Pro Electric vehicle is another steps of technology that we should not take for granted. A very important lessons to us, as long(for now)They pr they provide the economics profits. General Moter made the right choice to started promoting to general public. We can see the great demand of people in California. But GM,Oil companies and governments were lose sight off environmental impacts. if EV1 were on the road right now. It is going help us save huge amount of energy deficits. Even though some component part of old combustion gasoline engine were lose of business profits. but the costs the society of the hold are much greater costs and if necessary to sacrifice for the greater goods. I think, this video is very clear and stringt forward that government agencies, buisnesses and oil companies are guilties. They are absolute creatures whose goods were diminish goods choice of itself. By manipulate the public opposition through medias, polices force and legal system that only support only creatures them self. American people losing freedom and choice to purchase the EV1. Like it said on video oil company still have 35 billions of business to need to get done. The bottom line is that We should question to ourself. What I am going to do about it?
Con
Well, The Answer is... No this is my opinion. I have to change with them. instead of feel the emotions of unhappy and losing a great gift. But I was unrealized to seeing the bright future of our children. I have to show positive attitudes. we should not be stumble to adapt the newer idea and newer technologies. Government and business just want to experiment both beneficiary. This is going to grate and win and win situation. Now we can see lot of people are waking up and willing to work to share ideas like different fell cells to create more jobs and growths. All of these depending to our self. So it is significant to support the leaders and follows the rule of the laws. We must stand with moral and ethicals in all time. Nothing else to says about this phonemenon. But soon they are probably feel sympathy and eventually find the ways to help us. with Another EVs.
Pro...............Pros.................. The electric car: fun, new, entertaining, exciting, smooth, and sleek, these are a few of the words that come to mind when describing the electric car. Who wouldn’t want all these qualities in a car? The documentary, Who killed the Electric Car shows just that and then some. Being a broke college student, I’m always dreading when the low fuel light all of sudden lights up. Even though it might not seem as much now, but the $30 I spend on gas is still $30 that I can be savings or buying a couple days worth of lunch.
We’ve seen how gas prices fluctuate, not too long ago I was paying close to $60 for a full tank of gas, and I was very close to hitting up the closest Foot Locker and buying a good pair Nikes. The point is gas is another expensive to add on the list, it would be better if it could be avoided completely. As any college student would say a dollar is a dollar. It would be great not to be worrying about fueling up on gas every week; I would rather just plug in a battery to a light switch and be set for the day. This is why the solution to my problem is solved with the electric car.
Also, as the movie describes these smooth cars can go up to 80 miles with only one full battery charge. This millage is more than enough for someone who travels from their house to school to work every day. What more can someone ask for? Besides these cars are not only are they good for the environment they are attention grabbers. Society is scared of change and is set to a certain mindset that it is hard to accept these types of cars on the road. But we need to be optimistic! Change is good! The environment does so many things for us, it’s time for us to do great things for it.
Cons...................Cons............... Change! Something everyone fears. And the change from our oil engine cars that we are all use to, to the so called economical, elegant electrical vehicle is hard to understand. There are many questions that arise when thinking of driving an electric vehicle. How long do we charge the battery? What are the miles that it will last me with one full charge? Is this convenient for my family? Do I want a car that is leased? What’s the life expectancy of the battery? Is this car ACTUALLY more environmentally friendly than our regular oil eating machine that I’m use to?
This is one of the questions I decided to research and my findings are very interesting. The article The Prius Bad for the Environment? In hubpages.com the article compares the Prius a hybrid car produced by Toyota with the much loved Hummer. And study show that the Prius is does more harm to the environment than the actual oil eating Hummer. The making of the hybrid car is what does most harm to the environment instead of the actual miles per gallon of gas. “The Prius’ battery contains nickel, which is mined in Ontario, Canada. The plant that smelts this nickel is apparently nicknamed “the Superstack” because of the amount of pollution it puts out: the area for miles around it is a wasteland because of acid rain and air pollution.” (hubpage.com) According to the article not only does the nickel have to be smelted but it is also shipped to Japan and goes through a more extensive process to make the nickel just right for the Hybrid’s battery. This whole procedure takes time, a lot of money, and on top of that it affects our environment. Whatever happened to going GREEN?
There are many advantages to having an electric car. The engine hardly makes any noise, they produce a smooth seamless acceleration while putting out a big fat 0 in pollution emission! I hope that with newer technology, we'll be able to make more electric cars at a more efficiently while pricing them cheaply. This movie does shows the corruptions between our government,corporate giants, and oil lobbyist have destroyed the progress of the electric car. Even though there were only few supporters of EV1 at the time, it only took a major economic recession and historically high gas prices to ass kicked America into frantically looking for alternative fuel methods. shit were only almost 10-15 years behind from the first electric car. But any how check out this cool electric car, it gets about 220mpg to a full charge(3.5hr) does 0-60 in less then 4 sec. WOW! http://www.teslamotors.com/efficiency/how_it_works.php
cons... Many car company faces a lot of obstacle to produce electric cars and for some manufacture's at this time and age it isn't cost effective for them at all. There is still a lot of bugs to still be worked out on electric cars. For some people making this change to electric is stepping beyond their comfort zone. most importantly most average income family still can't afford one, some can't even afford to eat let alone pay for one of these electric cars. I think this movie didn't portray this opinions of the average income consumers, all they shown were famous and wealthy movie stars and actors who are the only one who can afford these cars. Until we can find a more efficent way of producing these car, let's worry about the economy first and making sure people are working and be able to feed their family!
Pro... when i first started driving about four years ago gas was around a dollar a gallon. the gas prices started to rise. 1.50, 1.75, 2.00!!!( if your not great at math thats double.) so on a side note, if an average person fills their tank up once a week, we willsay 20 gallons, according to the us census, there are 306,026,993 people in the us currently. now times that by 20( they doubled the gas prices) so that is a profit increase of 6,120,539,860. 6 trillion dollars more A WEEK!!!! how is this possible??? who is making this money a week? that seems to be the question at hand, but oh wait im not done yet and neither were the gas companies. gas was once at 4 dollars a gallon as a low point in the us it even surged to 6 dollars in some places but for now we will just go with 4 bucks. so once again lets times the 6 trillion dollars in profits by 20. remember were doing itby 20 because essentially you are paying for 40 gallons and only getting 20 when its twice as expensive. and my calculator cant handle it. theres a suprise.
ok so i grabbed another one that can handle it. the profits now have soared to $122,410,797,200. not bad. only $122 trillion dollars a week.hell if i was making this much a week i too would kill the electric car. so i dont blame you texaco, chevron, and all the other companies raping me you our neighbors, teachers, coworkers. if i could make $6,344,000,000,000 a year i would do it. i dont knkow whats after a trillion but they sure as hell do. this is why the electric car died.truth is, if half the americans drove electric cars the CEO of chevron couldnt afford 17 beach houses, 20 different colors of astin martins( really expensive cars)
con.... americans were not ready for the electric cars, which was mostly in part to the low gas prices and good economic stature. i believe even today that people would still not purchase it, they are not ready to give up their gas guzzling suv's i know im sure not ready to because i used it for to many things, and gm realized this, the parts companies even stopped producing them because a waiting list of 5000 people turned out that only 50 people (1%) wanted the vehicles. sounds like the producers of the film who killed the electric car should find a job instead of drooling over their old cars through a fence for a month. hippies. oh ya and that guy who stood behind the trailer in an effort to stop him, wow what a retard if i was the driver i would have pulled forward then hit hit harder and sent him to the hospital hopefully knocking some sense into him. the people who made this movie just need to go buy a car like the prius so they can get stickers saying look at me i drive a hybrid. im cool.
The benefits to driving an electric car your not putting carbon emissions into the air they are quiet and you don't have to contribute to the insane profits of the oil giants. They may be more expensive than alot of cars but can you put a price on the enviorment? Plus could you imagine GM in the economic crisis they're in if they would have continued to manufacture the EV 1 and other electric cars? Rather than selling 40,000 dollar suvs that get 17 mpg. My big question after watching the movie is why was it nessecary to destroy all the EV1's why not just quit making them? Was it really something they needed to do?
Cons okay lets see here they're expensive people hate change they're is already a huge industry in oil and the automakers are already good at mass producing suvs and charging 40,000 for them. Why change all of that for some car that can only go 40 miles who would drive something like that? It costs alot and you can't fit a small army in it and you won't feel safe on the interstate. Plus who cares about the enviorment electricity is just going to change the source of the pollution. so why change?
My opinion is that electric cars could be huge and should be. Those who say it will just change the source of the pollution have they heard of wind power or solar power? and for the criticism that sounds like this what about when it's not sunny? The panels will store they're energy in a battery. Wind mills will slow the earth's rotation okay if that was true wouldn't sky scrapers that we continue to build? What about mountains even? Besides we don't have to completely switch over but even a little bit helps.
however where are batteries made? in plants that produce pollution so i understand that puts off pollution to build green cars however every industry should learn from this. this shouldn't be a matter of you think your green but your not where was your battery made? it should be a matter of everybody thinking about the enviroment and every industry should learn the potential consequences of what they're doing to the enviroment and make steps to change this without worrying about a price tag.
The advantages of the electric car are obvious to most, no emissions, you dont have to deal with gas prices, relatively no maintenance or upkeep. Since these cars run off of electricity you dont have any bi product being produced when the energy is spent. This means less emissions in crowded city's which makes everyone breath easier because we would have less pollutants in the air. Not paying for gasoline would be another advantage of going electric. It cost less per mile to drive an electric car. On average it takes 12 kilowatt hours to charge an electric car battery, it it costs 8 cents per kilowatt hour of charge times that by 12 and your paying roughly 96 cents per 50 miles, if an electric car has a range of 50 miles a charge. Now that is an extremely bad range, so im estimating higher costs then it actually might be. Now lets take a gas vehicle that is super efficient and figure out its cost per mile to drive. The toyota corolla gets 35 miles per gallon of gas at $1.75 a gallon. Right out of the gate the electric car cost's almost half as much to run as the gas vehcle, and we still haven't taken into account how much it costs to maintain the gas vehicle. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/electric-car1.htm
The disadvantages of going electric are, it puts a limit on the range you can drive, its not really as green as everyone says it is, the initial cost to purchase a decent electric vehicle is outrageous, and the electric vehicle cannot do the same type of high power demanding work as a diesel can.
Electric vehicles do not get a whole lot of range out of 1 charge. This means if you plan on drivng further then 100 miles in a day you are out of luck. What makes this even worse is that you can't just pull up to a charging station and "fill up" you gotta wait around for 4-8 hours to allow the battery to charge. This would be like relying on a giant ipod battery to get you around everyday, and we all know how reliable ipod batteries are... When you plug in your electric car and charge it your burning something somewhere to aquire that energy, all this talk about zero emissions is not completely true. All the electric car is doing is etending the exhaust pipe.
I went online looking for electric cars, the only one i found that was worth driving is over 100,000 dollars. And even if you have that money you cant buy the car, you have to APPLY to buy the car, and then you are put on some waiting list. If its this hard to buy the thing, imagine how hard if would be to repair it if you got into an accident of any kind?
Now i have seen the amazing 0-60 times of the more sporty electric cars, and granted they are pretty respectable. (although most i saw were in the neighborhood of 15 seconds, some as fast as less then 4 seconds) What about those of us who need trucks for work? How much can this electric engine put out as far as torque? Even with the finest of electric engines the car can only put out 200 ft/lbs of torque (http://www.teslamotors.com/performance/acceleration_and_torque.php), which isn't exactly enough to haul 18000 pounds worth of skidsteer or excavator on a trailer. The chevy duramax is putting out of 660 ft/lbs of torque and offers 365 horsepower, and thats stock. (http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/silverado2500hd/2009/review.html) I dont see any electric motors doing that in the near future. Not to say it cant be done, but right now the technlogy isnt cheap enough yet to offer that kind of performance at an affordable cost.
To me the future of transportation is a diesel/electric hybrid engine.
If you really want to see something to write about, read up on John Goodwins 600 hp, 2000 ft/lb torque, 0-60 in under5 second, 60 mile per gallon hummer! Now that is a hybrid I would gladly drive in! The great thing about it is the conversion cost less then 5000 dollars and he used parts that already existed. Which means nothing extravagent had to be invented to make this happen.
Well the electric car is pretty cool, President Obama says he wants to stop being dependent on foreign oil well this is one way to go with the electric car think of how much the US alone can save on gas. Think of how better our health would be without all that pollution gas cars put out? Think of all the money we could save without having to get the oil changed and crap like that. I'm guessing the car companies get money from the oil industry every time they sell a gas car so why would they want to make this car? The electric car is the future of driving and i am excited for the technology.
The Electric car What kind of power does this car have? can it tow my boat or my trailer? Can i afford one? Would anyone buy it there are many cars out there that get of 40 miles to the gallon and not everyone is buying them. what would happen with the Jiffy lubes? When no one needs oil changes there goes those jobs, Instead of buying gas how much is it going to cost me to charge this car? what if i run out of charge on the freeway i cant go get a charge can. Gas cars are just fine with me
I believe that there are many pros to owning and operation a electric car. First you will never have to spend money or time at a gas station. You can charge your car at your home. You have enough battery life to get you from your home to work or the store. You are not polluting the air by driving your car.
Cons
There are many cons to owing an electric car. You can only go 50 miles or so, on a charge. Your pollution goes from your exhaust fumes to coal and nuclear power plants that create the electricity for the car. You have to spend just as much money on new batteries every few years which would be the same as buying gas for those years.
Conclusion
I think that the electric car is a very good and useful thing to help the cut down on the pollution if we make sure we use electricity plant that get the electricity form the sun, water, wind or any realistic renewable energy source. I remember when they cane out.. The movie put out a very well put point. Why did they take it away? The oil companies didn’t like the idea of loosing there money make cars that use all kinds of oil based products that make them money. I think that the electric car can be a tool of many that can help us reduce the pollution that we put out in your every day lives.
The electric car would have been a very good alternative to fossil fuels if companies like GM and Ford ever decided to simply produce them instead of repeating the same line of gas guzzuling SUV's over and over again. But the sad thing is is that those companies will probably never see it as a good alternative due to the fact that they might not make money off it. It had the (electric?) mileage we needed and the gas price was perfect for someone on a tight budget. If people had given it a chance, it beat most cars in drag racing, thats impressive a battery powered car beating a gas powered one in a drag race. Hell it even lessened the great burden on mother gaia. By limiting pollution caused by the current combustion engine. Oh and it was damn snazzy.
Too bad it didn't seem to meet the needs of the greater populace or else we would be driving in those ugly little cars. If it really was that good then it would have found it's way on to a greater market but people just didn't want to have to deal with all that hippy bullcrap. They say "if it ain't broke don't fix it." and cars today certainly aren't broke, besides the electric car replaces oil for cars with oil for gas burning power plants that have to run at peak efficiency because of all those electric cars. Besides that gaia crap is bull we could hit mother nature as hard as we wanted and wouln't make a dent. The electric cars just weren't profitable because no one wanted them and the people who made them saw the paradox (less emissions from cars more from power plants.) and we will always need foriegn oil, if not for power than for tanks. Can you power a tank with that battery?
Pro The electric car is a greater way of a cleaner solution than the cars we are driving now. With air pollution increasing, by the use of this car we could possibly be cutting down how much is going into our atmosphere. To go along with one of the more obvious solutions, with the economy in the shape it is now, by not having to rely on gas could have a huge change in some families. Did I mention that they also are much quieter, sleek and have the convienience of charging in your own home? That to me, with other reasons, is a safer, much efficient way, of getting back to our environment and cutting down the pollution.
Cons Even with gas being the way it is lately, how can a car charged like you would charge your phone overnight, be a "dependable" car? It is estimated to get you to where you need to go but what if, by some chance, your routine is to change and the destination that you now need to get to is farther? How can you charge it with stations not as accessible to you as the gas stations are? With the price of batteries and repairs that you would need for the EV1, when compared to the average vehicle, there is no difference in gas so with the money that you saved will eventually be spent on a new battery.
The idea of the electric car is certainly a good one. It’s a vehicle that does not pollute our environment, it is quiet, faster then a gas operated vehicle and saves the consumer money on high gas prices. It’s because of its convenience that most people are drawn to them. The thought of leaving your vehicle charging over night and never having to worry about gas prices is definitely a plus. However it does have it’s faults, according to GM lack of interest led to it’s downfall, which I can completely understand. People aren’t ready to trade of the reliability of a gas operated vehicle which can travel for miles knowing that if they run out of fuel, they can stop at a gas station nearby. To this, the electric car cannot compare because where are you going to find an electric fill up station? Also the article by Michael Kanellos in one of the provided links makes a good point about the batteries which I had not even thought about, if a battery is pushed too hard it tends to explode, this could be a future problem regarding safety of the operator. I believe the electric car is still a good idea that should be pursued but I don’t think it will replace a gas vehicle. I think a good plan would be to continue making them and let the consumer choose which vehicle to use. Like I said before, I don’t see it replacing a gas car but I know a lot of people would definitely make the switch over to them. A good example of this is to look at what people are driving now, I see a lot more hybrid vehicles on the road then I did six or seven years ago.
