Who Resurrected the Electric Car?
Some of you may have seen the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car?", about GM's first-generation fully electric car, the EV1. I used to read about the EV1 back in the day, and wanted one so bad. Eventually, 100 mile range, really really fast acceleration, no pollution, totally quiet, and gas-free. In other words, pretty darn close to the ideal automobile. GM killed the (I think 1 billion dollar-losing) program, took the leased cars back, and destroyed them. I felt wronged, having my future car aspirations dangled out in front of me, then smashed in the compactor.
Something like 10 or 15 years passed.
I don't know if you've heard or not, but for maybe a few years now, GM has wiggled its top half out of its bottom and started developing a new electric car, this time, a plug in/gas hybrid. Almost all of the time, you can drive the car on whatever power you have at your home or work. If you go for a long trip, use gas. It's called the Chevrolet Volt. Probably the only car I want to own more is the Tesla Roadster - but until I scrape together the $109,000 to buy one, I'll have to go with something else.
But the Volt - the Volt totally rules. While the masses still mindlessly procure Toyotas, a revolution is occurring at GM. Beneath all the gloom and doom in the news and outside of the rest of the mismanaged company lurks a division that is not cash-starved, but thriving, a research and development wing that likely will not see cuts, a portion of GM working on the next big thing. GM announced it, loud and clear, and the other auto companies were left slapping their foreheads and scrambling to chase them.
We're in the wintertime of American auto manufacturing. But huddled inside, a golden child is being born, one that may very well restore GM and even surpass its former glory as the worlds biggest and best automaker. The technology is there, and this time, we are ahead. All that's necessary is that we go ahead and buy them, lots of them. If we are willing to cough up the 40 grand for the cars, they'll make more, and surely introduce the technology into the rest of the fleet. If there are enough early adopters, and I think there are, good things might happen in the heartland. For in the darkest moments of everything lies the turning point, and were I to wager, this is it.
Something like 10 or 15 years passed.
I don't know if you've heard or not, but for maybe a few years now, GM has wiggled its top half out of its bottom and started developing a new electric car, this time, a plug in/gas hybrid. Almost all of the time, you can drive the car on whatever power you have at your home or work. If you go for a long trip, use gas. It's called the Chevrolet Volt. Probably the only car I want to own more is the Tesla Roadster - but until I scrape together the $109,000 to buy one, I'll have to go with something else.
But the Volt - the Volt totally rules. While the masses still mindlessly procure Toyotas, a revolution is occurring at GM. Beneath all the gloom and doom in the news and outside of the rest of the mismanaged company lurks a division that is not cash-starved, but thriving, a research and development wing that likely will not see cuts, a portion of GM working on the next big thing. GM announced it, loud and clear, and the other auto companies were left slapping their foreheads and scrambling to chase them.
We're in the wintertime of American auto manufacturing. But huddled inside, a golden child is being born, one that may very well restore GM and even surpass its former glory as the worlds biggest and best automaker. The technology is there, and this time, we are ahead. All that's necessary is that we go ahead and buy them, lots of them. If we are willing to cough up the 40 grand for the cars, they'll make more, and surely introduce the technology into the rest of the fleet. If there are enough early adopters, and I think there are, good things might happen in the heartland. For in the darkest moments of everything lies the turning point, and were I to wager, this is it.