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Who Killed the Electric Car?
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Popular Science magazine
Posted: May 24th, 2010
http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2006-07/who-killed-electr...
Chris Paines documentary film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" argues convincingly that there was indeed a market for the cars and a devoted one, ... but that GM [General Motors] squashed the EV1 because, quite simply, it threatened the livelihood of the entire automotive industry. The car used no gasoline, no oil and no mufflers, and it required only sporadic brake maintenance. Each of these components represents billions of dollars in profits for the industry. GM, the oil companies and various government agencies argued that the car wasnt practical, didnt have enough range for consumers and was less promising than the apparently imminent hydrogen technology. The reality was exactly the opposite, Paines film suggests the viability of hydrogen as an automotive fuel source alone is in fact almost comically optimistic. The whisper-quiet EV1 was designed by [an] aviation pioneer, Paul MacCready of AeroVironment. In the 1970s, MacCready built the only successful human-powered aircraft, the Gossamer Condor and the Gossamer Albatross. His solar-powered electric car Sunraycer, built for GM, won the 1987 World Solar Challenge Race in Australia. His corporate mantra is "do more with less" that is, focus on creating vehicles that require less energy to operate, not on finding ways to pump more power into inefficient systems. His teams battery-powered EV1 was a triumph of engineering and a joy to operate.
Note: For lots more on key suppressed automotive and energy inventions, click here.
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