What a sad movie. It was like watching people lose their children. I'll be honest with you before this movie and judging even from the articles I had no idea we were this far a long with the electric car. It would almost appear that popular science was against the car. Their article hardly mentioned the EV let alone the electric car. Much like automotive company GM, they seemed hardly impressed with the obvious answer to the problem. In the article released by GM, "who ignored the facts about the electric car?" we receive a bitter publicists sales pitch for some hybrids. The unknown facts he shared all sounded like ones that were stated in the movie. This would be an issue, if the publicist had watched the movie. Sadly, he most bitterly mentions that not only has he not watched the movie and also he had not "received an advanced DVD as others have from the film’s producers." Two words: Rent it! Before you post up an article about ignoring the facts you should know the facts. It is sad to know that GM, the government, and anyone else is willing to over look this solution to an obvious problem.
Con:
Is it as simple as that? Documentaries can be one sided and distort the truth. Did who killed the electric car distort the truth? Probably. Does this effect my opinion? Yes! The movie placed a lot of blame on GM and the government. In the article, "the plot behind killing the electric car", author Michael Kanellos talks about the supposed conspiracy that GM and the gov made for the sake of keeping oil around. He calls this impossible and I have to agree. In his article he hardly gives credit to the car companies for any improvements over the last thirty years. His article shows GM and Ford as snobbish wealthy men with little concern (or perhaps intelligence) to create a global conspiracy. His article is dated August of 2007 and so we don't get to discuss even more proof that we see the financial crunch that most auto makers have dealt with since the summers high gas prices. No one was buying cars and now these guys are begging the government for a bailout. I would imagine that if GM had a secret weapon hidden in their closet with the EV last summer would have been the time to bust that out. In the GM article "who ignored the facts about the electric car?" GM states that it was wrong in the way it handled the leases but asks not to punish them for this but to help the move forward into the future. A hybrid future perhaps. For me personally who drives all over the valley a EV would never have worked but guess what does? A hybrid. It may not be perfect but it is a great start in the right direction. So lets not punish GM for handling the least wrong, lets work with them to create a better tomorrow.
I think that the electric car would benefit this country very much. I think that our air would benefit from it, therefore public health would get better- less people with asthma and other breathing problems. It would definately help our situation with foreign oil problems. It would be very convenient with everyday things. Like driving to work or to the grocery store, to school, and everything else. How many people really drive for than 80 miles per day? If you do- I guess this car is not for you.
Cons
My big question is how much does this car really cost? They never mentioned it in the movie, and the people that did drive them looked pretty well off in my opinion. Another concern is what if you forget to charge and your car stops on the side of the freeway. Who's going to save you? Is there an convertable charger? When designing such an independant car, they need to take all factors into consideration.
The EV1 is the car of the future. Not only for its performance, convenience and affordability at leasing, but for its environmentally-friendly attitude. The EV1's electric motor requires no emission testing because it is a zero emission vehicle — it doesn't even have a tail pipe. It requires no tune-ups. And no gasoline or oil changes, which means cleaner air and less dependency on foreign oil. Easy maintenance!
The EV1 is also one of the most efficient production vehicles in the world. Its aluminum structure is specifically designed to be strong, lightweight and 100% recyclable. The 312-volt lead-acid battery pack has 26 maintenance-free valve-regulated modules, which use 60% recycled lead and is 98% recyclable. The heat pump requires only 1/3 of the energy needed for traditional air conditioning and uses only ozone-friendly CFC-free R134A air conditioning refrigerant. It is always good for the environment if we can drive a car that is 98% recyclable.
The EV1 helps contribute to a cleaner environment. In California, for instance, there are 97% fewer emissions with the EV1 than a conventional gasoline engine — this includes the electricity-generating emissions from the power plant. Also, when you use electricity at night to charge the EV1, it actually helps power plants operate more efficiently because of power plant load leveling.
Con
High-capacity lead acid: At 70ºF, it takes up to 2-1/2 hours to charge from 20% to 80% state of charge using a 220-volt (6.6kW) charger. Approximately 5-1/2 to 6 hours are required for a charge from zero to complete using a 220-volt charger. Nickel-metal hydride: At 70ºF, it takes 6 to 8 hours for a charge from zero to complete. Which means that you will need to work around that time to charge your car and also you can not find everywhere a station to charge your car.
Since electric vehicle technology is still developing, a lease-only option creates a consistent cost of ownership for the EV1 customer. You can not buy it yet.
Specific pricing information is no longer available. The following is a range of pricing that was available at the time the leases were being accepted in California and Arizona. The M.S.R.P. for the EV1 ranged from $33,995 to $43,995, depending on the model year and the battery pack. The monthly lease payment ranged from $349 to $574. The monthly payment could be higher depending on where the lease was issued. The reason for the variance had to do with government incentives for environmentally advanced cars, which vary based on the state and air quality district. The highest incentives were those available to customers living in some areas of California. Which means that it is very expensive for a car, at least for me, my range is $20,000 the most and that is already pushing it.
Only authorized EV1 technicians at participating Saturn retailers can work on an EV1. So you can not take to any mechanic to work on your car.
Pro: The electric car provides a quiet and smooth ride, with less emissions than a standard car ran off fuel. It also, has less problems in that there is no need for oil, and the engine would be much cleaner and everything would stay less "greasy". These cars would also provide people with a cleaner approach to driving where as if they wre to stick with traditional fuel cars they would continue to harm the environment with Co2 gases. Some would say that the limitations of the electric car are a downside to it, but that would be incorrect for the normal person. The cars were designed to meet the needs of an ordinary citizen and they met that by the mileage and went beyond. The only ones who would have problems with this car are those who travel long long distances, which is a very small amount. I think these cars would provide awesome benefits to big cities. Here is where some of the worst pollution is located, but if they went to these cars, people would not have to worry about that due to the electric car. People in traffic would just be using up a battery instead of emmitting co2 into the atmosphere. Plus people in cities don't drive as far and these would be a great way to help our earth's health.
Con: The electric car sounds great when you hear poeple talkign about it, but what most don't know is that it would actually be more harmful to the earth. The reason isn't the car, but rather how to provide the electricity for the car. Currently we use mostly coal to burn to provide us with electricity. To have these charge stations, and cars running off electricty would mean a vast increase in the burning of coal, and thus an increase in the amount of harmful chemincals put into our atmosphere. This is a huge problem with the electric car, but the most forgot about problem. Also, GM and other dealers mentioned that there was no demand for these vehicles. Some may say that was a lie, but on the video we only heard of leasing, and no prices on the cars. This to me means that they were very expensive and not really affordable to all people. Plus if the dealers are not getting many sales, then we are just creating cars to sit and are actually hurting our environment even more to produce these cars at a factory, which is surely using fossil fuels to produce, to go and sit in a parking lot. The electric car is not a proper solution to our current problem, but is a good starting point. Also, we are unsure of what the batteries would do when they die on these cars. Batteries are not an item that you can just go and throw out in any garbage. This would be a big problem with millions of batteries being thrown out each year. Maybe in the future they will develop something that will be much better and more needed by the people.
Pro: Cars are a major source of pollution in this world and I think the electric car was a brilliant idea to help change that. Why didn’t we keep this idea going? The electric car was cleaner and quiet. Cars and gas are things we use every day and spend large amounts of money on. Investing in something like an electric car that would help save money on gas is a smart idea to me. It’s also convenient that you can charge your car up at your home. Cons: The problem with not using oil is the people who work in the oil industry lose their jobs. Another con is it makes me nervous of how dependable the car is. I like going on road trips and I don’t want one car that I use for trips and another that I use for short distances. I also agree with one post I read which was saying in the movie they never said how much the electric car is? If it was such an affordable price that they were proud of you think they would tell us.
The world is in great need of a change. We live in a time where it almost seems as if the environment is fighting back for what we are doing to it. The electric car a.k.a the EV1 was a promising future and possible answer to all of our problems. The EV1 had the answer for all of our smog problems. can you imagine our lives without that crap in the air, how much better could we breathe. A month or so ago here it got so bad that they suggested that we don't even go outside because the air quality was so poor that it would be harmful to our health, that is our world today ladies and gentlemen. But of course like everything else in this world it began and ended on the subject of green, not environmen green, money green. oil and car companies are some of the greediest S.O.B's I have ever seen and it only gets worse. And it doesn't help much that when they get in trouble the government is right there to "bail" them out. although I do believe that something needs to be done so that the economy doesn't get any worse. But the main issue is that the electric car was so promising and I know that america had such high hopes for a better future which right now we just aren't in. But fortunately we now have the hybrid cars that I think are brilliant and have found a way to compromise.
Con:
There are a lot of issues that still need to be addressed with the electric car. Yeah it can help you save money on gas, but at what cost? They said that you only get what? 60 miles per battery charge? well now you get to spend your day driving around using up those 60 miles just to find a place to charge up, but at least you don't use gas anymore. And you can forget about those fun family road trips cause you can only get about an hour away from your house and plus you better hope you don't have a big family cause the electric cars are small. plus how much can we really take as truth from a documentary, most of the stuff in there were biased oppinions anyway. And maybe we should grow up and not cry about spilled milk and or the EV1 being put into a caged lot and then later being shredded to bits.
Pro I think the most obvious good thing about the electric car is the effect it would have on our environment. Global warming is becoming more and more of a problem and we need to take the necessary steps to help solve this problem before it gets worse than it already is. It would also help get rid of our country's dependency on fossil fuels from other countries. For how new of technology it is it's fairly affordable to the average consumer with an average income, not to mention all the money you would save on gas which let's face it will eventually get back up to the prices it used to be. It's also a much cleaner car as far as the actual car itself, no oil or gas or lubricants. Cons The biggest con i think is the battery life. The driver would always be worried about the battery running out or taking any long drives much less road trips. Unless battery stations are built across the country the only place to charge the car is at your own home. Also if a person only owns an electric car what are they going to do if they have to take a road trip of drive a considerable distance? Rent a car just for the trip?
Pro's To be honest I never knew that they came out with and electric car the ev1. I knew that there were cars that were electric. We live in a world that is starting to revole around oil, so to have a car that doesn't depend on oil would be great. Not have to pay so much for gas. With gas prices being the way they are people are look for new alternate ways to power there cars then gas, and what better way then the EV1. Just plug it in at your home at night and you are good. That would by the way to go not having to worry about gas. I don't think it was right to take all the cars back and destory them. But i think that GM was worryied that they would loose money.
Con's There are a lot of cons. You could ask yourelf how expensive is the EV1. Is it worth the extra money because i'm sure it is not cheap. Another thing would be the mileage. On an electric car you would be getting around 70 miles. That is not a lot of miles. It would be good for city drive and that is about it. What happens when the battery dies. Is it going to cost and fortune to get it fix. That the company would loose money. Especial gas prices, so i think gas companies paid car manufacutres money to keep them makine cars that requires gas.
I believe that an electric car would help the environment of this country immensely. By developing an electric car the country would not be so dependant on gas and oil. If we were to use the electric car for our commutes think of the air quality improvements that we would have as a country. It is just mind boggling to me to see what is important to our country. From the video it obviously showed that all people truly care about is money. The companies could care less about our environment. They just care about the products selling capabilities. If the car doesn’t sale then it’s taken off the market. I believe that if they would have continued in the direction of improving the model and developing the electric car then the people would have been more anxious to buy one. I hope that they can one day bring back the electric car and leave it on the market.
Cons
By bringing in an electric car there are many cons for the common people. Meaning that if you are wealthy like Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson you aren’t going to care how expensive the electric car is. To people like me it is a big worry because I would ask how much is the car to maintain? For example what happens if my battery runs out? Is it more expensive to maintain a gas running car or to maintain an electric car? Because using an electric car would run up your electricity bill at home. These are just a few of the many cons that can be pointed out.
Pros Electric car is one of the great step to save our environment, enengies, and ourself. Each days we keep killing this Earth for our own satisfaction since the industry revolution. The global warming will keep coming if we don't do something to change the way we live. The electric car can still let us driving the car for the each day we need, and it still can help us to heal the Earth we live.
Cons The problem about the electric car is the battery itself is hard to make, expensive, cannot run for too long as fuel car, and where can we charge it's battery expect home. That's a great problem. And the other problem that electric car will cause is many oil companies will be seriously damage if the electric car is mass product and didn't feed something back to oil companies. And who we going to settle those gas stations that we see everydays.
Who killed the Electric Car? We killed the electric car! According to General Motors they put $1 Billion dollars in manufacturing and advertising the electric vehicle. They gave us Americans the product to buy. There just wasn't the demand for the vehicle. Only 800 vehicles were leased in a four year period. Of a waiting list of 5,000, only 50 willing to lease the vehicle. The Electric Vehicle isn't capable of giving us Americans everything we look for in vehicles. We are obsessed with our big trucks and SUV's. the Electric vehicle would be an hassle for most Americans. The charge on an electric vehicle can only hold for 100 miles. No more cross country road trips. The battery life is only five years as well. Most people don't buy vehicle just to practically replace it every five years. General Motors didn't kill the Electric Vehicle, We did.
Pro
The Electric Vehicle is exactly what this country needs. A car energized from a battery would allow us to be less dependent on foreign oil. There would be no need to take it in to the shop every 3500 miles for an oil change. No need to stop at the filling station for gas on your way home. Just plug it in when you get home. If you spent on average $200 a month in gas, that would be some big savings. The Electric Vehicle would also be more environmentally friendly. There would be no smog and that would allow us to breathe cleaner air. It is too bad they killed the electric car.
“Who Killed the Electric Car?” did an exemplary job in creating a feeling that car manufacturers and California regulators, under pressure from major oil companies, ended the best hope for alternative transportation. One of the problems is the film relies on its viewers possessing a basic misunderstanding of how oil companies maintain profitability*. The first basic misunderstanding is that all oil refiners make massive profits from the public. The companies that make the largest margins of profit in the industry are always the ones that pull the crude oil from the ground, assuming their exploration and infrastructure costs are low enough. Oil companies simply do not make money from the public in the quantities commonly believed; the retail gasoline market (all of us) generally loses money half the year, every year, making up the difference during higher demand months. And even when profitable during the high point in the year, it’s unlikely that any of the companies average over 14¢ per gallon during that period. Convenience store sales are the only consistent income and keep the operation afloat. The bulk of a company’s volume sales are always in the wholesale market, which sounds great until you find out that the profit margins have essentially never changed and hover around 2¢ or less a gallon. Profitability comes purely from the crude production itself for the large and famous oil producers.
Which brings us to another point that ties into the idea of “extending the tailpipe:” power plants to produce the power necessary to supplement our existing grid should a substantial number of people adopt electric or plug-in-hybrid cars. While previous posters are correct in their assessment that the majority of that new power (assuming the expansion resembled current plants) would come from coal**, very few people are aware that substantial section of the industry has plants that burn both crude oil and natural gas, depending on which is cheaper at the time. In fact, the plant you see off to the right of the freeway as you drive to the airport from Salt Lake is one such power plant. Oil companies, while facing a smaller retail margin given the significant adoption of electric cars by city drivers, would have the potential for a greater wholesale market. In 2007, petroleum/natural gas made up a combined 23% of the electricity production in the country, more than any other single source after coal (49%).
This being said, there is some truth in the idea that oil companies would have pressured the auto makers and California governmental bodies to be less aggressive in pressing for alternative fuel solutions. Oil companies do have a vested interest in maintaining their business model, which currently works, but whose future is less predictable should a large segment of their market no longer require gasoline for internal combustion. It is likely that some, though not on the scale insinuated, pressure was applied by the largest of the companies operating in the United States (i.e. Anadarko, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, British Petroleum, and Total).
In addition, the idea that we would likely be increasing the length of our cars tailpipes in adopting electric or hybrid vehicles is only partially true. Whenever you concentrate production into a single local area, you create the ability to regulate pollutants far more effectively and efficiently than if the same amount of energy was being processed in small batches elsewhere. So although the power might still ultimately come from fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas, the environmental benefit would be tangible and real. And innovations in truly clean power production with thorium (assuming you aren’t against nuclear power in principle) in recent years open up the possibility that our power generation can become environmentally conscious***.
So perhaps the source of the power isn’t the major problem; there is a snag with electric batteries. Batteries, whether based on nickel, lithium, lead, etc. are all metallically based, and metals have a memory. It is for this reason you run into problems with the life expectancy of rechargeable batteries****. Rechargeable batteries work best and last the longest under two conditions: first that they are trickle charged and not flash charged, and secondly that they function best when fully depleted before being recharged. This means that using current technologies, it is not a simple matter to find a plug in station outside of our homes to recharge a vehicle. There is a reason you charged the EV1s overnight; without doing a slow charge, the life expectancy on the batteries would be shortened. And even the NiMH batteries used today (and in the second batch of EV1s) do not currently boast over a thousand cycles. But although replacement cost of the batteries of the previous electric vehicles was a hurdle, there is a company, Better Place*****, now working on an electric vehicle where although you purchase the car, you do not purchase the battery, which is owned, maintained and replaced by the manufacturer. They plan on recycling all the portions of the batteries that can be in order to reduce costs and contributions to landfills. This also has a fringe benefit of reducing the overall cost of the vehicle, which as others have pointed out, is the biggest hurdle to large scale adoption.
