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Electric cars have been lingering at the high point because no significant car has been rough to market. The Tesla and the Volt appear to be the firsts going there.

What about these?

MDI Enterprises S.A. - Air compressed cars
Electric Tiger Star Truck
Zenn Motor Company
Tata Motors
GM before the Volt
Zap Electric Cars
Global Electric Motors
Phoenix Motorcars
Dynasty Electric Cars
Nice Car Company
Reva
I could keep going but let me Google that for you.

We need to take the first steps if we are ever to migrate from oil to electric.

I agree.

Along your line of thinking is the movie "Why We Fight", a decent documentary about the themes you've mentioned. It offers an interesting perspective about the role of capitalism in our (the US) military infrastructure. I recommend it highly.

Taken for a Ride: Why Does America Have the Worst Public Transit in the Industrialized World, and the Most Freeways?

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Why are American gas prices lower? Is it because of lower taxes on gas? There's almost certainly a certain amount of economics of scale at work, which keeps the price lower in places that use a lot more gas than other places.

I've not seen it, but I've heard that the film 'Who Killed the Electric Car' makes quite a solid case against most of the claims you have here.

While the film itself is also pretty controversial, it does, IMHO, seems like the US is almost suspiciously behind the power curve when it comes to making electric city cars.

Q:Don't electric cars create as much pollution as gas cars - because the electricity comes from coal plants?

A: The "long tailpipe" theory argues that electric vehicles do not really create zero emissions, because the electricity needed to charge the batteries is produced in power plants. In June 2001, the Argonne National Laboratory released a US Department of Energy-sponsored study that found that battery-powered electric vehicles result in a 35% reduction in greenhouse gases. [25] This reduction was based upon electricity generation from the national grid, roughly half of which is derived from coal and roughly 30% of which is derived from clean, renewable sources like nuclear, solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric power. [26] In 2004, an analysis of data from a California Air Resources Board staff report on greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles found that electric vehicles resulted in a 67% reduction in overall greenhouse gases in California, compared to a car powered exclusively by gasoline, and were nearly twice as effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions than a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle. [27] California's energy grid is considerably cleaner than the national grid, with roughly 20% of the state's electricity being generated via coal-fired plants. [28] Finally, some energy experts and utility analysts contend that millions of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could be added to California's fleet without substantially impacting the state's current energy grid, since most of the charging for the plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could be done during off-peak hours, at night. [29] . It's estimated that 5,000 plug-in hybrids charging at night would represent less than 0.1 % of peak electrical demand in the state. [30] Moreover, they would also have strong beneficial environmental impact, since a plug-in hybrid vehicle that gets its energy from the grid during off-peak hours is thought to produce one-third the carbon dioxide emissions of an exclusively gas-powered car with a fuel efficiency of 24 mpg. [31] Tim Lippman of UC Berkeley's Institute of Transportation Studies also points out that not only is our state and national grid becoming cleaner with increased use of renewable energy sources, but also that it is much easier to control emissions from a relatively small number of power plants than millions of tailpipes, each being a point of emissions and harmful, respiratory pollutants. Lippman also notes that emissions modeling research shows that when it comes to the concentration of harmful pollutants emitted from burning fossil fuels, height matters; the closer to the ground the emissions are, the more they tend to concentrate, making emissions from tailpipes at ground-level potentially more damaging than those from a coal-fired plant's smokestack, which may be 200 ft. or more of the ground. [32]

I just contacted GM Canada to let them know they have lost a future customer. Pointed out the following links to them: Who Killed the Electric Car: GM and Chevron, Sony Pictures.

This story is total corporate BS!!! As anyone who has seen the film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" can attest. http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectricca r/

Only 8 miles??? http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectricca r/

As progressive and ahead of the curve as CA is in the environment, there are still some areas where the state totally caved to money interests.

And when it comes to the rights of individuals, CA can really suck. The voters gave the state the right to collect DNA information and enter it in a database upon your arrest, NOT CONVICTION. So your DNA goes on file even if you're wrongly accused. See any potential for abuse here?

