D and I watched Who Killed the Electric Car last night, and it was really shocking. I just can’t believe how the combination of bad decisions by both car companies and the California Air Resource Board, as well as our own Federal Government, killed the electric car. I had no idea that in the nineties there were electric cars in use all over California. While these cars could only go 60 miles before requiring recharging, they were able to drive on highways and go just as fast as gas cars. Today you can no longer lease these electric cars that were produced, and your only options are the ZENN car or a gemcar, both of which can’t go over 25 mph.

Hybrids are a good solution in the meantime but they are quite a bit more expensive than a traditional car (the electric cars of the nineties were about the same as an average car). I really want to buy an electric car and it’s a travesty that I just don’t have the option. My hope for the world is that some smart car company will start to make them again. And our government needs to wake up and give some tax encentives, as well as pass laws requiring car companies to make no-emission cars.

The fact that in New York yesterday in the middle of January it was 70 degrees hopefully will be a wake-up call to alot of people that we need to reduce our emissions, and do it now. Below, an image of the GM EV1, one of the electric cars that were available in the nineties and are now extinct.