There is only one aspect left to examine at this point: car manufacturers. Did GM mishandle the marketing, production, and reclaiming of the EV1? Yes. The EV1 was one of the biggest blows to GM’s image in recent history, and GM has been making concerted efforts through advertizing the Volt (2010) as an environmentally conscious vehicle. I’ve heard three or four ads on the radio in the last week for the Volt. However, the EV1 was a huge loss for the company, whatever the EV1 Club fanatics insist to this day. The fact is, innovation also carries risk, and automotive companies are ultimately for-profit ventures. Hopefully at this point, GM can learn from the production and marketing of the EV1 and make the Volt a success, helping clean our air for the majority of short-distance commuters.
* Disclaimer: I work for a smallish regional oil company (albeit without having any interaction with the oil division of the company). This both gives me access to information regarding markets and profits in the business and a predisposition to view any sweeping statements of “the oil companies” as a large amorphous menace with great skepticism. ** http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/figes1.html http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/overview.html *** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium **** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery ***** http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/technology/personaltech/19pogue-email.html?em
pro I don't understand, the electric car is (was) one of the greatest things ever created. It would be such a perfect car for city driving. Completely quiet, fast, charges overnight. How many times a day do you drive over 100 miles to and from work? With the whole environmental thing aside, you would save a bundle on gas and mantainence.
con How much does one of these actually cost? and if you had all of those batteries in the car, they would have to be replaced quite often. a brand new car battery is around 90 bucks, and these cars have 10 of them. Also if you get in an accedent, does all of the batteries break open and spill battery acid all over you? I think one of the biggest problems with these is the fact that if you were to forget to charge it or if there was a power out and you couldn't charge it, then you would be screwed.
Electric cars are an amazing step towards winging us off our dependency on foreign fuels. We are able to take 80-90 off all drivers “commuters” and supply them with a vehicle that fills their needs in their daily driving. Only a small percent of people drive more than 100-150 miles per day. The electric car created by GM was not only practical but sporty and stylish, which for our materialistic society works perfectly. You really don’t have to sacrifices anything other than your planning your long distance road trip with some other means, and the reality is if the demand and market grew fast and strong enough it would only be able to improve on this down fault.
Con Electric car may provide us some distance with our friends in the middle east, however we aren’t really helping the issue of global warming. Electricity is not free, and most of the time is produced with coal burning power plants. This would only create more problems with our electrical demand and needs. Not only power needs is an issue, but batteries don’t last forever. When that battery is dead it is going to have an impact on disposal. The final issue is a big one. People don’t like to be tied down by there cars, the fear of running out of battery power during your day is a serious concern. No longer will you be able to pack up and hit the road on a weekend adventure. The limitation seems small but is the biggest obstacle for getting this car in the hands of rightful owners.
One of the best parts of the electric car was the fact that it is independent from oil. The use of a vehicle that can be recharged by an energy source that can be made much faster than the production of oil is a good concept, the limited milage of the EV1 to 100 miles a charge in my mind is very reasonable because most people that make a daily commute to work will not go more than 100 miles from home to work and back. Some of the concepts from the early electric car are still in use today as the re-generative braking system is still in use with mass transit busses today
Downfalls to the electric car first off is the size of the car, americans have been accustom to large family size cars. The production of these cars was so limited that the manufactures were forced to produce less parts at a higher cost, which made it more expensive and eventually impossible to fix. Only 50 out of 5000 were actually willing to follow through with purchasing an EV1, making it much less demand that first thought.
In conclusion, the auto companies have gone from a full electric car to the hybrid and have put much more money into that and it has succeeded so thats why its stuck around... Mass producing something to the public is driven by what they want, and if the public doesnt bite on a concept the manufacture will stop the production and move to something that is closer in line with what the public wants.
At the individual level, driving a car is the most pollution one person contributes to the environment. This output is next to none but every one driving together is a substantial sum. To put into perspective, ten buck isn’t much but if the United States 300,000,000 population all contribute ten dollars to a alternative energy super fund. It adds up quick to 3 billion. The U.S. only makes up a fifth of the worlds population but some how we drive a third of the cars. In turn motorist putout twenty percent of U.S. emissions and this number is exponentially growing. If we don’t fix this today and reverse the problem, the future forecast is smog… “A stitch in time will save nine. So why do we take nine today to save one tomorrow.” Thoreau
On the other hand, we as humans have always been afraid, oppressive, and un-excepting of anything new and different. For the most part we are cautious creatures as a whole. It wasn’t the consumer’s fault that the EV1 didn’t survive. First off it was originally only offered in two out of the fifty states. On top of that it was only for lease in a 3 year/30,000 mile agreement. If it were for sale it would compute out to be $34,000 to $44,000 car. Making payment any where from $300 to $600 a month. On top of that the car could only go just over a 100 miles on a charge. It is simply unappealing to pay that much money for a compact car that can’t even take me on a two-hour road trip to visit home not to mention the car hasn’t been around long enough to know its bugs and how to fix it. What is the cost of parts? How easy are they to get? The car was a gamble for most consumers. Oil and internal combustion engines are symbols of the industrial movement that brought are nation out of the great depression. Detroit and Pittsburg littered with smoke stacks has become the aesthetic beauty for a lot of Americans. Not that it is right, but it is definitely an attachment that won’t be easily broken… Just ask Ann Rand.
Pro Electric cars are an amazing invention. Who knew that we could run a car off of a battery not use fuel. When electric cars first came out, people thought it was the best invention ever. They were amazed! The world now saw that we could stop global warming. Everyone thought that electric cars were going to save the world. I think that the electic car was a great invention! It saved gas and started to help save global warming.
Con Electric cars didn't last very long. They had electric cars taken out of society in no time. The one bad thing about electric cars is you couldn't go on a long trip. You would have to stop a lot and take time have let your car charge up. Plus if you got stuck in the middle of no where, you would pretty much be screwed. I think that electric cars are a cool invention but not for right now in the world.
Pro... There are some great advantages in having an electric car. If you look at the economy it doesnt look like it will be getting better anytime soon which means we'd be paying a high gas price. With the electric car you don't even have to worry about that. All you need is electricity at your house then you're good to go. Everynight when you get home you just plug it right in. It's also very good for the air because you won't be polluting anything!! It doesn't need oil changes which will save you a bunch of money in the long run. Plus its kinda cool looking!!!
Con... They never mentioned the price on the car which kinda scares me. When they do that it seems like the car is VERY expensive. What if you were going on a trip over 50 miles? Where would you plug it into? That would be a problem if I had to go long trip for something I would be SOL!!! Plus you can't always trust electricity... What if you have a power outage in your town how would you charge it then? They were'nt even around long which means someone complained about something. GM did a great thing to get those cars gone!!!
Pro: If gas prices ever get back up as high as they were or god forbid they get even higher, I hope that they can come up with an electric car that will reduce the amount of gas that we need. Having an electric car is amazing. What is even more amazing is that one of the first cars ever made was electric that just about blew my mind. I was happy to find that people were so passionate about the EV1 that they staged protests and got arrested for this car. Just like someone else said earlier it was almost like the cars were their own children. I think that they should try to make another electric car now. With all the advances in technology there for sure has to be a way that they can make the electric car run for longer and go faster than it did before.
Con: The electric car is an awesome idea but it only gets up to a certain speed and you have to recharge it every so often. It’s ridiculous to have two cars one for around the city travel and another one for long distance travel. Okay this is better how? You have two car payments, two registration fees, two of everything. I believe Michael Kanellos when he says we killed the electric car. Hello we did duh! The car was so expensive it didn’t get you that far, why would you want to buy it? The consumers weren’t purchasing the product so why produce it. End of story now people want it they should be working on something and for all we know they are.
pros well there are many pros to the electric car it saves on emissions and is a quitter smoother ride then a normal car and for your daily commute its a wonderful car it has the speed that you would expect from a gas engine not some electric car and they where very sleek looking cars with all the latest technology packed into it and with such a following you would have expected this car to take off expecialy when there was a waiting list of that magnitude and people willing to take time of off work and there daily lives just to see where they where going who knows where this car could have gone without the interruption of ironicly the makers themselves i know there where other reasons for this car to fail such as consumers just not ready for it and oil companys losing great amounts of money but it just kills me that the own makers of this car sabotaged its own car its ridiculous
Cons this car would have never have taken off in the first place for one the populace needs time for new things to come in to play such as this car and it only started to take off in california where there are alot of trends that only the rich can afford or use they said it was a fairly cheap car to buy but how much was the charger you had to purchase or what about the maintence the maintenence alone would not be worth buying the car and was the charge only for distance or did it only run for a certain amount of time say you got into a traffic jam and your car died you cant just have someone go to the gas station and fill up and bring it back to you you have to get it towed and replaced and if the cost of the car really is that of a normal car why would you spend that much on a car if you cant take it on trips i dotn have the money for two cars and i woudl like to be able to take my car on trips as for the following of people it was not a very large group of people only a handfull of people about sixty out of the whole population of california that is next to nothing and that is why the electric car failed
Pros If everyone drove electric cars, we would have no need for foreign oil, which could lessen our chances for a war with some other country, particularly in the middle east, where most of the oil comes from. Aside from that, electric cars are quieter but deliver around the same type of performance as a combustion engine without all the emissions.
Cons The fact that you have to recharge this car everyday loses a lot of people that may have been in the market for an electric car. Sometimes you want to go farther than your everyday routine distance. Also, a lot of people, especially in big cities don't have a garage to mount a charging unit in. What do you do then? Take it to some charging station to charge it over night and walk home? And they never even say how much the cars were! If they were super cheap they would spread the word, obviously. There's no way GM would turn down an opportunity like this if they thought it had potential to make them a profit. That makes no sense.
Reasons for the electric car? lets see.. new, fun, economically and environmentally smart, also they are reliable and practical in with regard to the general public. as opposed to the the old gas guzzler in the driveway. these electric cars are fast, good looking and quiet, who doesnt like that? who would not like passing the gas station to simply laugh at it? who would not like cleaner air? i know i would. i would love not having to worry about a gas station blowing up when fueling my car, or thinking about how the ridiculously rich oil companies are raping my wallet. the electric car is the obvious choice.
Reasons against the electric car? lets see.. the cost is higher which in the long run may balance out with how much gas you would buy anyhow. also how safe are these cars? the EV1 is a small vehicle, what would happen if there were an accident? in a small car we wouldnt want to find out. charging the car has its disadvantages as well, now instead of oil companies its the electric company. instead of running out of gas, its running out of energy. so why make a car that costs higher and performs the same as a gas vehicle.
It was interesting documentary. I am not really interested in car so I cannot understnad how sad people are to lose EV 1. I think it is cool if we can drive a car without buying gas.But same time, it will take us time to make a charging place for car. That means that we cannot travel far with that EV 1 till built charging place everywhere. Person like me do not have enough money to buy 2 cars will not have chance to drive for long time. There is one thing I cannot understand in that documentaly. I think if car company decide sell or let people use cars once, they should keep making.I am sure that there are reasons they had to collect all the EV1 and destroyed them. I believe that if they cannnot sell for long term, they should not make that kind of cars.
I guess that the first question to ask is why aren't there more electric cars?? in this movie we discuss the death of the EV1. an electric car made by GM. i think that the death of this vehicle has several different facets that i would like to discuss.
First, have you ever done something because you thought it would be a good idea and then had that something made into a mandatory act and you came to despise it? This may be the case with our friends at GM. when they first came out with the EV1, they were probably thinking that this was cool, we can get great attention etc. then the government in our great state of Cali. says that they are now mandated to make these cars. sorry speak again? we are making these cars not for profit, but to test a market!!! at least that is what they should have said. they offered the EV1 as a lease only vehicle without the option to buy. this should have told the public something, really it should have. if i was out to sell a car for profit, i want you to own it, but as this was not the case at GM then what was the real deal? that is something that we may never know as there is so much hype on both side of the fence on this issue. GM says that there was no demand for the vehicle, but activists say that there was and is a great demand for the vehicle. how can we have both and still be right on both sides? simple, there were people that were willing to buy the EV1, but not with the terms and limitations that GM imposed on ownership once again we can see that its possible for both sides to be saying the "truth" but twisting it to the purposes that each side has to offer. second we see that most people only drive lets say 100 miles or less on a daily basis. the EV1 did a prefect job of filling the needs of anyone that only traveled within those limits and if your like most people, this means you!!!! so why would anyone want to have a gas fueled car if there was a perfectly good electric car that can run you about your daily travels? the answers here are all over the place, but a couple mentioned by the movie are that most people don't have the money for a second car that can take them places when they are going to drive outside the range of the electric car. the second is about infrastructure or the lack of places to "fill up" you electric car.
how often do we range out of the average 100 miles a day routine? if you do this fairly often then by all means a gas powered car would suit you better, but if you are only worried about that once a year trip to grandmas house in Ohio, then maybe just renting a car for the week or two would be more effective for you? then again are we really willing to go out of our way like that?
the number of gas stations in America is large and growing on a yearly basis. on the other hand we have our house as one place that we could actually charge our cars, if we buy the right equipment. that's cool and all, but if it costs me 2000 dollars or so to put in one of these chargers on top of the say 100k+ price tag on the car, couldn't i get farther in the next five years by spending my hard earned money on a 30k car and buying gas? at 15k miles a year my gas would cost about 3 grand a year at 3 dollars a gallon. if i figure that i am going to sell my car or trade in my car in five years, then i would have spent 15 large over 5 years, plus the car at 30 large. mmm economics 101 says that 45 thousand dollars is much less than 102 thousand. we didn't even add in the cost of the electricity or battery changes to the electric car yet. of course if the electric car did take off then it would become cheaper and that would make the economics much more in favor of the electric car. i mean it really. if you could buy that EV1 for 30k then pay the pittance to "fill" it, you would be doing great. but there are a couple of other snafu's that we have here. with my gas car i can go to the gas station and in about 5 minutes or less fill it up and go. also i can go to any mechanic and they would know how to fix my car. as for the electric car, 8 hours is a long time to wait when i want to be on the road. not to mention that there aren't many filling stations out there. when it breaks you need to take it to the dealership, as they are probably the only people that can help you with it, until they become more popular that is.
in the movie we also note that there are a lot of parts and sales related to the upkeep on a gas powered car, but the electric car didn't have those filters and oil and what not. did they mention that electric motors wear out? there are still bearings and tires and batteries!!!! the gearbox still has lubricant, but no the familiar oil change would be extinct with the electric car ruling the road. that would probably be one of the greatest triumphs of the electric car. just remember that there is still going to be plenty of maintenance for these cars and even new gas powered cars can go for 100 thousand miles before needing any major work. have you looked at a newer car? have you seen how clean that engine bay is? i bet if you work on that clean engine you will come out fairly clean, but not quite as clean as if you were working on an electric car.
in conclusion, the electric car died because despite there being some public demand for them, the prospective owners were not willing to take on the demands made of them to rent one of these cars. the car companies themselves wanted out of a forced deal that said, you must make so many of these cars whether or not anyone buys them. then the last nail in the coffin would be the lack of infrastructure and flexibility on the consumers part. while it would be a great thing to have an electric car available for anyone that wants one, are we the people ready?
Since this is my third attempt at posting for this blog entry, I'm sure it will have lost some of its awesomeness. There are a good number of pro's on the electric car issue. Electric cars will reduce emissions from fossil fuel burning vehicles. There will be a greater convenience in the form of being able to simply plug your car in at night and have it ready to go in the morning. It seems, though, that there are more tally's on the con side of the argument. For one, long road trips would not really be an option. Although, if the technology were to catch up with solar energy and other such methods to charge while you drive, well then that would just be magical. If an electric car takes hours to charge up, then there would be another issue... how many of us have risen in the morning, greeted the dawn with a smile, only to realize that we forgot to gas up the night before... well, it only takes a few minutes at the pump to be filled up and on our way... with an electric car, would we have any such luxury if we forgot to plug in the night before? An electric car would serve many great and useful purposes, however, my power bill for my house is already big enough without having to charge two cars every night... so such a car would not serve well with my wallet. If someone were to feel that they would be doing their part to help the environment by driving an electric car once fully available at an affordable price, well then, let them do it. As for me, I will stick with the good old American way of life in my nice, gas powered, smog emitting vehicle.
The movie "Who Killed the Electric Car" is a movie that should not have been made for the fact that there is still electric cars and automobiles. A company named Zap makes then just take a look at their link. http://www.zapworld.com/ Oh and here is another company that makes electric cars called Tesla Motors http://www.teslamotors.com/ Most importantly though is the fact that if you click on this next link you will see that even Chevorlet the evil car maker in the film plans on coming out with another electric car and it is much better looking than the original vehicle that we saw in the film seriously here is the link and it is sweet looking http://www.chevrolet.com/electriccar/ So there is now reason for me to give you pro's and cons of having or not having electric cars the fact is they are still in existence. Plus since Chevy is coming back out with it there was probably just something either wrong or crappy about the previous version they put out for lease. Of course when Chevy does come out with this newer version hopefully it will actually be for sale and more importantly sold at an affordable price.
