I just saw Who Killed the Electric Car...

In reality though it would have done nothing but hurt the image of the protesters. You never want to protest in a violent way IMO.

I own and enjoy the movie but I also try to look past some of the infered opinions and see if there could be other reasons for the actions taken by GM and others. Don't get me wrong, I've read the Bush Agenda, Crimes Against Nature, Static, etc. so I know how crooked a lot of these people are. I just try to keep an open mind about most things.

 

Although the car companies and CARB were somewhat complicit in the demise of the electric car projects, the public seems to carry most of the blame , a point the film depicts pretty well. The Ford guy said people think they need a car that goes 300 miles between fill-ups/charges, even if their driving patterns don't support that. There was no way you were going to sell a 100 mile-per-charge car to those people, especially if it cost more than 15 grand.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Slow & Green @ Jan 10 2007, 09:17 PM) [snapback]373993[/snapback]</div>

I remember back before I started my education and I heard about electric cars. Think back to those days I also remember how I pretty much agreed with the sentiments expressed by the Ford guy in the film. Obviously now I think differently but back then that was my opinion however flawed it may seem now.

 

Squid, Colette told me that she told the police officer that the only way she was getting out of the car was if they took her out.

All of the people in the film told me that the police were very considerate, and more than one of them were sympathetic to the cause.

When I asked Alexandra Paul why she wasn't taken by force, she said she elected to get out of her car.

Colette told me that she did what worked for her at the time, and that she had no regrets.

Nate

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mystery Squid @ Dec 10 2006, 09:56 PM) [snapback]360240[/snapback]</div>

Did you know one of the EV1 drivers was Mel Gibson?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Delta Flyer @ Jan 26 2007, 02:13 PM) [snapback]381327[/snapback]</div>

LOL! ROFL! LOL!

(I didn't get to meet him).

Nate

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(F8L @ Dec 10 2006, 08:03 PM) [snapback]360243[/snapback]</div>

While I *certainly* understand MS's outrage, I agree that violence would hurt the cause. Our little group of EV driveres is already considered the lunatic fringe by most folks. Provoking a police beating would help the cause about as much as setting ourselves on fire, naked, in the middle of the freeway.

There are WAY more reasons than Chris was able to show in the movie in under two hours. NO way to do this story justice in such a short amount of time. In fact, I could personally talk about it for many days without stop... and in fact I have. You'll learn much by having a discussion with the people who lived through the EV experience on the consumer side. The lies, from ALL the car companies in regard to their EV programs, just make you want to puke. No opinion. No inferences or implications. No subjectivity. I'm talking about facts that the car companies lie about. Like telling us buyers, under oath, that the EV purchase process was "streamlined" and that the advertising campaign was as elaborate, targeted and expensive as the Prius campaign. Raise your hands now... how many people knew the Rav4EV was for sale... ever? And how many knew that the Prius was for sale in the early 2000's? That's what I thought.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Slow & Green @ Jan 10 2007, 09:17 PM) [snapback]373993[/snapback]</div>

Well, yes you could sell to those people. Some of them anyway. The reason that many of those people think that way is because they've been TOLD to think that way. The car maker's PR machine was HUGE at the end of the EV programs. We were told over and over how the range sucked. How American drivers don't want these cars. Didn't fit our lifestyle, etc. That plugging them in was a big hassle. That "only" 800 could be sold. If American drivers really didn't want these cars, why spend so much money tellings us that? And why not mention the nagging little fact that EVERY SINGLE production EV ever made was leased or sold during the VERY short time they were available? These cars didn't sit on the lot. Ever. I had to wait two years for my EV1 (and I had to get it through a back-door deal since I didn't qualify to lease one directly from GMAC), and over four months for my Rav4EV (with no color or trim choice, and ONLY in an out-dated body style, and for a sticker price $20k MORE than a Prius, mind you). Does that sound like we had a surplus of these vehicles that the car makers couldn't move?

No question that the buying public needs to take a big portion of the blame. And that fact is tempered with the fact that the buying public was so shielded from their availability. If I were not already in the EV loop when the Rav4EVs became available for purchase in 2002, I never would have known they were available for the eight months that they were sold. There were exactly 25 Rav4EV dealership in the nation. One of them is two miles from my house. Nobody in my town that I've talked to in the past four years ever knew that these cars were for sale back in 2002. Some pretty great advertising, eh? Except for two other people who were also in the EV Loop at the time, nobody else in my town bought one of these cars. Nobody else had ever heard of them, or knew what the heck they were. There were no cars to test drive before purchase. Ug... I'm babbling again.