids Grows!<br><br>Smash Sundance Film Fest Hit Tells the Story of the EV1<br>Director Chris Paine helps us all find out what really happened in 'Who Killed the Electric Car?" See it in wide release in the Summer of 2006!<br><br><br>Join the growing movement for plug-in vehicles and support cleaner transportation that uses cleaner, cheaper, domestic electricity. Join us at
www.PlugInAmerica.com. Keeps Electric Cars On The Road!<br>Read about the sugrowing campaign to save electric cars at Don't Crush -
www.DontCrush.com You can help to educate others in the public, government, and industry about the benefits of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids and help stop Automakers from destroying any more cars and trucks. Join the action! <br><br><br>What Happened at the Burbank Vigil<br>Transition Away from Burbank On March 16, our presence at the GM Training Center in Burbank transitioned away from our round-the-clock vigil and over to our sustained educational campaign for change. We continue to bring the facts about GM's electric car program to the American Public. As we broaden our fight for clean air and energy independence, more people are joining our ranks to speak out on the need for change. <br><br>Come and explore our web site, even if you've been here before. We are continually adding more information about happenings, how you can take action, future events, links, and educational information about electric cars and driving clean and sustainably.<br><br>The Burbank Vigil<br><br>Tragically, on March 15, day number 28 of our round-the-clock vigil at the GM Training Center in Burbank, a total of eight transporters came and hauled all remaining EV1 cars off towards the GM Provining Grounds, for their destruction in the Arizona desert. See Media Coverage and March 15, 2005 press release for more. Additional photos are in the March 15 album.<br><br><br>March 15, 2005 - 8 car transports loading more than 50 EV1s<br><br><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.saveev1.org/images/thumb%2015%20Mar%2005%20%20%20006.JPG" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br><br>On Monday, 2 people were arrested for blocking the exit from GM's Burbank site, as three auto transport trucks attempted to leave with at least 15 EV1 cars. The 3 trucks were later allowed to leave after Burbank Police peacefully arrested Alexandra Paul and Colette Divine, who sent a powerful message of the importance of this clean air technology to the lives of people everywhere.<br><br>General Motors continues to decline offers by customers of $1.9 million to buy the cars and waive all future responsibility for continuing service or parts. See Media Coverage for recent reports and our see our March 14, 2005 press release.<br><br><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://saveev1.org/images/crushedcars72dpi.jpg" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--> <br><br>Visit our photo gallery for more photos from March 14, 2005.<br><br>Background when the vigil began on February 16, 2005<br><br>See url for link to more photos in our gallery<br> <br><br>In 1996 GM introduced the EV1, the first modern all-electric automobile. Spurred-on by worsening air quality in the Los Angeles area, California regulators created the Zero Emissions Vehicle Mandate, which required that major auto manufacturers offer zero emissions automobile for a small portion of their overall fleet. GM built a small number of vehicles to meet their initial obligations under the ZEV Mandate, however has focused much more energy on lobbying and legislation to undermine the regulation.<br><br>Just over 1100 EV1s were built by GM in two runs of production during 1997 and 1999. About 800 of these were leased to fleets and individuals in California and Arizona who were willing to wait months of sometimes years to take delivery of a vehicle. At the end of the 3 year leases, GM removed the vehicles from the road, over the pleas of many drivers, who offered to continue the lease or buy the vehicles. Most of these working zero emission vehicles, funded by up to $13,000 in direct state and federal subsidies, were unceremoniously crushed. A few have made it to New York and Massachusetts where, under the guise of test program, they are double dipping – receiving credit against both California and New York ZEV mandate programs.<br><br><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://saveev1.org/images/78%20cars.jpg" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br>78 EV1s remain on a lot in Burbank, awaiting transport to GMs test grounds in Mesa, Arizona, where they too will be crushed. These vehicles are all in working order, and in fact are regularly charged and moved around the GM parking lot. A group of dedicated individuals, supported by environmental and clean-air advocacy groups has established a 24 hour vigil outside the GM facility, asking GM to put these remaining vehicles back where they belong, in the hands of drivers. Please join us in asking GM to do the right thing. We’ll all breath easier with these zero emission vehicle back on the road.<br><br>***<br>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061502052_pf.html<br>An Electric Car, Booted<br>Museum Removes EV1 as Film Gears for Release<br><br>By Linda Hales<br>Washington Post Staff Writer<br>Friday, June 16, 2006; C01<br><br><br>The central mystery of the new movie "Who Killed the Electric Car?" is why General Motors created a dynamic battery-powered auto that drivers loved, only to crush it to smithereens.<br><br>The mystery, meantime, at the National Museum of American History is why a rare surviving example of that car -- a silvery-blue 1997 EV1 sedan -- would be removed from display yesterday just as interest in the innovative vehicle seems bound to grow.