Just to make a little correction to what I just wrote Chevy's car does have the option of using gas as well but you wont need to use it if your commute is less than 40 miles.
This class is a bit too political for my taste. Pro: Not using every drop of oil in the world would probably be a good thing. What happened with the solar-panels? Solar panels are sweet! I think someone's out to confuse us into thinking that we need some million dollar batteries to make electric-cars work, when in reality, plating the outside of the car with solar-panels would work just fine. You could just use a backup battery for when it drained at night, or in bad weather. All we'd have to do is figure out how to mass produce the cars & batteries without over-polluting. Con: If making the batteries is such a no-no on the environment, we should really be putting some effort into pipelines that lead into Outer-Space... Or to the Center of the Earth, down into the magma. Then run all the crappy bio-hazard stuff through these pipelines... Bye -bye pollution. Hello electric-cars. This whole subject is a con which pisses me off, because of big money manking money at the planet's expense. Hopefully one day someone big sits down the heads of GM and brainwashes some sense into their greedy _______ heads.
I had a friend here in Utah, who's grandfather invented a hydro-powered car. He was bought out/not assassinated, by either a car or gas company. He is now rich, but the rest of us are left out to dry. The large corporations no doubtedly have to pay off or deal with auto inventors on a regular basis, and that makes me sad... It's sad that no one is powerful enough to stand up to them... They should go to war with R.J. Reynolds and both kill eachother off.
pros: electric cars are quiet and do not pollute the air. electric cars also do not use gas and are less expensive to run than a regular gas powered car.
cons: though electric cars do not pollute the air their batteries still need to be disposed of. if everyone switched to electric vehicles then there would be a shortage on electricity.
conclusion: electric cars won't solve all our energy problems, but they will help. electric cars need to be given a chance and produce along with all other types of cars.
Pros: The pros for the electric car kind of speak for themselves. We take our mouths off the tit of the oil industry saving our county billions of dollars. They have very low operating cost something like 1-3 US cents per mile to operate. You’ll save money on emissions and no exhaust pipes. No exhaust pipes mean no exhaust and they’ll help us combat the growing pollution issue. Hardly any maintenance cost no oil changes or tune-ups necessary. These cars are very quiet and I think we all would like less noise pollution.
Cons: Although electric vehicles are good for the environment and produce no emissions we cannot forget the factories were theses cars are made and they all use fossil fuels to operate. Cost, these cars were not developed for the average American family. The cost up front for a car like this is very expensive and although you don’t have hardly any maintenance cost you’ll pick that cost and some back up when you have to replace the batteries. The batteries are very expensive to replace. Some calculate this could cost around US $2000 every 20,000 miles or so. Batteries can be recycled but what about the factories and extra energy used the refurbish and recycle millions of batteries.
They are numerous good and bad things about electric cars but with all the smart people we have in this country I feel like we would be able to work out any kinks and find a safe, affordable, and environmentally friendly way to make this transition.www.alternate-energy-sources.com/electric-car.html>.
Pros... Very interesting piece. I think it would be a lot of fun to be cruising around with an electric car. I worked in a warehouse for many years driving all sorts of lift trucks. The electric lifts were most interesting because of their ability to move around very quietly and efficiently. There's really not much to it but a very large and heavy battery. Very little moving parts witch allows for very little maintenance. Personally, I'm very excited about the possibilities. How it would just change the way we drive and the American way of life.
Cons... Hard to imagine life without EV1. Good old combustion engine. Just the sound of it is painful enough. It has been an American way of life forever. Electric cars on an everyday basis, I don't know. With electric lift trucks in the warehouse, they require daily charges, but sometimes, that single charge won't be enough for the entire day. That charger station as well has to be easy access at all times. We have to have had extensive research over the years about the subject of Electric Cars to be a major change as to how we travel. Lots to consider. For one, would be the distances we travel today almost daily. The risk of mass production and the possibility of pollution. How much it would cost to build individual charging stations at our homes or along the roadside. Safety issues as well as the cost to every individual owner would have to be a major consideration.
The electric car is a good idea and I think it can really help with the smog and pollution in the air. It will also help us cut down on our dependence on foreign oil. We as a nation import about 390,611Million barrels in December 2008 according to: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus_ep00_im0_mbbl_m.htm. That is alot of oil considering we only produce 42% of the oil we use.
Cons
The big problem with the electric car is that you have to have a second car for anything you may want to do in the world. The average car can only go 130-150 mph before it needs a recharge. That realy means that if you plan on going on vacation then don’t plan on driving. I think there are better alternative fuel options like cng vehicles.
I had posted my comments on this movie several times on Thursday before midnight as agreed and it did not take. I posted again today, Sunday afternoon the 29th, and the date on my posting in blog shows as Saturday 28th...hmmmm
Advantages There are many advantages that are accompanied in the electric car. Namely, you save gas,air pollution free, meaning its emmisions free, and are free of pollution by-products.They provide their power from batteries, solar, or hydrogen fuel cells, are compact, lightweight, and they are three times as efficient as gas engines. Disadvantages 1. Electric cars are expensive to own. If you’ve checked into the price of an electric car, you know they are not “low end”. It’s not so much the price of the car as it is the price of the batteries which they run on. If you’ve purchased batteries you know how the costs can add up quickly, and the batteries used in electric cars are lithium-ion, which are expensive. Also keep in mind that eventually the battery packs will need to be replaced, as they have a life of approximately 3 to 4 years. 2. The batteries will need to be recharged. A second disadvantage to an electric car is that the batteries will need to be recharged. This will require advanced planning because you’ll have to allow adequate time for the batteries to be fully charged. Now this might not sound like that big of a problem but if you are thinking of purchasing an electric car then you will need to make an honest assessment of how much you will use your vehicle. An extended or unplanned trip could be problematic if you haven’t had time to fully recharge the batteries. 3. Limits on driving distance. If you drive long distances, an electric car might not suit your needs, so you will need to consider how far you plan on driving your car. Most of the electric cars have limits on how many miles they can go before needing a recharge. Electric car maker ZAP recently announced that their electric car could travel up to 100 miles per single charge, but many people drive more miles than that round trip on a daily commute to work. This is definitely a limitation for those who intend to use the vehicle for getting to and from their place of employment. You certainly would not want to run out of batteries if you got stuck in a rush hour traffic jam. 4. Lack of power. Another disadvantage to the electric car is the lack of power, specifically quick pickup. If you do a lot of interstate driving there are going to be times when you will need to accelerate quickly to merge into traffic.
So, in conclusion electric cars may have some benifit to the enviornment, but they are way expensive to keep up with, as far as batteries, and you would need a second car every 100 miles to reach your destination.
I used to think that the electric car was a piece of crap that couldn't do more than take me downtown and back. I thought of it as 'gut less' but after what I had seen in the film I was heavily convinced otherwise. The EV car was amazing in its simplicity! I would own one if the assholes at GM hadn't been such big babies about it. Granted it would cause my electricity bill to rise and there for cause a tad more stress each year when bills get higher and higher; but in the long run the money I would have been spending in gas would easily cover the increase in my electric bill.
I remember seeing an episode of Modern Marvels and the topic was new fuel sources for automobiles. There were three that they focused on: Hydrogen, Solar, and Electric. I was sold on Hydrogen for the longest time and people would always argue, "What if that car gets into an accident and that fuel cell ruptures and explodes"?.....yeah well it would be damn catastrophic but I'm pretty sure the engineers thought of that already. When I found out that the production of hydrogen uses 3x the amount of energy needed than the EV car, I about lost my temper. Why would anyone in their right mind invest in something that costs so damn much more than is logically necessary? The financial crisis in the nation is maddening enough; why not give the people something that can save their bank accounts some wear and tear?
I doubt we'll ever get a straight answer, from anyone in the companies, why they fought to have the EV terminated. Even its creators wanted it gone; that's an odd duck if you ask me? Car companies should at least make an effort to produce any vehicle with a minimum of say 50mpg that includes SUV's, Trucks, and Sports models.
Why things are the way they are I'd be willing to bet my life on it is money. A substance that seems to hold more sway in the world than morals or ethics and when the shit really hits the fan, I doubt there will be enough money to fix it.
there are many pros to owning an electric car. saving gas money, pollution in the air, and are very light, compact cars. i think the biggest contribution electric cars could have is reduce our dependent on foreign oil. With gas prices being so high, foreign countries regulate these prices at will. As Americans, we must have oil for our cars, but we must push away from the use of oil and move onto better things such as the electric car.
Cons....
The biggest disadvantage to owning an electric car is that you must charge the vehicle often. the cars can maybe go 100 miles before having to be recharged. if you are wanting to travel far distances....this is not the car for you. while its great for short distances, the car would never last on a road trip. another disadvantage of electric cars are how expensive they are. the purchasing of lithium batteries will add up. almost to the same amount of purchasing gas. there are no cheap low end electric cars out there.
while i think electric cars are a good idea, the cons definitely out weigh the pros.
The electric car debate and in general the whole environmental movement is a very interesting one. Recently I have found a lot of new and interesting information relating to these subjects that has caused me to re-think many of my former views. I can still see that both sides of the argument have valid and interesting points.
A totally electric car is actually a car I never knew existed until I watched the movie WHO KILED THE ELECTRIC CAR. I had heard of hybrids, fuel cell and alternative fuel vehicles etc. but a car that ran completely on electricity was for me a complete unknown. This served to me as evidence of the poor marketing effort on the part of these vehicle manufacturers’s (one of the argument that was asserted in the movie who killed the electric car). Why would any company develop an amazing product and fail to market it aggressively as soon as it was evident that there was a market for it (Another assertion made in the movie stated above)? This does seem more than a little bit suspicious and adds validity to some of the stronger evidence presented throughout the movie. The stronger evidence I am referring can be found on this movies website at http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/electric.html. Strong evidence for the consumer demand, and sound reasoning behind the theory that the killing of the electric car was motivated by oil company profits, the auto industry etc. are presented here as well as a few other websites I have found such as www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com, and the numerous links provided by our instructor. I do however understand and agree with some of the problematic limitations that electric vehicles present such as limited range, battery life, battery replacement costs, lack of recharging stations, and ridiculous design but I believe these could largely be overcome if the hidden motives of the opposition would be set aside. If nothing else I believe there could be an enormous niche market for these kinds of vehicles. As we can easily observe most Americans have more than one vehicle and usually each of those vehicles serve a different purpose for instance the SUV for more space 4wheel drive, and safety or the compact for better fuel economy, less space in the driveway, garage etc, and drivability. Why then not have an electric car around for short commutes, fuel economy, clean air etc. In the end I do think these vehicles are, have been and always will be highly useful and popular if those opposed would set aside the greed and let this technology flourish.
Pro- The electric car is an immediate answer to our ever increasing pollution problem. By having this car run strictly on electricity it elimiates all emissions into the air and also helps the looming concern of global warming. Con- As a student who travels to Weber everyday, I use up about 80 miles a day. I would have to stop and find a place to charge my car. Im not quite sure if I would like to depend that much on a battery. Another concern is the effect it would have on the automative work force. Mechanics would either have to immediately learn everything about these electric cars or quit and find something else to supply an adequate income. Pro- Less money would be spent on expensive gasoline. Last year everyone just about boycotted driving due to ever increasing gas prices. The idea of never having to fill up again is a refreshing and much appreciated idea. I agree with using US oil. However,(con) to have that kind of complete cut off from the middle east, would cause a world war. The US is "addicted" to oil as many people said in this film. But the world is "addicited" to money.
As for the hydrogen car and cars using an alternate fuel source would still cause a problem in the economy. Sure it would possibly solve our pollution problem but then the amount we pay for corn would increase incredibly as well. In the film they mentioned the H+ car not running well in cold or bad weather, and also the price of the fuel being expensive. So I dont see that being a probable solution either.
This film pointed fingers at many guilty suspects. Which one ultimately killed the electric car is still in question. I think Ill save my opinion and write about this when I get on my soapbox!
Sara- I hope this was somewhat of what you were expecting. Im still confused with how you want us to respond. Please let me know what you want me to work on. Thx!
Honestly when I first heard about this movie, I thought it was a comedy. Well, come to think of it, I thought more that it was a musical with an absurd name.
However, that's not the case at all. It actually was a serious, biased documentary about a car. An electric car. That's what I saw. But to the car owners, it was more than that. It was a symbol. It was their passion. It was their child. It was their love.
A car. Transportation. That's all it was. What did they see in it? Let's take a look at their reasons.
1. It was 100% independent from gasoline and oil. No more need to buy expensive $1-$5-per-gallon gasoline. No more oil changes. Just the simplistic technology of plug it in during the night and wake up in the morning, fully charged.
2. What's the byproduct of gas? Pollution. No more exhaust coming from the tailpipe. Smog would drastically be reduced, especially in big cities, such as Los Angeles.
3. Quiet. No more loud engines. Just the sweet sound of humming. As someone mentioned here, its a reduction of noise pollution.
Those are pretty good reasons to LIKE a car. Or at least the concept of an all-electric vehicle. But to love and completely be obsessed with a mode of transportation that has many cons is....well I just dont agree with it. And for a few reasons, as listed here already.
1. These vehicles are expensive. The majority of consumers are cheap. When you have a vehicle that is only available for lease and no option to buy at all tells me that its quite more expensive than a typical gasoline powered vehicle.
2. The components to make the vehicles are expensive. Mainly the battery. Batteries that cost many thousands of dollars to first be used and then be replaced? Then when replaced, where do they go?
3. Pollution is not a pro as they say. The vehicle is just a longer tailpipe. What powers electricity in the United States? Coal. Lots of it. More electric cars = more coal burned. Referring back to #2, batteries would just stack up.
4. Inconvenience. Come on, 70 miles per charge? Come on. A cheap old 90's Civic will get close to that on 1 gallon. And it hold more than 1 gallon. I wouldnt want to worry on such a small limit when driving around, even if I drive less than 70 miles a day.
5. Power. or the lack thereof. Horsepower and torque is what the public loves to see. And those who need trucks for work to haul and tow? Diesel engines by far is needed for this. Not electric motors.
To me, my car is just a car. My mode of transportation. I like it. It gets me where I need to go. Just like millions of others on the road.
The concept of an All electric vehicle seem great. What would be better than a car that you could just plug in to charge and never have to worry about gas? This would cut down on the pollution caused by the combustion of gasoline. I am going to have to disagree with julious29 about creating electricity to power the cars creating more pollution. While I agree that obviously using coal creates pollution, you forget that there are many ways to create power that do not create pollution. We may not really be all that close to harnessing these, solar wind and geothermal being some of the better ones, but at the same time, we aren't anywhere near having an all-electric car for mass use either.
However, they are very expensive to make, and the range is rather limited. Another problem is that the technology really isn't close to being decent enough for mass use. Also, most of the people attempting to make electric cars are making these awful looking boxes that seat one to two people, which is very inconvenient no matter how you slice it.
Well I think the electric car is awesome, there are a bunch of things that I liked about them. I have been doing a little bit of research and it looks like they have tried to make an electric car before, back in the 1800s and it was really good at the time. but for some reason it just dies most of the time, then someone new decides to work on the elctric car again. Before, electric cars didnt go very far or very fast. but it looks like their starting to perfect the car. most electric cars are converted from gasoline cars, so they looks pretty much identical. the only clue you would have to know it was an electric car is by how silent it is, so with that being said. one reason i like the lectric car is because it looks just like any other car, not uglier nor prettier. the electric car will help our planet by reducing the pollution. also who wouldnt like charging thier car in the convenience of their own house? its just like filling gas up in your garage lol. another reason i like it is because they are starting to make the electric cars fast, and i am into fast cars.
Cons:
One of the biggest things that i dont think ill like about the electric car is the price. i am pretty sure that when an electric car comes out for purchase it is going to cost alot more than a normal gasoline vehicle. another thing is it is electric, i like cars that i am able to modify and have fun with. one of my hobbys is fixing up cars, and i dont think the electric car is very modifiable.
Pros The pros are endless for electric car especially when you think of the possibilities. I am a firm believer that the powers that be have an agenda that involves maximization of profit. Just like the cell phone industry, the car industry has technology that is far more advanced then what we see but they become unprofitable if they implement every new innovation immediately. This is where ethical business becomes an issue. Who am I to force private companies to make bad investments in new technology? But on the other hand when man kinds future, i.e. global warming, energy consumption, gas prices, do major corporations have any responsibility to our race? My solution is to reimburse corporations for money lost, as well as regulating their ability to censor new technology.
Cons I don't see any cons to investing in non polluting, less expensive transportation. I did some research and most of the websites out there against clean technology are directly supported by the oil, and car industry. Obviously there is a conflict of intrest there. Almost nothing is perfect it's first few years in circulation, consider the computer. This is one of the most visible cases where complication has led to complete abandonment. But if I had to make a case against electric cars, which I do, I would say the range is to small, they're too expensive, and if you're still producing the electricity from coal plant they are not entirely clean.
