Sony pictures recently released a documentary, "Who Killed The Electric Car". The basic point of the movie was that General Motors designed an all-electric car, the EV1, and an infrastructure to recharge it because they were required to meet a certain emission standard in Califonia. When those standards were relaxed, the car was killed.
The synopsis reads:
It was among the fastest, most efficient production cars ever built. It ran on electricity, produced no emissions and catapulted American technology to the forefront of the automotive industry. The lucky few who drove it never wanted to give it up. So why did General Motors crush its fleet of EV1 electric vehicles in the Arizona desert?WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? chronicles the life and mysterious death of the GM EV1, examining its cultural and economic ripple effects and how they reverberated through the halls of government and big business...http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/
The EV-1 was on tour in York in the mid-1990's. I recall driving one with a reporter and remember the silence. Other than that, it felt like a typical car of the time.
There is an ironic twist in that Electro Motive Division of General Motors (EMD) was the first to demonstrate in 1940 that diesels could practically replace steam locomotives in heavy-duty service. The locomotive’s diesel engine powered a generator that drove electric motors in the wheels. The GM diesel locomotive ran cleaner than a coal-belching steam engine and did away with frequent water stops. It was a great success, and the system lives on today. http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/history/loco/locohs03.shtml
The story of electric propulsion began in the 1830s with inventors using crude one-time-use batteries and evolved into the early 20th century when electric cars were commonplace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_cars#History
I published a story and produced a video today about an electrically propelled 1936 Thorne Gasoline-Electric delivery truck owned by Jay Crist of Manchester Township. The Thorne differs greatly from a modern gasoline-electric hybrid car; it shares more common characteristics with the 1940 GM diesel locomotive.
Thorne was a company that made generators so they were familiar with electronics of the 1930s. It was more of a truck built around a creatively simple drive system. A generator bolted to the flywheel of a gasoline engine made electricity that drove an electric motor bolted to a differential. A hallmark of the drive system was simple operation and low maintenance.
Crist’s 36’ Thorne model C-1 (concept truck), that was used by Rutter’s for 18 years, was never mass produced; however, the drive system lived on in other trucks made by Thorne and lives on today in large diesel locomotives.
Click here to see my video about how to drive the '36 Thorne Gasoline-Electric delivery truck and to see it in action.
http://w2.ydr.com/mmedia/wmv/805/
GM's FastLane Blog responds to the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car"
http://www.gm.com/company/onlygm/fastlane_Blog.html#EV1
Read Jim McClures post in York Town Square: Milkman's relics humming around today
to find out more about milk delivery and history of the Rutter's farm
http://www.yorkblog.com/archives/2006/09/milkmans_relics.html
Link here to see my videos and the still images that go with them.
Link here to see my current still photo archive.
Link to my other blog entries in Photoblog
When I was in San Francisco a number of years ago, there was some kind of EV-1 Convention going on somewhere out there. (It's all a bit of a blur, I must admit.) They had blocked off a road, and had a few lessees showing off their electric cars.
Two things in particular struck me. First, they looked like Saturns, which I thought was a poor choice. Second, they didn't make much more noise than the sound of their rubber tires rolling down the street.
It was a very brief encounter, and now that they've all been crushed, I feel kind of glad that I got to see a number of them in action.
I remember the EV-1 tester that toured in York in the mid-90's thinking that it looked alot like a Saturn. You have to remember that this was the 90's, so a Saturn look wasn't too far off in design, the EV-1 probably began development in the late 80's and GM was pretty conservative styling-wise at the time.
It was somewhat eerie to energize the car and hear silence, but then again I was driving an aging VW Rabbit Diesel which emitted quite a good vibration through the dashboard to the point that it almost flapped at times