Electric Car: "Suspects of the Crime"

The electric car is an amazing invention that can do a lot of good for us. If we drive an electric car, we could save money, environment, and our lives. Unfortunately electric car was killed and we have to figure out whose fault it was. There are a few suspects: consumers, General Motors (lack of maintenance profits), battery technology, big oil, Federal Government (Hummer t), CARB, and Hydrogen. All that is left to do now is decide who is guilty, and who isn’t.

Our first suspect is the consumer. According to Paine’s movie “Who Killed the Electric Car?” most consumers either didn’t hear about the electric or didn’t want to drive it. Consumers wanted to drive big cars like Hummers or SUVs. People didn’t think that if they changed their life style it would really matter. They didn’t realize that it takes only one person to start, and then everyone else would follow. I think that consumers are guilty because if all of them stood up for an EV, it would still be alive.

Our second suspect is General Motors. According to treehuggers.com, General Motors lost about two billion dollars on the EV1. According to the movie, the EV1 didn’t have many parts regular cars use, so General Motors couldn’t make money on replacing and fixing different parts. They don’t make money, when the product you make doesn’t need reapers and changes every few miles. General Motors is guilty because they don’t care about the environment; they care only about their profits.

The next suspect is battery technology. According to treehugger.com, the electric car could go only 130 miles without being recharged, and heater, air conditioner, and headlights reduced it. Charging was taking a long time. Batteries that were supposed to work for three years, failed in three months. On the other hand, according to the movie, there were better batteries and they were actually being used already in a racing electric car. People that made the battery for the electric car said that they had an even better battery which only had to be put in. Battery technology is not guilty because there were batteries, but no one used them.

Big oil companies are a suspect too. According to the movie, oil companies have a monopoly, and they don’t want anyone to disturb their peace. They didn’t want to have a nemesis, and the electric car was a real danger to them. If the electric car stayed on the roads, oil companies would have lost billions of dollars. According to wikipedia.com, big oil companies fought the California mandate, and they also “bought patents” on the NiMH to “prevent the batteries from being used in US electric cars.” Oil companies are guilty, because they don’t care about the environment, but only about their profit. Oil companies did everything they could to kill the electric car, and unfortunately they were successful. They are the guiltiest suspects in this case.

The Federal Government should protect its people, and do what is best for them. This is not the case with our government. According to wikipedia.com, our government “has failed to act in public interests.” According to the movie, they sued California to stop producing the electric car. The Federal Government also called the electric car a “cancer that has to be killed because it will spread through the country.” It is really hard to try to make something fuel efficient in a country where the president has strings that connect him to the oil, and all of his cabinet has been working in the oil industry before coming into politics. The Federal Government is guilty, because they didn’t want electric car to be on the road.

There are a couple more suspects in this case, and one of them is the California Air Resources Board. According to the movie, CARB has been really unfair. When there was a discussion of whether or not the electric car should be on the road they had given electric car representatives a limited time, while car company representatives had unlimited time to talk. According to wikipedia.com, CARB killed the ZEV mandate. They are guilty because they listened only to the car company representatives. CARB already knew the answer to the question that was discussed during the conference.

The Last suspect is Hydrogen. According to wikipedia.com, ahydrogen car was used for the distraction from the real problem. It bought oil and car companies much needed time to get rid of the electric car. According to the movie, hydrogen cars have too many problems to be solved “before anyone would even be interested in them.” Hydrogen is too expensive, an actual car costs a million dollars, it doesn’t go as fast as people would like, there would have to be built a few more thousand fuel cells in the country, and “the competing technology would have to stay at the same level, and not improve.” Hydrogen is guilty because if it wasn’t there oil and car companies wouldn’t have anything to distract people with.

The electric car was a very necessary and great invention, but it was killed. Out of seven suspects only one wasn’t guilty. The electric car was killed by people, who care only about their “fat” wallets, by people who don’t think about the future of their children. These people like to decide everything for others. People should have the right to say what they want, and car companies should provide it if they have the technology.