People are afraid of change, and that includes differences. If something is different then the norm has been, it does not fly well with the population. Why the Electric car has not been implemented into our way of life yet... I don’t know, but I bet it has something to do with the ignorance and intolerance of the human race. It would be better cheaper in the long run, sure they are pricy at first but buying gas grows exponentially it catches up! Also it would help our economy with all that pollution.
I think that the electric car is a really good idea. I know we have the technology to make it work. Think about it. If most of the developers time and technology went into perfecting the electric car, my bet is it would be better than what we have to work with now. The torque and power that diesel trucks give us to work and haul stuff could be developed with electricity I'm sure. If we just had the funding. but it all comes back to the population. The developers can’t spend the time and money and technology on something that will just inevitably be rejected by the public. What a dilemma.
Just the idea of cruising around town in an electric car is pretty cool. Zero emissions is deffinately a great benifit for the enviroment itself but also us as we breath in the (currently) filth filled air outside. Holy crap how much money you would save by not using gas. This is the most attractive feature for anyone who is looking into electric cars.
Cons
Although I support electric cars there are still many problems with them which will hopefully be corrected and these vehicles can be reintroduced. First of all the range. Sure its great for driving to work and the grocery store everyday and to grandmas house but beyond that what are your options. The only one you have is have a second car (gas powered) for when you want to go on a road trip or even go visit relatives that are only 100 miles away or so. And what about camping and all that fun stuff? There is now way you can fit all your gear in that little thing much less tow your fishing boat up to the lake, or your atv's out to the dunes. Another downfall is creating all this electricity will produce emissions at some stage. Utility bills? I bet it aint cheap to charge that sucker everynight and what about the batteries they cant last forever. And one of the most important features on any vehicle: Safety. If you get into an accident in that little EV1 you're toast no if ands or buts about it. These things were not designed with anything in mind other than "an alternative to gas"
Conclusion
This is a great idea however it has many problems. Hopefully they will be corrected and we will have the option of an electric car sometime in the future.
I am so deppressed about the electric car. Let those poor people have their cars back, crap you jerks! It's all a big conspiracy. We know why they killed the electric car. And we know it was the oil companies, the government, the car companies, and everyone else who is glued to money. They let money rule their thought proccess so you kinda just gotta pitty them. Really though, guys give it back! Those kids in california need there air. please let them breath. Is money worth those little kidlets lung damage?? Save the children!! Kid killers
pros: the pros of the electric car are that we would be totally reducing the amount of polution that we release into our atmosphere. the air would be cleaner and clearer and we woudn't be dependant on foreign oil anymore.
Cons: the cons of the electric car are that they create more harmful things for the environment to make. not everyone would want to use an electric car. it would be very expensive for the whole world to switch to the alternative. it is too much of a leap for out economy to grasp.
Pro.. The electric car was a fantastic idea, who doesn't want to save money? Charging your car at home is one of the greatest ideas ever. The pollution now a days seems like it gets worse and worse and running on electricity instead of gasoline come on! The economy has changed so much and we need to do what we can to make life just a little bit easier for everyone. You don't have to worry about emissions and you wouldn't have to worry about the maintenance of the car as much as a gas powered car. A car that reaches high speeds is something younger kids are into imagine what the next generation could do with the Electric Vehicle the possibilities of a better environment and economy.
Cons.. Having the electric car around would probably put many mechanics out of work, the time and effort these mechanics put it would be a bit useless they would have to either adapt to the electric car or move on to a different job meaning a lot of angry people. I would expect the cost of an electric car would also be very high compared to a normal automobile, but still in the end it is probably worth the money. lol
the pros for the car can lead to better earth. It will reduce the pollution, people will have less health problems. It will save a alot of gas. Then you have the problems which can include how many miles can you drive on one charge? What will you do if you your planning a big trip and you stuck in the middle of now where? Its a good idea for the car but it also takes out business from other dealers and gas companies. Which will lead to some new law.
Pro
ReplyDeleteElectric vehicle is another steps of technology that we should not take for granted. A very important lessons to us, as long(for now)They pr they provide the economics profits. General Moter made the right choice to started promoting to general public. We can see the great demand of people in California. But GM,Oil companies and governments were lose sight off environmental impacts. if EV1 were on the road right now. It is going help us save huge amount of energy deficits. Even though some component part of old combustion gasoline engine were lose of business profits. but the costs the society of the hold are much greater costs and if necessary to sacrifice for the greater goods.
I think, this video is very clear and stringt forward that government agencies, buisnesses and oil companies are guilties. They are absolute creatures whose goods were diminish goods choice of itself. By manipulate the public opposition through medias, polices force and legal system that only support only creatures them self. American people losing freedom and choice to purchase the EV1. Like it said on video oil company still have 35 billions of business to need to get done. The bottom line is that We should question to ourself. What I am going to do about it?
Con
Well, The Answer is... No this is my opinion. I have to change with them. instead of feel the emotions of unhappy and losing a great gift. But I was unrealized to seeing the bright future of our children. I have to show positive attitudes. we should not be stumble to adapt the newer idea and newer technologies. Government and business just want to experiment both beneficiary. This is going to grate and win and win situation. Now we can see lot of people are waking up and willing to work to share ideas like different fell cells to create more jobs and growths. All of these depending to our self. So it is significant to support the leaders and follows the rule of the laws. We must stand with moral and ethicals in all time. Nothing else to says about this phonemenon. But soon they are probably feel sympathy and eventually find the ways to help us. with Another EVs.
Pro...............Pros..................
ReplyDeleteThe electric car: fun, new, entertaining, exciting, smooth, and sleek, these are a few of the words that come to mind when describing the electric car. Who wouldn’t want all these qualities in a car? The documentary, Who killed the Electric Car shows just that and then some. Being a broke college student, I’m always dreading when the low fuel light all of sudden lights up. Even though it might not seem as much now, but the $30 I spend on gas is still $30 that I can be savings or buying a couple days worth of lunch.
We’ve seen how gas prices fluctuate, not too long ago I was paying close to $60 for a full tank of gas, and I was very close to hitting up the closest Foot Locker and buying a good pair Nikes. The point is gas is another expensive to add on the list, it would be better if it could be avoided completely. As any college student would say a dollar is a dollar. It would be great not to be worrying about fueling up on gas every week; I would rather just plug in a battery to a light switch and be set for the day. This is why the solution to my problem is solved with the electric car.
Also, as the movie describes these smooth cars can go up to 80 miles with only one full battery charge. This millage is more than enough for someone who travels from their house to school to work every day. What more can someone ask for? Besides these cars are not only are they good for the environment they are attention grabbers. Society is scared of change and is set to a certain mindset that it is hard to accept these types of cars on the road. But we need to be optimistic! Change is good! The environment does so many things for us, it’s time for us to do great things for it.
Cons...................Cons...............
Change! Something everyone fears. And the change from our oil engine cars that we are all use to, to the so called economical, elegant electrical vehicle is hard to understand. There are many questions that arise when thinking of driving an electric vehicle. How long do we charge the battery? What are the miles that it will last me with one full charge? Is this convenient for my family? Do I want a car that is leased? What’s the life expectancy of the battery? Is this car ACTUALLY more environmentally friendly than our regular oil eating machine that I’m use to?
This is one of the questions I decided to research and my findings are very interesting. The article The Prius Bad for the Environment? In hubpages.com the article compares the Prius a hybrid car produced by Toyota with the much loved Hummer. And study show that the Prius is does more harm to the environment than the actual oil eating Hummer. The making of the hybrid car is what does most harm to the environment instead of the actual miles per gallon of gas. “The Prius’ battery contains nickel, which is mined in Ontario, Canada. The plant that smelts this nickel is apparently nicknamed “the Superstack” because of the amount of pollution it puts out: the area for miles around it is a wasteland because of acid rain and air pollution.” (hubpage.com)
According to the article not only does the nickel have to be smelted but it is also shipped to Japan and goes through a more extensive process to make the nickel just right for the Hybrid’s battery. This whole procedure takes time, a lot of money, and on top of that it affects our environment. Whatever happened to going GREEN?
There are many advantages to having an electric car. The engine hardly makes any noise, they produce a smooth seamless acceleration while putting out a big fat 0 in pollution emission! I hope that with newer technology, we'll be able to make more electric cars at a more efficiently while pricing them cheaply.
ReplyDeleteThis movie does shows the corruptions between our government,corporate giants, and oil lobbyist have destroyed the progress of the electric car. Even though there were only few supporters of EV1 at the time, it only took a major economic recession and historically high gas prices to ass kicked America into frantically looking for alternative fuel methods. shit were only almost 10-15 years behind from the first electric car.
But any how check out this cool electric car, it gets about 220mpg to a full charge(3.5hr) does 0-60 in less then 4 sec. WOW! http://www.teslamotors.com/efficiency/how_it_works.php
cons...
Many car company faces a lot of obstacle to produce electric cars and for some manufacture's at this time and age it isn't cost effective for them at all.
There is still a lot of bugs to still be worked out on electric cars.
For some people making this change to electric is stepping beyond their comfort zone. most importantly most average income family still can't afford one, some can't even afford to eat let alone pay for one of these electric cars.
I think this movie didn't portray this opinions of the average income consumers, all they shown were famous and wealthy movie stars and actors who are the only one who can afford these cars. Until we can find a more efficent way of producing these car, let's worry about the economy first and making sure people are working and be able to feed their family!
Pro...
ReplyDeletewhen i first started driving about four years ago gas was around a dollar a gallon. the gas prices started to rise. 1.50, 1.75, 2.00!!!( if your not great at math thats double.) so on a side note, if an average person fills their tank up once a week, we willsay 20 gallons, according to the us census, there are 306,026,993 people in the us currently. now times that by 20( they doubled the gas prices) so that is a profit increase of 6,120,539,860. 6 trillion dollars more A WEEK!!!! how is this possible??? who is making this money a week? that seems to be the question at hand, but oh wait im not done yet and neither were the gas companies. gas was once at 4 dollars a gallon as a low point in the us it even surged to 6 dollars in some places but for now we will just go with 4 bucks. so once again lets times the 6 trillion dollars in profits by 20. remember were doing itby 20 because essentially you are paying for 40 gallons and only getting 20 when its twice as expensive. and my calculator cant handle it. theres a suprise.
ok so i grabbed another one that can handle it. the profits now have soared to $122,410,797,200. not bad. only $122 trillion dollars a week.hell if i was making this much a week i too would kill the electric car. so i dont blame you texaco, chevron, and all the other companies raping me you our neighbors, teachers, coworkers. if i could make $6,344,000,000,000 a year i would do it. i dont knkow whats after a trillion but they sure as hell do. this is why the electric car died.truth is, if half the americans drove electric cars the CEO of chevron couldnt afford 17 beach houses, 20 different colors of astin martins( really expensive cars)
con....
americans were not ready for the electric cars, which was mostly in part to the low gas prices and good economic stature. i believe even today that people would still not purchase it, they are not ready to give up their gas guzzling suv's i know im sure not ready to because i used it for to many things, and gm realized this, the parts companies even stopped producing them because a waiting list of 5000 people turned out that only 50 people (1%) wanted the vehicles. sounds like the producers of the film who killed the electric car should find a job instead of drooling over their old cars through a fence for a month. hippies. oh ya and that guy who stood behind the trailer in an effort to stop him, wow what a retard if i was the driver i would have pulled forward then hit hit harder and sent him to the hospital hopefully knocking some sense into him. the people who made this movie just need to go buy a car like the prius so they can get stickers saying look at me i drive a hybrid. im cool.
oh and my citations.
ReplyDeletepro.
http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html
http://news.cnet.com/The-plot-behind-killing-electric-cars/2010-11389_3-6204627.html
con.
http://fyi.gmblogs.com/2006/06/who_ignored_the_facts_about_th.html
http://news.cnet.com/The-plot-behind-killing-electric-cars/2010-11389_3-6204627.html
Good film i enjoyed it
ReplyDeleteThe benefits to driving an electric car your not putting carbon emissions into the air they are quiet and you don't have to contribute to the insane profits of the oil giants. They may be more expensive than alot of cars but can you put a price on the enviorment? Plus could you imagine GM in the economic crisis they're in if they would have continued to manufacture the EV 1 and other electric cars? Rather than selling 40,000 dollar suvs that get 17 mpg. My big question after watching the movie is why was it nessecary to destroy all the EV1's why not just quit making them? Was it really something they needed to do?
Cons okay lets see here they're expensive people hate change they're is already a huge industry in oil and the automakers are already good at mass producing suvs and charging 40,000 for them. Why change all of that for some car that can only go 40 miles who would drive something like that? It costs alot and you can't fit a small army in it and you won't feel safe on the interstate. Plus who cares about the enviorment electricity is just going to change the source of the pollution. so why change?
My opinion is that electric cars could be huge and should be. Those who say it will just change the source of the pollution have they heard of wind power or solar power? and for the criticism that sounds like this what about when it's not sunny? The panels will store they're energy in a battery. Wind mills will slow the earth's rotation okay if that was true wouldn't sky scrapers that we continue to build? What about mountains even? Besides we don't have to completely switch over but even a little bit helps.
however where are batteries made? in plants that produce pollution so i understand that puts off pollution to build green cars however every industry should learn from this. this shouldn't be a matter of you think your green but your not where was your battery made? it should be a matter of everybody thinking about the enviroment and every industry should learn the potential consequences of what they're doing to the enviroment and make steps to change this without worrying about a price tag.
ReplyDeleteThe advantages of the electric car are obvious to most, no emissions, you dont have to deal with gas prices, relatively no maintenance or upkeep.
ReplyDeleteSince these cars run off of electricity you dont have any bi product being produced when the energy is spent. This means less emissions in crowded city's which makes everyone breath easier because we would have less pollutants in the air. Not paying for gasoline would be another advantage of going electric. It cost less per mile to drive an electric car. On average it takes 12 kilowatt hours to charge an electric car battery, it it costs 8 cents per kilowatt hour of charge times that by 12 and your paying roughly 96 cents per 50 miles, if an electric car has a range of 50 miles a charge. Now that is an extremely bad range, so im estimating higher costs then it actually might be. Now lets take a gas vehicle that is super efficient and figure out its cost per mile to drive. The toyota corolla gets 35 miles per gallon of gas at $1.75 a gallon. Right out of the gate the electric car cost's almost half as much to run as the gas vehcle, and we still haven't taken into account how much it costs to maintain the gas vehicle. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/electric-car1.htm
The disadvantages of going electric are, it puts a limit on the range you can drive, its not really as green as everyone says it is, the initial cost to purchase a decent electric vehicle is outrageous, and the electric vehicle cannot do the same type of high power demanding work as a diesel can.
Electric vehicles do not get a whole lot of range out of 1 charge. This means if you plan on drivng further then 100 miles in a day you are out of luck. What makes this even worse is that you can't just pull up to a charging station and "fill up" you gotta wait around for 4-8 hours to allow the battery to charge. This would be like relying on a giant ipod battery to get you around everyday, and we all know how reliable ipod batteries are...
When you plug in your electric car and charge it your burning something somewhere to aquire that energy, all this talk about zero emissions is not completely true. All the electric car is doing is etending the exhaust pipe.
I went online looking for electric cars, the only one i found that was worth driving is over 100,000 dollars. And even if you have that money you cant buy the car, you have to APPLY to buy the car, and then you are put on some waiting list. If its this hard to buy the thing, imagine how hard if would be to repair it if you got into an accident of any kind?
Now i have seen the amazing 0-60 times of the more sporty electric cars, and granted they are pretty respectable. (although most i saw were in the neighborhood of 15 seconds, some as fast as less then 4 seconds) What about those of us who need trucks for work? How much can this electric engine put out as far as torque? Even with the finest of electric engines the car can only put out 200 ft/lbs of torque (http://www.teslamotors.com/performance/acceleration_and_torque.php), which isn't exactly enough to haul 18000 pounds worth of skidsteer or excavator on a trailer. The chevy duramax is putting out of 660 ft/lbs of torque and offers 365 horsepower, and thats stock. (http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/silverado2500hd/2009/review.html) I dont see any electric motors doing that in the near future. Not to say it cant be done, but right now the technlogy isnt cheap enough yet to offer that kind of performance at an affordable cost.
To me the future of transportation is a diesel/electric hybrid engine.
If you really want to see something to write about, read up on John Goodwins 600 hp, 2000 ft/lb torque, 0-60 in under5 second, 60 mile per gallon hummer! Now that is a hybrid I would gladly drive in! The great thing about it is the conversion cost less then 5000 dollars and he used parts that already existed. Which means nothing extravagent had to be invented to make this happen.
The electric car
ReplyDeleteWell the electric car is pretty cool, President Obama says he wants to stop being dependent on foreign oil well this is one way to go with the electric car think of how much the US alone can save on gas. Think of how better our health would be without all that pollution gas cars put out? Think of all the money we could save without having to get the oil changed and crap like that. I'm guessing the car companies get money from the oil industry every time they sell a gas car so why would they want to make this car? The electric car is the future of driving and i am excited for the technology.