Plus, don't forget the state is home to the MPAA, and the House co-sponsor of the Patriot act.

"This is the world in 30 years' time envisaged by a Ministry of Defence team responsible for FUD mongering to the ends of securing their jobs for those same 30 years."

Reccommended reading.

Even promoting more efficient cars.

Yeah, sure they will. http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectricca r/ (flash, sorry)

+1,000,000,000
Can't be said enough. There is irrefutable evidence that we are going to destroy the atmosphere, which in turn will destroy the planet. Gore has just summed it all up nicely for the layperson to understand. The most troubling thing (ya know, besides the imminent end of the world) is that the oil, auto, and other capitalist lobbies goddamn well know it - and instead of doing the right thing; innovating for leaner, cleaner products, they fud the hell out of it in the interests of padding their already astronomical bonuses.

If you haven't checked this one out, it makes a nice compliment to An Inconvenient Truth: http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectricca r/

Way to go, FUD Whore.

I invite all you to watch Who Killed the Electric Car. http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectricca r/

If an effort is going to be made then let's make something that beats the c... out of regular cars, maybe something like the deceased electric Car!, surely somebody still has knowledge about it..
But just in case..

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectricca r/

Good luck with that electric car thing.
          http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectricca r/

The last ones were all shredded by the companies that made them.

Accroding to the link the reduction in green house gas emissions due to use of Hydrogen fuel cells would be 39%. The link might be broken. Here it is again. link

Who killed the electric car? New documentary coming up about how GM had an awesome electric car that everyone wanted...and they canceled it. Then they recalled them and junked them instead of letting people buy them outright like people wanted to. Trailer's on Apple.

I just watched this movie yesterday: http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectricca r/

I thought the movie was quite biased and didn't show enough of the other side, but I still found the the movie somewhat interesting and informative.

Just interesting that this article came out just when the movie is in theaters.

You'll have to convince these movie guys about your claims then. You can get rich! Make an electric car debunker movie!

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectricca r/

Looking forward to it! I'll watch both back to back!

the primary reason why the Electric Car never made popularity it is because it is not convenient enough for normal people.

"When we got our EV1, we thought it would be our second car. But immediately it became our primary when we found through experience it was easier to operate," says Moorpark nurse Diana Reagan. "Quickly, it became easier and easier to use this car and it became an integral part of our life and lifestyle. No visits to the gas pump. No oil changes or smog checks. And we never had to worry about the price of gas or wait in line for it. We had no inkling as to not just the convenience of an electric car, but the sheer pleasure of it. I had to be talked into getting the electric car by my husband, Mike. My biggest hurdle was mental-it's too limited, you have to plug it in, it's just a golf cart. But, no! It was in every way a car, only better. My electric car "filled up" all by itself whenever it was parked. I'm not an eco nut, tree hugger sort of person, but the more I saw of how far less my electric car contributed to our pollution problems-directly and indirectly-the better I felt. Another perk, Mike and I have traveled more and had more fun in the short year and a half of driving electric than in all the years of driving gas. Electric changed our lives."

Here is a website just chock fucking full of interesting facts about how our auto and energy interests have colluded to keep the costs of energy high enough to be massively profitable to them, and the barriers to meaningful competition from cheaper, more efficient energy sources outrageously high. In fact, as you can probably tell from the link title, there's shortly going to be a little film about the untimely death of the electric car, which would have for 90% of us suited just fine as an around-the-town vehicle. I would say that a car that kept demand for gasoline low and improved energy efficiency would have neutralized the phony "threat" from oil-bearing Iraq by kicking the props out from under Saddam's economy, had we started to implement it 10 years ago when it was introduced. Wouldn't that have been nice? We could have used meaningful economic sanctions against the bastard and forced him to come into the modern world. I'm sure 2,600 dead American soldiers would have been happy with that choice, as well.

If you are wondering what is happening to America these days, you can get a lot of pointers from "Why We Fight"

"Why We Fight" is a documentary film directed by Eugene Jarecki that won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.
The film describes the rise and maintenance of the United States military-industrial complex while concentrating on wars led by the
United States of the last fifty years and in particular on the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.