<br><br>In the movie, which premieres June 30 and goes into wide release July 21, writer-director Chris Paine celebrates the creation of the EV1, a nonpolluting car that generated so much passion among its fans that drivers staged a public funeral to say goodbye. Paine also excoriates GM for halting an experiment in gasoline independence under pressure from Big Oil in "one of the biggest blunders in the history of the automotive industry."<br><br>GM, which donated the EV1, happens to be one of the Smithsonian Institution's biggest contributors. A $10 million gift in 2001 paid half the cost of the history museum's new transportation exhibition hall, which was renamed to honor the benefactor. But museum and automaker say the EV1 was removed from view with no thoughts of public reaction to the movie or the display.<br><br>"There was no pressure from GM to remove the car from display," spokeswoman Michelle J. Werts said. The museum, which closes for renovation in September, simply needed the space for another vehicle, she said.<br><br>"It's not that I picked up the phone," said GM spokesman Dave Barthmuss, who defends the company in the film. "There is no conspiracy to do away with the EV1 at the Smithsonian. There is no Oliver Stone-esque conspiracy at GM to do away with the EV1."<br><br>Paine, who was on his way to a screening in Detroit last night, was not happy that the EV1 was in the museum in the first place.<br><br>"It's so sad that EV1 is being portrayed as history," he said by phone. "It's not an example of 'failed' technology. It's an example of what the 21st century can be in this country, if we had the willpower to do it. The Smithsonian should take the car out of the museum and put it back on the road."<br><br>The story of the EV1 is a classic 1990s tale of government regulation, corporate innovation, brilliant engineering and consumer lust for the Next New Thing.<br><br>The film chronicles how GM developed and launched a fleet of silent, aerodynamic electric vehicles to meet California's zero-emissions mandate. The shapely two-seaters with a GM logo enjoyed a brief ride in California and Arizona from 1996 until 2003, when they were taken off the market and destroyed. (GM says it was concerned about safety; others say the company wanted to head off the loss of proprietary secrets.)<br><br>Paine was one of the original drivers. The director started to make a comedy about Los Angeles drivers going nutty over cars, but the project turned serious after he encountered perfectly drivable EV1s being crushed and shredded at the Mesa Proving Grounds in Arizona.<br><br>In the film, images of President Bush and Vice President Cheney set a political tone, although California regulators set standards for zero emissions that forced automakers, including Honda and Toyota, to experiment with electric cars. Ralph Nader weighs in. So do Mel Gibson and Tom Hanks, who drove EV1s.<br><br>The car evolved from the Impact concept car developed by Paul MacCready's AeroVironment team. Every one of its 2,000 parts was unique. The engine whirred, rather than roared, but spewed no emissions; there was no gear-shifting; and drivers talk of the car's torque with awe.<br><br>The first wave of cars, including the Smithsonian's, could travel 52 miles on a charge of four to six hours; the second-generation cars used a nickel metal hydride battery, which increased the range to about 125 miles. Cars were leased, rather than sold, by Saturn dealers, with monthly costs from $350 to more than $500.<br><br>The film presents the EV1 as an answer to global warming, pollution, unrest in the Middle East and rising gasoline prices.<br><br>Instead, California changed its emissions laws and automakers could again pursue nonelectric technology. GM, which had spent more than $1 billion on the EV1, says it halted production of the vehicle because there were only 800 paying customers.<br><br>Electric-car activists contend that GM ignored a waiting list of 5,000 because achieving success with the EV1 threatened to make the rest of GM's cars look bad.<br><br>Phil Karn, a vice president for technology at Qualcomm in San Diego, drove the Smithsonian's car for two years. He leased a second one, commuting 11 miles each way to work without recharging issues. When the car was reclaimed, he says, it felt like losing a family pet.<br><br>"It made no sense to us," he said by phone. "The only way we can figure is, they built this car to fail . . . or the anti-EV1 faction inside GM won."<br><br>What bothers Karn the most is the idea that a bold new chapter in autos ended so abruptly. "We thought it was the beginning of something new," Karn said. "It may not have been the perfect car, but it looked like the beginning of something new."<br><br>GM's Barthmuss compares the launch of the EV1 with the debut of the iPod, only with far fewer customers. "We, in our heart of hearts, believe we did the right thing," he says. "The EV1 experience demonstrated to California regulators that battery technology was not going to advance further. It was only going to appeal to a small number of people."<br><br>GM needs "extremely large numbers" to survive, Barthmuss added.<br><br>"We lost well over a billion dollars," he said. "We simply could not afford to lose that kind of money. I very much regret that people are so angry."<br><br>The Smithsonian has no plans to bring the EV1 back on view. When the museum reopens in 2008, one of the most innovative commuter cars ever will be resting in peace in a Suitland storage facility.<br><br>By the end of the month, the museum hopes to display a robot-driven off-road vehicle, named Stanley, that won the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's $2 million race in the Nevada desert in October. The winner is a smart-wired Volkswagen Touareg.<br><br>In the museum, as in life, the EV1 is being displaced by a souped-up SUV.<br><br>"When you look around and wonder why are we in this mess these days, depending on highways, depending on oil, who's the guilty party," said curator Bill Withuhn, the museum's EV1 expert, "look in the mirror. It's me, it's you."<br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=starmanskye>StarmanSkye</A> at: 6/20/06 10:16 pm<br></i>