The Electric car
What kind of power does this car have? can it tow my boat or my trailer? Can i afford one? Would anyone buy it there are many cars out there that get of 40 miles to the gallon and not everyone is buying them. what would happen with the Jiffy lubes? When no one needs oil changes there goes those jobs, Instead of buying gas how much is it going to cost me to charge this car? what if i run out of charge on the freeway i cant go get a charge can. Gas cars are just fine with me
Pros
ReplyDeleteI believe that there are many pros to owning and operation a electric car. First you will never have to spend money or time at a gas station. You can charge your car at your home. You have enough battery life to get you from your home to work or the store. You are not polluting the air by driving your car.
Cons
There are many cons to owing an electric car. You can only go 50 miles or so, on a charge. Your pollution goes from your exhaust fumes to coal and nuclear power plants that create the electricity for the car. You have to spend just as much money on new batteries every few years which would be the same as buying gas for those years.
Conclusion
I think that the electric car is a very good and useful thing to help the cut down on the pollution if we make sure we use electricity plant that get the electricity form the sun, water, wind or any realistic renewable energy source. I remember when they cane out.. The movie put out a very well put point. Why did they take it away? The oil companies didn’t like the idea of loosing there money make cars that use all kinds of oil based products that make them money. I think that the electric car can be a tool of many that can help us reduce the pollution that we put out in your every day lives.
The electric car would have been a very good alternative to fossil fuels if companies like GM and Ford ever decided to simply produce them instead of repeating the same line of gas guzzuling SUV's over and over again. But the sad thing is is that those companies will probably never see it as a good alternative due to the fact that they might not make money off it. It had the (electric?) mileage we needed and the gas price was perfect for someone on a tight budget. If people had given it a chance, it beat most cars in drag racing, thats impressive a battery powered car beating a gas powered one in a drag race. Hell it even lessened the great burden on mother gaia. By limiting pollution caused by the current combustion engine. Oh and it was damn snazzy.
ReplyDeleteToo bad it didn't seem to meet the needs of the greater populace or else we would be driving in those ugly little cars. If it really was that good then it would have found it's way on to a greater market but people just didn't want to have to deal with all that hippy bullcrap. They say "if it ain't broke don't fix it." and cars today certainly aren't broke, besides the electric car replaces oil for cars with oil for gas burning power plants that have to run at peak efficiency because of all those electric cars. Besides that gaia crap is bull we could hit mother nature as hard as we wanted and wouln't make a dent. The electric cars just weren't profitable because no one wanted them and the people who made them saw the paradox (less emissions from cars more from power plants.) and we will always need foriegn oil, if not for power than for tanks. Can you power a tank with that battery?
Pro
ReplyDeleteThe electric car is a greater way of a cleaner solution than the cars we are driving now. With air pollution increasing, by the use of this car we could possibly be cutting down how much is going into our atmosphere. To go along with one of the more obvious solutions, with the economy in the shape it is now, by not having to rely on gas could have a huge change in some families. Did I mention that they also are much quieter, sleek and have the convienience of charging in your own home? That to me, with other reasons, is a safer, much efficient way, of getting back to our environment and cutting down the pollution.
Cons
Even with gas being the way it is lately, how can a car charged like you would charge your phone overnight, be a "dependable" car? It is estimated to get you to where you need to go but what if, by some chance, your routine is to change and the destination that you now need to get to is farther? How can you charge it with stations not as accessible to you as the gas stations are? With the price of batteries and repairs that you would need for the EV1, when compared to the average vehicle, there is no difference in gas so with the money that you saved will eventually be spent on a new battery.
The idea of the electric car is certainly a good one. It’s a vehicle that does not pollute our environment, it is quiet, faster then a gas operated vehicle and saves the consumer money on high gas prices. It’s because of its convenience that most people are drawn to them. The thought of leaving your vehicle charging over night and never having to worry about gas prices is definitely a plus. However it does have it’s faults, according to GM lack of interest led to it’s downfall, which I can completely understand. People aren’t ready to trade of the reliability of a gas operated vehicle which can travel for miles knowing that if they run out of fuel, they can stop at a gas station nearby. To this, the electric car cannot compare because where are you going to find an electric fill up station? Also the article by Michael Kanellos in one of the provided links makes a good point about the batteries which I had not even thought about, if a battery is pushed too hard it tends to explode, this could be a future problem regarding safety of the operator.
ReplyDeleteI believe the electric car is still a good idea that should be pursued but I don’t think it will replace a gas vehicle. I think a good plan would be to continue making them and let the consumer choose which vehicle to use. Like I said before, I don’t see it replacing a gas car but I know a lot of people would definitely make the switch over to them. A good example of this is to look at what people are driving now, I see a lot more hybrid vehicles on the road then I did six or seven years ago.
Pro:
ReplyDeleteWhat a sad movie. It was like watching people lose their children. I'll be honest with you before this movie and judging even from the articles I had no idea we were this far a long with the electric car. It would almost appear that popular science was against the car. Their article hardly mentioned the EV let alone the electric car. Much like automotive company GM, they seemed hardly impressed with the obvious answer to the problem. In the article released by GM, "who ignored the facts about the electric car?" we receive a bitter publicists sales pitch for some hybrids. The unknown facts he shared all sounded like ones that were stated in the movie. This would be an issue, if the publicist had watched the movie. Sadly, he most bitterly mentions that not only has he not watched the movie and also he had not "received an advanced DVD as others have from the film’s producers." Two words: Rent it! Before you post up an article about ignoring the facts you should know the facts. It is sad to know that GM, the government, and anyone else is willing to over look this solution to an obvious problem.
Con:
Is it as simple as that? Documentaries can be one sided and distort the truth. Did who killed the electric car distort the truth? Probably. Does this effect my opinion? Yes! The movie placed a lot of blame on GM and the government. In the article, "the plot behind killing the electric car", author Michael Kanellos talks about the supposed conspiracy that GM and the gov made for the sake of keeping oil around. He calls this impossible and I have to agree. In his article he hardly gives credit to the car companies for any improvements over the last thirty years. His article shows GM and Ford as snobbish wealthy men with little concern (or perhaps intelligence) to create a global conspiracy. His article is dated August of 2007 and so we don't get to discuss even more proof that we see the financial crunch that most auto makers have dealt with since the summers high gas prices. No one was buying cars and now these guys are begging the government for a bailout.
I would imagine that if GM had a secret weapon hidden in their closet with the EV last summer would have been the time to bust that out. In the GM article "who ignored the facts about the electric car?" GM states that it was wrong in the way it handled the leases but asks not to punish them for this but to help the move forward into the future. A hybrid future perhaps. For me personally who drives all over the valley a EV would never have worked but guess what does? A hybrid. It may not be perfect but it is a great start in the right direction. So lets not punish GM for handling the least wrong, lets work with them to create a better tomorrow.
Pro
ReplyDeleteI think that the electric car would benefit this country very much. I think that our air would benefit from it, therefore public health would get better- less people with asthma and other breathing problems. It would definately help our situation with foreign oil problems. It would be very convenient with everyday things. Like driving to work or to the grocery store, to school, and everything else. How many people really drive for than 80 miles per day? If you do- I guess this car is not for you.
Cons
My big question is how much does this car really cost? They never mentioned it in the movie, and the people that did drive them looked pretty well off in my opinion. Another concern is what if you forget to charge and your car stops on the side of the freeway. Who's going to save you? Is there an convertable charger? When designing such an independant car, they need to take all factors into consideration.
Erin Bitters
Pro
ReplyDeleteThe EV1 is the car of the future. Not only for its performance, convenience and affordability at leasing, but for its environmentally-friendly attitude. The EV1's electric motor requires no emission testing because it is a zero emission vehicle — it doesn't even have a tail pipe. It requires no tune-ups. And no gasoline or oil changes, which means cleaner air and less dependency on foreign oil. Easy maintenance!
The EV1 is also one of the most efficient production vehicles in the world. Its aluminum structure is specifically designed to be strong, lightweight and 100% recyclable. The 312-volt lead-acid battery pack has 26 maintenance-free valve-regulated modules, which use 60% recycled lead and is 98% recyclable. The heat pump requires only 1/3 of the energy needed for traditional air conditioning and uses only ozone-friendly CFC-free R134A air conditioning refrigerant. It is always good for the environment if we can drive a car that is 98% recyclable.
The EV1 helps contribute to a cleaner environment. In California, for instance, there are 97% fewer emissions with the EV1 than a conventional gasoline engine — this includes the electricity-generating emissions from the power plant. Also, when you use electricity at night to charge the EV1, it actually helps power plants operate more efficiently because of power plant load leveling.
Con
High-capacity lead acid: At 70ºF, it takes up to 2-1/2 hours to charge from 20% to 80% state of charge using a 220-volt (6.6kW) charger. Approximately 5-1/2 to 6 hours are required for a charge from zero to complete using a 220-volt charger. Nickel-metal hydride: At 70ºF, it takes 6 to 8 hours for a charge from zero to complete. Which means that you will need to work around that time to charge your car and also you can not find everywhere a station to charge your car.
Since electric vehicle technology is still developing, a lease-only option creates a consistent cost of ownership for the EV1 customer. You can not buy it yet.
Specific pricing information is no longer available. The following is a range of pricing that was available at the time the leases were being accepted in California and Arizona. The M.S.R.P. for the EV1 ranged from $33,995 to $43,995, depending on the model year and the battery pack. The monthly lease payment ranged from $349 to $574. The monthly payment could be higher depending on where the lease was issued. The reason for the variance had to do with government incentives for environmentally advanced cars, which vary based on the state and air quality district. The highest incentives were those available to customers living in some areas of California. Which means that it is very expensive for a car, at least for me, my range is $20,000 the most and that is already pushing it.
Only authorized EV1 technicians at participating Saturn retailers can work on an EV1. So you can not take to any mechanic to work on your car.
http://www.evchargernews.com/CD-A/gm_ev1_web_site/
Pro:
ReplyDeleteThe electric car provides a quiet and smooth ride, with less emissions than a standard car ran off fuel. It also, has less problems in that there is no need for oil, and the engine would be much cleaner and everything would stay less "greasy". These cars would also provide people with a cleaner approach to driving where as if they wre to stick with traditional fuel cars they would continue to harm the environment with Co2 gases. Some would say that the limitations of the electric car are a downside to it, but that would be incorrect for the normal person. The cars were designed to meet the needs of an ordinary citizen and they met that by the mileage and went beyond. The only ones who would have problems with this car are those who travel long long distances, which is a very small amount.
I think these cars would provide awesome benefits to big cities. Here is where some of the worst pollution is located, but if they went to these cars, people would not have to worry about that due to the electric car. People in traffic would just be using up a battery instead of emmitting co2 into the atmosphere. Plus people in cities don't drive as far and these would be a great way to help our earth's health.
Con:
The electric car sounds great when you hear poeple talkign about it, but what most don't know is that it would actually be more harmful to the earth. The reason isn't the car, but rather how to provide the electricity for the car. Currently we use mostly coal to burn to provide us with electricity. To have these charge stations, and cars running off electricty would mean a vast increase in the burning of coal, and thus an increase in the amount of harmful chemincals put into our atmosphere. This is a huge problem with the electric car, but the most forgot about problem.
Also, GM and other dealers mentioned that there was no demand for these vehicles. Some may say that was a lie, but on the video we only heard of leasing, and no prices on the cars. This to me means that they were very expensive and not really affordable to all people. Plus if the dealers are not getting many sales, then we are just creating cars to sit and are actually hurting our environment even more to produce these cars at a factory, which is surely using fossil fuels to produce, to go and sit in a parking lot. The electric car is not a proper solution to our current problem, but is a good starting point. Also, we are unsure of what the batteries would do when they die on these cars. Batteries are not an item that you can just go and throw out in any garbage. This would be a big problem with millions of batteries being thrown out each year.
Maybe in the future they will develop something that will be much better and more needed by the people.
Pro:
ReplyDeleteCars are a major source of pollution in this world and I think the electric car was a brilliant idea to help change that. Why didn’t we keep this idea going? The electric car was cleaner and quiet. Cars and gas are things we use every day and spend large amounts of money on. Investing in something like an electric car that would help save money on gas is a smart idea to me. It’s also convenient that you can charge your car up at your home.
Cons:
The problem with not using oil is the people who work in the oil industry lose their jobs. Another con is it makes me nervous of how dependable the car is. I like going on road trips and I don’t want one car that I use for trips and another that I use for short distances. I also agree with one post I read which was saying in the movie they never said how much the electric car is? If it was such an affordable price that they were proud of you think they would tell us.
Pro:
ReplyDeleteThe world is in great need of a change. We live in a time where it almost seems as if the environment is fighting back for what we are doing to it. The electric car a.k.a the EV1 was a promising future and possible answer to all of our problems. The EV1 had the answer for all of our smog problems. can you imagine our lives without that crap in the air, how much better could we breathe. A month or so ago here it got so bad that they suggested that we don't even go outside because the air quality was so poor that it would be harmful to our health, that is our world today ladies and gentlemen. But of course like everything else in this world it began and ended on the subject of green, not environmen green, money green. oil and car companies are some of the greediest S.O.B's I have ever seen and it only gets worse. And it doesn't help much that when they get in trouble the government is right there to "bail" them out. although I do believe that something needs to be done so that the economy doesn't get any worse. But the main issue is that the electric car was so promising and I know that america had such high hopes for a better future which right now we just aren't in. But fortunately we now have the hybrid cars that I think are brilliant and have found a way to compromise.
Con:
There are a lot of issues that still need to be addressed with the electric car. Yeah it can help you save money on gas, but at what cost? They said that you only get what? 60 miles per battery charge? well now you get to spend your day driving around using up those 60 miles just to find a place to charge up, but at least you don't use gas anymore. And you can forget about those fun family road trips cause you can only get about an hour away from your house and plus you better hope you don't have a big family cause the electric cars are small. plus how much can we really take as truth from a documentary, most of the stuff in there were biased oppinions anyway. And maybe we should grow up and not cry about spilled milk and or the EV1 being put into a caged lot and then later being shredded to bits.
Pro
ReplyDeleteI think the most obvious good thing about the electric car is the effect it would have on our environment. Global warming is becoming more and more of a problem and we need to take the necessary steps to help solve this problem before it gets worse than it already is. It would also help get rid of our country's dependency on fossil fuels from other countries. For how new of technology it is it's fairly affordable to the average consumer with an average income, not to mention all the money you would save on gas which let's face it will eventually get back up to the prices it used to be. It's also a much cleaner car as far as the actual car itself, no oil or gas or lubricants.
Cons
The biggest con i think is the battery life. The driver would always be worried about the battery running out or taking any long drives much less road trips. Unless battery stations are built across the country the only place to charge the car is at your own home. Also if a person only owns an electric car what are they going to do if they have to take a road trip of drive a considerable distance? Rent a car just for the trip?
Pro's
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I never knew that they came out with and electric car the ev1. I knew that there were cars that were electric. We live in a world that is starting to revole around oil, so to have a car that doesn't depend on oil would be great. Not have to pay so much for gas. With gas prices being the way they are people are look for new alternate ways to power there cars then gas, and what better way then the EV1. Just plug it in at your home at night and you are good. That would by the way to go not having to worry about gas. I don't think it was right to take all the cars back and destory them. But i think that GM was worryied that they would loose money.
Con's
There are a lot of cons. You could ask yourelf how expensive is the EV1. Is it worth the extra money because i'm sure it is not cheap. Another thing would be the mileage. On an electric car you would be getting around 70 miles. That is not a lot of miles. It would be good for city drive and that is about it. What happens when the battery dies. Is it going to cost and fortune to get it fix. That the company would loose money. Especial gas prices, so i think gas companies paid car manufacutres money to keep them makine cars that requires gas.
Pros
ReplyDeleteI believe that an electric car would help the environment of this country immensely. By developing an electric car the country would not be so dependant on gas and oil. If we were to use the electric car for our commutes think of the air quality improvements that we would have as a country. It is just mind boggling to me to see what is important to our country. From the video it obviously showed that all people truly care about is money. The companies could care less about our environment. They just care about the products selling capabilities. If the car doesn’t sale then it’s taken off the market. I believe that if they would have continued in the direction of improving the model and developing the electric car then the people would have been more anxious to buy one. I hope that they can one day bring back the electric car and leave it on the market.
Cons
By bringing in an electric car there are many cons for the common people. Meaning that if you are wealthy like Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson you aren’t going to care how expensive the electric car is. To people like me it is a big worry because I would ask how much is the car to maintain? For example what happens if my battery runs out? Is it more expensive to maintain a gas running car or to maintain an electric car? Because using an electric car would run up your electricity bill at home. These are just a few of the many cons that can be pointed out.
Pros
ReplyDeleteElectric car is one of the great step to save our environment, enengies, and ourself. Each days we keep killing this Earth for our own satisfaction since the industry revolution. The global warming will keep coming if we don't do something to change the way we live. The electric car can still let us driving the car for the each day we need, and it still can help us to heal the Earth we live.
