Vehicular Homicide: Who Killed The Electric Car?

Before the Prius, there was the EV1, which stood for electric vehicle. Finally, an American automaker had gotten it right, gotten there first: General Motors! GM had received massive funding from the government to design and develop an alternately powered vehical, and they had knocked it out of the parking lot. 800 were leased to consumers, with a long waiting list, and drivers showered the car with praise, even despite its limited range between charging. It cost the equivalent of 60¢ a gallon to run.

In 2003 GM announced they were pulling the electric plug, so to speak. They claimed the car wasn’t commercially viable, and recalled them all. There were lawsuits by drivers trying to keep the cars they’d grown to love, but the courts sided with GM, and every EV1 was recalled and destroyed. The most interesting aspect of the whole thing is that barely anyone even knows this occurred. Most people have never even heard of the EV1.

On June 28 (6/28/06) a documentary is being released by Sony Classics called Who Killed the Electric Car. It examines the rise and demise of the EV1, and the forces that conspired to keep it off the market.

Here's an interesting website that's campaigning to save all electric cars, it's called DontCrush.com.