Please have a look at it, it is really wel done, none of the Michael Moore style sensationalism, but more disturbing for its simple presentation.


Trailer from sonyclassics
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/


Bittorrent links to the complete movie:
http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3367179
http://www.torrentspy.com/download.asp?id=347228

Hey you with the mod points! Dont be to harsh, this one comes from the heart.

I see two possibilities:

a) It isn't really going according to plan,

or

b) Iraq is making so much debts that in a few years, the oil is practically owned by the US.

Basically, I don't really know. What I do know is that the US government has lost all it's credibility over the past few years, and I'm not prepared to believe the Bush monkeys ever had another motive than oil to start the war.

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/main.html

Yeah.. But are you going too far when spending so much in defence industry? Affecting politics?

And the best of all: China made some really really good movies in the last months. Go see "House of flying daggers" if you haven't and maybe another, somehow similar movie "2046". These films go lengths beyond Hollywood stereotypes and are just refreshingly traditional at the same time.

Rent them, if the cinema isn't playing them, you wont regret it, I promise. An astonishing flurry of images, colors and emotions, not artsy emotions like French films have, but very transparent and breathtaking scenes. "House of flying daggers" was, at least for me, absolutely the best film of this year, no matter what comes in the next 11 months ;)

China has finally overcome the unavoidable repetion in most recent Hollywood movies and that's quite a feat. Imagine the first "Matrix"-part was a love movie with exactly the same cool action, a morale, fun, atmosphere, magic and tragedy all into one... Sounds impossible, eh? Watch the preview if you like ;)

Hitler was a very neat and tidy man, who had trouble connecting to other people - he disliked touching, even his later-wife, Eva Braun.

Either I saw this in a Discovery documentary, but more likely I saw it in 'Im toten Winkel - Hitlers Sekretärinn. MSN, BBC, IMDB, Amazon DE
It is a very good movie, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in that era, and especially in the workings of a terror regime that kept it's society in a trance.
Be warned, though, that you might need a lot of coffee.

how true. the crazy thing is the same thing applies to other professions/hobbies.

the sad thing is...it also applies to politicians.

Listen to some of those 1940's anecdotes and feel a lot better about the equipment you've fried.

With its CGI fog. Plus, it's non-Hollywood, non-American film. It could make for some nice variety.

Scooters predate skateboarding by about half a century. They're not the same thing.

Yeah, I know I saw a Sony-distributed movie recently, but I intend to be more vigilant in the future.

If you really need your corporate media, buy it USED. Half.Com is a good place to start. So is Second Spin and Powell's.

Stop buying new DVDs and CDs. Stop going to movies. Maybe even get rid of your cable service, because the cable companies pay their tribute to the MPAA and the RIAA too. Take the money you would have used on new DVDs, new CDs, movie tickets and cable bills and donate it to the EFF.

And for crissake FAX YOUR CONGRESSCRITTER! And like Zappa always reminded us, Don't forget to vote.

A great movie! I was the web designer who made the official website for the movie (hey, be nice, it was done a LONG time ago) and so got to see the movie before it came out. I watched it 3 times, and made others come watch it. It's so very random and disconnected, and then you start to just see it all coming together.

Very good movie, and Rodney Brooks is fun to watch. I highly suggest you rent it...just be prepared to be barraged with non-sequitor scene after non-sequitor scene, without a plot but four intermixed lives revealed.

Bullshit. Otherwise, then how come Robert Crumb lost his rights to "Keep on Truckin'"?

A six-panel page in Zap #1 that caused Crumb a lot of trouble, KOT struck a note in the collective hip unconscious. For a while, KOT was everywhere. The characters and their odd mode of pedal ambulation were made into merchandise, mostly without permission. In the early '70s, Crumb's lawyer threatened suits against anyone who had swiped Crumb's work or ideas. Thousands of dollars rolled in. Then in 1976 a judge ruled that Crumb didn't own KOT --and suddenly he was being pursued by the IRS for the taxes they said he owed on past royalties. Crumb didn't dig himself out of that hole for years.