Cons
The problem about the electric car is the battery itself is hard to make, expensive, cannot run for too long as fuel car, and where can we charge it's battery expect home. That's a great problem. And the other problem that electric car will cause is many oil companies will be seriously damage if the electric car is mass product and didn't feed something back to oil companies. And who we going to settle those gas stations that we see everydays.
Con
ReplyDeleteWho killed the Electric Car? We killed the electric car! According to General Motors they put $1 Billion dollars in manufacturing and advertising the electric vehicle. They gave us Americans the product to buy. There just wasn't the demand for the vehicle. Only 800 vehicles were leased in a four year period. Of a waiting list of 5,000, only 50 willing to lease the vehicle. The Electric Vehicle isn't capable of giving us Americans everything we look for in vehicles. We are obsessed with our big trucks and SUV's. the Electric vehicle would be an hassle for most Americans. The charge on an electric vehicle can only hold for 100 miles. No more cross country road trips. The battery life is only five years as well. Most people don't buy vehicle just to practically replace it every five years. General Motors didn't kill the Electric Vehicle, We did.
Pro
The Electric Vehicle is exactly what this country needs. A car energized from a battery would allow us to be less dependent on foreign oil. There would be no need to take it in to the shop every 3500 miles for an oil change. No need to stop at the filling station for gas on your way home. Just plug it in when you get home. If you spent on average $200 a month in gas, that would be some big savings. The Electric Vehicle would also be more environmentally friendly. There would be no smog and that would allow us to breathe cleaner air. It is too bad they killed the electric car.
“Who Killed the Electric Car?” did an exemplary job in creating a feeling that car manufacturers and California regulators, under pressure from major oil companies, ended the best hope for alternative transportation. One of the problems is the film relies on its viewers possessing a basic misunderstanding of how oil companies maintain profitability*. The first basic misunderstanding is that all oil refiners make massive profits from the public. The companies that make the largest margins of profit in the industry are always the ones that pull the crude oil from the ground, assuming their exploration and infrastructure costs are low enough. Oil companies simply do not make money from the public in the quantities commonly believed; the retail gasoline market (all of us) generally loses money half the year, every year, making up the difference during higher demand months. And even when profitable during the high point in the year, it’s unlikely that any of the companies average over 14¢ per gallon during that period. Convenience store sales are the only consistent income and keep the operation afloat. The bulk of a company’s volume sales are always in the wholesale market, which sounds great until you find out that the profit margins have essentially never changed and hover around 2¢ or less a gallon. Profitability comes purely from the crude production itself for the large and famous oil producers.
ReplyDeleteWhich brings us to another point that ties into the idea of “extending the tailpipe:” power plants to produce the power necessary to supplement our existing grid should a substantial number of people adopt electric or plug-in-hybrid cars. While previous posters are correct in their assessment that the majority of that new power (assuming the expansion resembled current plants) would come from coal**, very few people are aware that substantial section of the industry has plants that burn both crude oil and natural gas, depending on which is cheaper at the time. In fact, the plant you see off to the right of the freeway as you drive to the airport from Salt Lake is one such power plant. Oil companies, while facing a smaller retail margin given the significant adoption of electric cars by city drivers, would have the potential for a greater wholesale market. In 2007, petroleum/natural gas made up a combined 23% of the electricity production in the country, more than any other single source after coal (49%).
This being said, there is some truth in the idea that oil companies would have pressured the auto makers and California governmental bodies to be less aggressive in pressing for alternative fuel solutions. Oil companies do have a vested interest in maintaining their business model, which currently works, but whose future is less predictable should a large segment of their market no longer require gasoline for internal combustion. It is likely that some, though not on the scale insinuated, pressure was applied by the largest of the companies operating in the United States (i.e. Anadarko, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, British Petroleum, and Total).
In addition, the idea that we would likely be increasing the length of our cars tailpipes in adopting electric or hybrid vehicles is only partially true. Whenever you concentrate production into a single local area, you create the ability to regulate pollutants far more effectively and efficiently than if the same amount of energy was being processed in small batches elsewhere. So although the power might still ultimately come from fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas, the environmental benefit would be tangible and real. And innovations in truly clean power production with thorium (assuming you aren’t against nuclear power in principle) in recent years open up the possibility that our power generation can become environmentally conscious***.
So perhaps the source of the power isn’t the major problem; there is a snag with electric batteries. Batteries, whether based on nickel, lithium, lead, etc. are all metallically based, and metals have a memory. It is for this reason you run into problems with the life expectancy of rechargeable batteries****. Rechargeable batteries work best and last the longest under two conditions: first that they are trickle charged and not flash charged, and secondly that they function best when fully depleted before being recharged. This means that using current technologies, it is not a simple matter to find a plug in station outside of our homes to recharge a vehicle. There is a reason you charged the EV1s overnight; without doing a slow charge, the life expectancy on the batteries would be shortened. And even the NiMH batteries used today (and in the second batch of EV1s) do not currently boast over a thousand cycles. But although replacement cost of the batteries of the previous electric vehicles was a hurdle, there is a company, Better Place*****, now working on an electric vehicle where although you purchase the car, you do not purchase the battery, which is owned, maintained and replaced by the manufacturer. They plan on recycling all the portions of the batteries that can be in order to reduce costs and contributions to landfills. This also has a fringe benefit of reducing the overall cost of the vehicle, which as others have pointed out, is the biggest hurdle to large scale adoption.
There is only one aspect left to examine at this point: car manufacturers. Did GM mishandle the marketing, production, and reclaiming of the EV1? Yes. The EV1 was one of the biggest blows to GM’s image in recent history, and GM has been making concerted efforts through advertizing the Volt (2010) as an environmentally conscious vehicle. I’ve heard three or four ads on the radio in the last week for the Volt. However, the EV1 was a huge loss for the company, whatever the EV1 Club fanatics insist to this day. The fact is, innovation also carries risk, and automotive companies are ultimately for-profit ventures. Hopefully at this point, GM can learn from the production and marketing of the EV1 and make the Volt a success, helping clean our air for the majority of short-distance commuters.
* Disclaimer: I work for a smallish regional oil company (albeit without having any interaction with the oil division of the company). This both gives me access to information regarding markets and profits in the business and a predisposition to view any sweeping statements of “the oil companies” as a large amorphous menace with great skepticism.
** http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/figes1.html
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/overview.html
*** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium
**** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
***** http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/technology/personaltech/19pogue-email.html?em
pro
ReplyDeleteI don't understand, the electric car is (was) one of the greatest things ever created. It would be such a perfect car for city driving. Completely quiet, fast, charges overnight. How many times a day do you drive over 100 miles to and from work? With the whole environmental thing aside, you would save a bundle on gas and mantainence.
con
How much does one of these actually cost? and if you had all of those batteries in the car, they would have to be replaced quite often. a brand new car battery is around 90 bucks, and these cars have 10 of them. Also if you get in an accedent, does all of the batteries break open and spill battery acid all over you? I think one of the biggest problems with these is the fact that if you were to forget to charge it or if there was a power out and you couldn't charge it, then you would be screwed.
Pro
ReplyDeleteElectric cars are an amazing step towards winging us off our dependency on foreign fuels. We are able to take 80-90 off all drivers “commuters” and supply them with a vehicle that fills their needs in their daily driving. Only a small percent of people drive more than 100-150 miles per day. The electric car created by GM was not only practical but sporty and stylish, which for our materialistic society works perfectly. You really don’t have to sacrifices anything other than your planning your long distance road trip with some other means, and the reality is if the demand and market grew fast and strong enough it would only be able to improve on this down fault.
Con
Electric car may provide us some distance with our friends in the middle east, however we aren’t really helping the issue of global warming. Electricity is not free, and most of the time is produced with coal burning power plants. This would only create more problems with our electrical demand and needs. Not only power needs is an issue, but batteries don’t last forever. When that battery is dead it is going to have an impact on disposal. The final issue is a big one. People don’t like to be tied down by there cars, the fear of running out of battery power during your day is a serious concern. No longer will you be able to pack up and hit the road on a weekend adventure. The limitation seems small but is the biggest obstacle for getting this car in the hands of rightful owners.
One of the best parts of the electric car was the fact that it is independent from oil. The use of a vehicle that can be recharged by an energy source that can be made much faster than the production of oil is a good concept, the limited milage of the EV1 to 100 miles a charge in my mind is very reasonable because most people that make a daily commute to work will not go more than 100 miles from home to work and back. Some of the concepts from the early electric car are still in use today as the re-generative braking system is still in use with mass transit busses today
ReplyDeleteDownfalls to the electric car first off is the size of the car, americans have been accustom to large family size cars. The production of these cars was so limited that the manufactures were forced to produce less parts at a higher cost, which made it more expensive and eventually impossible to fix. Only 50 out of 5000 were actually willing to follow through with purchasing an EV1, making it much less demand that first thought.
In conclusion, the auto companies have gone from a full electric car to the hybrid and have put much more money into that and it has succeeded so thats why its stuck around... Mass producing something to the public is driven by what they want, and if the public doesnt bite on a concept the manufacture will stop the production and move to something that is closer in line with what the public wants.
At the individual level, driving a car is the most pollution one person contributes to the environment. This output is next to none but every one driving together is a substantial sum. To put into perspective, ten buck isn’t much but if the United States 300,000,000 population all contribute ten dollars to a alternative energy super fund. It adds up quick to 3 billion.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. only makes up a fifth of the worlds population but some how we drive a third of the cars. In turn motorist putout twenty percent of U.S. emissions and this number is exponentially growing. If we don’t fix this today and reverse the problem, the future forecast is smog… “A stitch in time will save nine. So why do we take nine today to save one tomorrow.” Thoreau
On the other hand, we as humans have always been afraid, oppressive, and un-excepting of anything new and different. For the most part we are cautious creatures as a whole. It wasn’t the consumer’s fault that the EV1 didn’t survive. First off it was originally only offered in two out of the fifty states. On top of that it was only for lease in a 3 year/30,000 mile agreement. If it were for sale it would compute out to be $34,000 to $44,000 car. Making payment any where from $300 to $600 a month. On top of that the car could only go just over a 100 miles on a charge. It is simply unappealing to pay that much money for a compact car that can’t even take me on a two-hour road trip to visit home not to mention the car hasn’t been around long enough to know its bugs and how to fix it. What is the cost of parts? How easy are they to get? The car was a gamble for most consumers.
Oil and internal combustion engines are symbols of the industrial movement that brought are nation out of the great depression. Detroit and Pittsburg littered with smoke stacks has become the aesthetic beauty for a lot of Americans. Not that it is right, but it is definitely an attachment that won’t be easily broken… Just ask Ann Rand.
Pro
ReplyDeleteElectric cars are an amazing invention. Who knew that we could run a car off of a battery not use fuel. When electric cars first came out, people thought it was the best invention ever. They were amazed! The world now saw that we could stop global warming. Everyone thought that electric cars were going to save the world. I think that the electic car was a great invention! It saved gas and started to help save global warming.
Con
Electric cars didn't last very long. They had electric cars taken out of society in no time. The one bad thing about electric cars is you couldn't go on a long trip. You would have to stop a lot and take time have let your car charge up. Plus if you got stuck in the middle of no where, you would pretty much be screwed. I think that electric cars are a cool invention but not for right now in the world.
Pro...
ReplyDeleteThere are some great advantages in having an electric car. If you look at the economy it doesnt look like it will be getting better anytime soon which means we'd be paying a high gas price. With the electric car you don't even have to worry about that. All you need is electricity at your house then you're good to go. Everynight when you get home you just plug it right in. It's also very good for the air because you won't be polluting anything!! It doesn't need oil changes which will save you a bunch of money in the long run. Plus its kinda cool looking!!!
Con...
They never mentioned the price on the car which kinda scares me. When they do that it seems like the car is VERY expensive. What if you were going on a trip over 50 miles? Where would you plug it into? That would be a problem if I had to go long trip for something I would be SOL!!! Plus you can't always trust electricity... What if you have a power outage in your town how would you charge it then? They were'nt even around long which means someone complained about something. GM did a great thing to get those cars gone!!!
Pro: If gas prices ever get back up as high as they were or god forbid they get even higher, I hope that they can come up with an electric car that will reduce the amount of gas that we need. Having an electric car is amazing. What is even more amazing is that one of the first cars ever made was electric that just about blew my mind. I was happy to find that people were so passionate about the EV1 that they staged protests and got arrested for this car. Just like someone else said earlier it was almost like the cars were their own children. I think that they should try to make another electric car now. With all the advances in technology there for sure has to be a way that they can make the electric car run for longer and go faster than it did before.
ReplyDeleteCon: The electric car is an awesome idea but it only gets up to a certain speed and you have to recharge it every so often. It’s ridiculous to have two cars one for around the city travel and another one for long distance travel. Okay this is better how? You have two car payments, two registration fees, two of everything. I believe Michael Kanellos when he says we killed the electric car. Hello we did duh! The car was so expensive it didn’t get you that far, why would you want to buy it? The consumers weren’t purchasing the product so why produce it. End of story now people want it they should be working on something and for all we know they are.
pros well there are many pros to the electric car it saves on emissions and is a quitter smoother ride then a normal car and for your daily commute its a wonderful car it has the speed that you would expect from a gas engine not some electric car and they where very sleek looking cars with all the latest technology packed into it and with such a following you would have expected this car to take off expecialy when there was a waiting list of that magnitude and people willing to take time of off work and there daily lives just to see where they where going who knows where this car could have gone without the interruption of ironicly the makers themselves i know there where other reasons for this car to fail such as consumers just not ready for it and oil companys losing great amounts of money but it just kills me that the own makers of this car sabotaged its own car its ridiculous
ReplyDeleteCons
this car would have never have taken off in the first place for one the populace needs time for new things to come in to play such as this car and it only started to take off in california where there are alot of trends that only the rich can afford or use they said it was a fairly cheap car to buy but how much was the charger you had to purchase or what about the maintence the maintenence alone would not be worth buying the car and was the charge only for distance or did it only run for a certain amount of time say you got into a traffic jam and your car died you cant just have someone go to the gas station and fill up and bring it back to you you have to get it towed and replaced and if the cost of the car really is that of a normal car why would you spend that much on a car if you cant take it on trips i dotn have the money for two cars and i woudl like to be able to take my car on trips as for the following of people it was not a very large group of people only a handfull of people about sixty out of the whole population of california that is next to nothing and that is why the electric car failed
Pros
ReplyDeleteIf everyone drove electric cars, we would have no need for foreign oil, which could lessen our chances for a war with some other country, particularly in the middle east, where most of the oil comes from. Aside from that, electric cars are quieter but deliver around the same type of performance as a combustion engine without all the emissions.
Cons
The fact that you have to recharge this car everyday loses a lot of people that may have been in the market for an electric car. Sometimes you want to go farther than your everyday routine distance. Also, a lot of people, especially in big cities don't have a garage to mount a charging unit in. What do you do then? Take it to some charging station to charge it over night and walk home? And they never even say how much the cars were! If they were super cheap they would spread the word, obviously. There's no way GM would turn down an opportunity like this if they thought it had potential to make them a profit. That makes no sense.
Reasons for the electric car? lets see.. new, fun, economically and environmentally smart, also they are reliable and practical in with regard to the general public. as opposed to the the old gas guzzler in the driveway. these electric cars are fast, good looking and quiet, who doesnt like that? who would not like passing the gas station to simply laugh at it? who would not like cleaner air? i know i would. i would love not having to worry about a gas station blowing up when fueling my car, or thinking about how the ridiculously rich oil companies are raping my wallet. the electric car is the obvious choice.
ReplyDeleteReasons against the electric car? lets see.. the cost is higher which in the long run may balance out with how much gas you would buy anyhow. also how safe are these cars? the EV1 is a small vehicle, what would happen if there were an accident? in a small car we wouldnt want to find out. charging the car has its disadvantages as well, now instead of oil companies its the electric company. instead of running out of gas, its running out of energy. so why make a car that costs higher and performs the same as a gas vehicle.
It was interesting documentary. I am not really interested in car so I cannot understnad how sad people are to lose EV 1.
ReplyDeleteI think it is cool if we can drive a car without buying gas.But same time, it will take us time to make a charging place for car. That means that we cannot travel far with that EV 1 till built charging place everywhere. Person like me do not have enough money to buy 2 cars will not have chance to drive for long time.
There is one thing I cannot understand in that documentaly. I think if car company decide sell or let people use cars once, they should keep making.I am sure that there are reasons they had to collect all the EV1 and destroyed them. I believe that if they cannnot sell for long term, they should not make that kind of cars.
I guess that the first question to ask is why aren't there more electric cars?? in this movie we discuss the death of the EV1. an electric car made by GM. i think that the death of this vehicle has several different facets that i would like to discuss.
