Stupid Hippie Tricks

I heard about this story on NPR yesterday … protestors trying to stop GM from scrapping the EV1 electric car. It made it difficult to drive, since I was yelling “Idiots, stupid idiots” at the radio.

Before you crank up your automatic fossil-fuel-burning-planet-hating-tree-killer flame generator, read the rest of this post to see where I’m coming from.

The EV1, like a few other experimental cars from the late 1990′s and early 2000′s, is a fully electric car. It runs on batteries, recharged from some sort of giant zap-o-matic installed in the driver’s home, or provided by a business or shopping center. It’s clean, generates no exhaust, and looked like a great alternative to foreign oil at the time.

But there were problems. GM couldn’t find a customer base large enough to support the car as a commercial product. The small number of EV1′s produced (1,000-2,000) were leased and heavily subsidized by GM, meaning they might break even on the project but it would never be a commercial success. Parts for the EV1 were difficult to get, and some critical parts are no longer being made (like the braking systems, so pray that never breaks). Plus the car had a very short range … painfully short, only good for city driving.

The leases ran out, GM collected the cars and started shipping them to the scrap yard. Now the streets around the collection facility are clogged with environmental protesters who want “the cure for fossil fuels” set free.

Too bad they’re barking up the wrong tree … of course, they may also be chained to that tree in protest … but it’s still the wrong tree.

People who consider(d) a fully electric car to be the wave of the future seem to forget one thing … where the damn electricity comes from.

Coal … burns fossil fuels, smoke results, not an unlimited fuel source
Natural Gas … expensive, limited fuel supply like oil or coal
Nuclear … no dead dinos required, but just try to build one without Greenpeace camping out in your parking lot. It’s safer than ever, but nobody can hear that over the chanting protesters.
Wind Power … assuming you can get somebody to agree to put a a gaggle of 200′ windmills in their back yard, the environmentalists who tout this as clean power have to weigh that against all the birds killed in the windmills (yes, studies show birds just fly right into the damn blades)
Solar … neat stuff, but not efficient enough to produce that much power
Hydrogen … great stuff for power or cars, but somebody has to make the hydrogen (Sams Club doesn’t sell it in 55 gallon drums) and that typically requires (sigh) electricity

Hybrid cars, electric or otherwise, are probably the best way to transition away from using so much oil … but then the government will come along an crap all over that when they discover how much fuel tax they’re loosing to fuel-efficient cars.

But the fully electric car can’t be a commercial option using current technology, which means GM is going to let it die no matter how many people hang out in front of their doors. GM is a business, and they respond more to paying customers than detractors. If you think they’re trying to hide “some big secret” from environmentally responsible consumers, then go buy a different car. Honda & Toyota make great hybrids, the Smart gets 60 miles to the gallon (great car, assuming you don’t need to go to the warehouse store), and diesels will burn fryer fat oil with a simple conversion kit (if you can handle your car exhaust smelling like an Arby’s). Hell, my wife’s dino-burning 1998 Neon gets 36 miles to the gallon, and it seats four.

At the end of the day, if you want a fully electric car, you might just have to build one yourself. I’m sure the local Radio Shack will appreciate your business.