ReplyDeleteFirst, have you ever done something because you thought it would be a good idea and then had that something made into a mandatory act and you came to despise it? This may be the case with our friends at GM. when they first came out with the EV1, they were probably thinking that this was cool, we can get great attention etc. then the government in our great state of Cali. says that they are now mandated to make these cars. sorry speak again? we are making these cars not for profit, but to test a market!!! at least that is what they should have said. they offered the EV1 as a lease only vehicle without the option to buy. this should have told the public something, really it should have. if i was out to sell a car for profit, i want you to own it, but as this was not the case at GM then what was the real deal? that is something that we may never know as there is so much hype on both side of the fence on this issue. GM says that there was no demand for the vehicle, but activists say that there was and is a great demand for the vehicle. how can we have both and still be right on both sides? simple, there were people that were willing to buy the EV1, but not with the terms and limitations that GM imposed on ownership once again we can see that its possible for both sides to be saying the "truth" but twisting it to the purposes that each side has to offer.
second we see that most people only drive lets say 100 miles or less on a daily basis. the EV1 did a prefect job of filling the needs of anyone that only traveled within those limits and if your like most people, this means you!!!! so why would anyone want to have a gas fueled car if there was a perfectly good electric car that can run you about your daily travels? the answers here are all over the place, but a couple mentioned by the movie are that most people don't have the money for a second car that can take them places when they are going to drive outside the range of the electric car. the second is about infrastructure or the lack of places to "fill up" you electric car.
how often do we range out of the average 100 miles a day routine? if you do this fairly often then by all means a gas powered car would suit you better, but if you are only worried about that once a year trip to grandmas house in Ohio, then maybe just renting a car for the week or two would be more effective for you? then again are we really willing to go out of our way like that?
the number of gas stations in America is large and growing on a yearly basis. on the other hand we have our house as one place that we could actually charge our cars, if we buy the right equipment. that's cool and all, but if it costs me 2000 dollars or so to put in one of these chargers on top of the say 100k+ price tag on the car, couldn't i get farther in the next five years by spending my hard earned money on a 30k car and buying gas? at 15k miles a year my gas would cost about 3 grand a year at 3 dollars a gallon. if i figure that i am going to sell my car or trade in my car in five years, then i would have spent 15 large over 5 years, plus the car at 30 large. mmm economics 101 says that 45 thousand dollars is much less than 102 thousand. we didn't even add in the cost of the electricity or battery changes to the electric car yet. of course if the electric car did take off then it would become cheaper and that would make the economics much more in favor of the electric car. i mean it really. if you could buy that EV1 for 30k then pay the pittance to "fill" it, you would be doing great. but there are a couple of other snafu's that we have here. with my gas car i can go to the gas station and in about 5 minutes or less fill it up and go. also i can go to any mechanic and they would know how to fix my car. as for the electric car, 8 hours is a long time to wait when i want to be on the road. not to mention that there aren't many filling stations out there. when it breaks you need to take it to the dealership, as they are probably the only people that can help you with it, until they become more popular that is.
in the movie we also note that there are a lot of parts and sales related to the upkeep on a gas powered car, but the electric car didn't have those filters and oil and what not. did they mention that electric motors wear out? there are still bearings and tires and batteries!!!! the gearbox still has lubricant, but no the familiar oil change would be extinct with the electric car ruling the road. that would probably be one of the greatest triumphs of the electric car. just remember that there is still going to be plenty of maintenance for these cars and even new gas powered cars can go for 100 thousand miles before needing any major work. have you looked at a newer car? have you seen how clean that engine bay is? i bet if you work on that clean engine you will come out fairly clean, but not quite as clean as if you were working on an electric car.
in conclusion, the electric car died because despite there being some public demand for them, the prospective owners were not willing to take on the demands made of them to rent one of these cars. the car companies themselves wanted out of a forced deal that said, you must make so many of these cars whether or not anyone buys them. then the last nail in the coffin would be the lack of infrastructure and flexibility on the consumers part. while it would be a great thing to have an electric car available for anyone that wants one, are we the people ready?
Since this is my third attempt at posting for this blog entry, I'm sure it will have lost some of its awesomeness.
ReplyDeleteThere are a good number of pro's on the electric car issue. Electric cars will reduce emissions from fossil fuel burning vehicles. There will be a greater convenience in the form of being able to simply plug your car in at night and have it ready to go in the morning.
It seems, though, that there are more tally's on the con side of the argument. For one, long road trips would not really be an option. Although, if the technology were to catch up with solar energy and other such methods to charge while you drive, well then that would just be magical. If an electric car takes hours to charge up, then there would be another issue... how many of us have risen in the morning, greeted the dawn with a smile, only to realize that we forgot to gas up the night before... well, it only takes a few minutes at the pump to be filled up and on our way... with an electric car, would we have any such luxury if we forgot to plug in the night before?
An electric car would serve many great and useful purposes, however, my power bill for my house is already big enough without having to charge two cars every night... so such a car would not serve well with my wallet.
If someone were to feel that they would be doing their part to help the environment by driving an electric car once fully available at an affordable price, well then, let them do it. As for me, I will stick with the good old American way of life in my nice, gas powered, smog emitting vehicle.
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ReplyDeleteThe movie "Who Killed the Electric Car" is a movie that should not have been made for the fact that there is still electric cars and automobiles. A company named Zap makes then just take a look at their link. http://www.zapworld.com/ Oh and here is another company that makes electric cars called Tesla Motors http://www.teslamotors.com/ Most importantly though is the fact that if you click on this next link you will see that even Chevorlet the evil car maker in the film plans on coming out with another electric car and it is much better looking than the original vehicle that we saw in the film seriously here is the link and it is sweet looking http://www.chevrolet.com/electriccar/ So there is now reason for me to give you pro's and cons of having or not having electric cars the fact is they are still in existence. Plus since Chevy is coming back out with it there was probably just something either wrong or crappy about the previous version they put out for lease. Of course when Chevy does come out with this newer version hopefully it will actually be for sale and more importantly sold at an affordable price.
ReplyDeleteJust to make a little correction to what I just wrote Chevy's car does have the option of using gas as well but you wont need to use it if your commute is less than 40 miles.
ReplyDeleteThis class is a bit too political for my taste.
ReplyDeletePro:
Not using every drop of oil in the world would probably be a good thing. What happened with the solar-panels? Solar panels are sweet! I think someone's out to confuse us into thinking that we need some million dollar batteries to make electric-cars work, when in reality, plating the outside of the car with solar-panels would work just fine. You could just use a backup battery for when it drained at night, or in bad weather. All we'd have to do is figure out how to mass produce the cars & batteries without over-polluting.
Con:
If making the batteries is such a no-no on the environment, we should really be putting some effort into pipelines that lead into Outer-Space... Or to the Center of the Earth, down into the magma. Then run all the crappy bio-hazard stuff through these pipelines... Bye -bye pollution. Hello electric-cars.
This whole subject is a con which pisses me off, because of big money manking money at the planet's expense. Hopefully one day someone big sits down the heads of GM and brainwashes some sense into their greedy _______ heads.
I had a friend here in Utah, who's grandfather invented a hydro-powered car. He was bought out/not assassinated, by either a car or gas company. He is now rich, but the rest of us are left out to dry. The large corporations no doubtedly have to pay off or deal with auto inventors on a regular basis, and that makes me sad... It's sad that no one is powerful enough to stand up to them... They should go to war with R.J. Reynolds and both kill eachother off.
ReplyDeletepros:
ReplyDeleteelectric cars are quiet and do not pollute the air. electric cars also do not use gas and are less expensive to run than a regular gas powered car.
cons:
though electric cars do not pollute the air their batteries still need to be disposed of. if everyone switched to electric vehicles then there would be a shortage on electricity.
conclusion:
electric cars won't solve all our energy problems, but they will help. electric cars need to be given a chance and produce along with all other types of cars.
Pros:
ReplyDeleteThe pros for the electric car kind of speak for themselves. We take our mouths off the tit of the oil industry saving our county billions of dollars. They have very low operating cost something like 1-3 US cents per mile to operate. You’ll save money on emissions and no exhaust pipes. No exhaust pipes mean no exhaust and they’ll help us combat the growing pollution issue. Hardly any maintenance cost no oil changes or tune-ups necessary. These cars are very quiet and I think we all would like less noise pollution.
Cons:
Although electric vehicles are good for the environment and produce no emissions we cannot forget the factories were theses cars are made and they all use fossil fuels to operate. Cost, these cars were not developed for the average American family. The cost up front for a car like this is very expensive and although you don’t have hardly any maintenance cost you’ll pick that cost and some back up when you have to replace the batteries. The batteries are very expensive to replace. Some calculate this could cost around US $2000 every 20,000 miles or so. Batteries can be recycled but what about the factories and extra energy used the refurbish and recycle millions of batteries.
They are numerous good and bad things about electric cars but with all the smart people we have in this country I feel like we would be able to work out any kinks and find a safe, affordable, and environmentally friendly way to make this transition.www.alternate-energy-sources.com/electric-car.html>.
Pros... Very interesting piece. I think it would be a lot of fun to be cruising around with an electric car. I worked in a warehouse for many years driving all sorts of lift trucks. The electric lifts were most interesting because of their ability to move around very quietly and efficiently. There's really not much to it but a very large and heavy battery. Very little moving parts witch allows for very little maintenance. Personally, I'm very excited about the possibilities. How it would just change the way we drive and the American way of life.
ReplyDeleteCons... Hard to imagine life without EV1. Good old combustion engine. Just the sound of it is painful enough. It has been an American way of life forever. Electric cars on an everyday basis, I don't know. With electric lift trucks in the warehouse, they require daily charges, but sometimes, that single charge won't be enough for the entire day. That charger station as well has to be easy access at all times. We have to have had extensive research over the years about the subject of Electric Cars to be a major change as to how we travel. Lots to consider. For one, would be the distances we travel today almost daily. The risk of mass production and the possibility of pollution. How much it would cost to build individual charging stations at our homes or along the roadside. Safety issues as well as the cost to every individual owner would have to be a major consideration.
Pro
ReplyDeleteThe electric car is a good idea and I think it can really help with the smog and pollution in the air. It will also help us cut down on our dependence on foreign oil. We as a nation import about 390,611Million barrels in December 2008 according to: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus_ep00_im0_mbbl_m.htm. That is alot of oil considering we only produce 42% of the oil we use.
Cons
The big problem with the electric car is that you have to have a second car for anything you may want to do in the world. The average car can only go 130-150 mph before it needs a recharge. That realy means that if you plan on going on vacation then don’t plan on driving. I think there are better alternative fuel options like cng vehicles.
I had posted my comments on this movie several times on Thursday before midnight as agreed and it did not take. I posted again today, Sunday afternoon the 29th, and the date on my posting in blog shows as Saturday 28th...hmmmm
ReplyDeleteAdvantages
ReplyDeleteThere are many advantages that are accompanied in the electric car. Namely, you save gas,air pollution free, meaning its emmisions free, and are free of pollution by-products.They provide their power from batteries, solar, or hydrogen fuel cells, are compact, lightweight, and they are three times as efficient as gas engines.
Disadvantages
1. Electric cars are expensive to own. If you’ve checked into the price of an electric car, you know they are not “low end”. It’s not so much the price of the car as it is the price of the batteries which they run on. If you’ve purchased batteries you know how the costs can add up quickly, and the batteries used in electric cars are lithium-ion, which are expensive. Also keep in mind that eventually the battery packs will need to be replaced, as they have a life of approximately 3 to 4 years.
2. The batteries will need to be recharged. A second disadvantage to an electric car is that the batteries will need to be recharged. This will require advanced planning because you’ll have to allow adequate time for the batteries to be fully charged. Now this might not sound like that big of a problem but if you are thinking of purchasing an electric car then you will need to make an honest assessment of how much you will use your vehicle. An extended or unplanned trip could be problematic if you haven’t had time to fully recharge the batteries.
3. Limits on driving distance. If you drive long distances, an electric car might not suit your needs, so you will need to consider how far you plan on driving your car. Most of the electric cars have limits on how many miles they can go before needing a recharge. Electric car maker ZAP recently announced that their electric car could travel up to 100 miles per single charge, but many people drive more miles than that round trip on a daily commute to work. This is definitely a limitation for those who intend to use the vehicle for getting to and from their place of employment. You certainly would not want to run out of batteries if you got stuck in a rush hour traffic jam.
4. Lack of power. Another disadvantage to the electric car is the lack of power, specifically quick pickup. If you do a lot of interstate driving there are going to be times when you will need to accelerate quickly to merge into traffic.
So, in conclusion electric cars may have some benifit to the enviornment, but they are way expensive to keep up with, as far as batteries, and you would need a second car every 100 miles to reach your destination.
I used to think that the electric car was a piece of crap that couldn't do more than take me downtown and back. I thought of it as 'gut less' but after what I had seen in the film I was heavily convinced otherwise. The EV car was amazing in its simplicity! I would own one if the assholes at GM hadn't been such big babies about it. Granted it would cause my electricity bill to rise and there for cause a tad more stress each year when bills get higher and higher; but in the long run the money I would have been spending in gas would easily cover the increase in my electric bill.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing an episode of Modern Marvels and the topic was new fuel sources for automobiles. There were three that they focused on: Hydrogen, Solar, and Electric. I was sold on Hydrogen for the longest time and people would always argue, "What if that car gets into an accident and that fuel cell ruptures and explodes"?.....yeah well it would be damn catastrophic but I'm pretty sure the engineers thought of that already. When I found out that the production of hydrogen uses 3x the amount of energy needed than the EV car, I about lost my temper. Why would anyone in their right mind invest in something that costs so damn much more than is logically necessary? The financial crisis in the nation is maddening enough; why not give the people something that can save their bank accounts some wear and tear?
I doubt we'll ever get a straight answer, from anyone in the companies, why they fought to have the EV terminated. Even its creators wanted it gone; that's an odd duck if you ask me? Car companies should at least make an effort to produce any vehicle with a minimum of say 50mpg that includes SUV's, Trucks, and Sports models.
Why things are the way they are I'd be willing to bet my life on it is money. A substance that seems to hold more sway in the world than morals or ethics and when the shit really hits the fan, I doubt there will be enough money to fix it.
Pros....
ReplyDeletethere are many pros to owning an electric car. saving gas money, pollution in the air, and are very light, compact cars. i think the biggest contribution electric cars could have is reduce our dependent on foreign oil. With gas prices being so high, foreign countries regulate these prices at will. As Americans, we must have oil for our cars, but we must push away from the use of oil and move onto better things such as the electric car.
Cons....
The biggest disadvantage to owning an electric car is that you must charge the vehicle often. the cars can maybe go 100 miles before having to be recharged. if you are wanting to travel far distances....this is not the car for you. while its great for short distances, the car would never last on a road trip. another disadvantage of electric cars are how expensive they are. the purchasing of lithium batteries will add up. almost to the same amount of purchasing gas. there are no cheap low end electric cars out there.
while i think electric cars are a good idea, the cons definitely out weigh the pros.
The electric car debate and in general the whole environmental movement is a very interesting one. Recently I have found a lot of new and interesting information relating to these subjects that has caused me to re-think many of my former views. I can still see that both sides of the argument have valid and interesting points.
ReplyDeleteA totally electric car is actually a car I never knew existed until I watched the movie WHO KILED THE ELECTRIC CAR. I had heard of hybrids, fuel cell and alternative fuel vehicles etc. but a car that ran completely on electricity was for me a complete unknown. This served to me as evidence of the poor marketing effort on the part of these vehicle manufacturers’s (one of the argument that was asserted in the movie who killed the electric car). Why would any company develop an amazing product and fail to market it aggressively as soon as it was evident that there was a market for it (Another assertion made in the movie stated above)? This does seem more than a little bit suspicious and adds validity to some of the stronger evidence presented throughout the movie. The stronger evidence I am referring can be found on this movies website at http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/electric.html. Strong evidence for the consumer demand, and sound reasoning behind the theory that the killing of the electric car was motivated by oil company profits, the auto industry etc. are presented here as well as a few other websites I have found such as www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com, and the numerous links provided by our instructor. I do however understand and agree with some of the problematic limitations that electric vehicles present such as limited range, battery life, battery replacement costs, lack of recharging stations, and ridiculous design but I believe these could largely be overcome if the hidden motives of the opposition would be set aside. If nothing else I believe there could be an enormous niche market for these kinds of vehicles. As we can easily observe most Americans have more than one vehicle and usually each of those vehicles serve a different purpose for instance the SUV for more space 4wheel drive, and safety or the compact for better fuel economy, less space in the driveway, garage etc, and drivability. Why then not have an electric car around for short commutes, fuel economy, clean air etc. In the end I do think these vehicles are, have been and always will be highly useful and popular if those opposed would set aside the greed and let this technology flourish.
Pro- The electric car is an immediate answer to our ever increasing pollution problem. By having this car run strictly on electricity it elimiates all emissions into the air and also helps the looming concern of global warming.
ReplyDeleteCon- As a student who travels to Weber everyday, I use up about 80 miles a day. I would have to stop and find a place to charge my car. Im not quite sure if I would like to depend that much on a battery. Another concern is the effect it would have on the automative work force. Mechanics would either have to immediately learn everything about these electric cars or quit and find something else to supply an adequate income.
Pro- Less money would be spent on expensive gasoline. Last year everyone just about boycotted driving due to ever increasing gas prices. The idea of never having to fill up again is a refreshing and much appreciated idea. I agree with using US oil. However,(con) to have that kind of complete cut off from the middle east, would cause a world war. The US is "addicted" to oil as many people said in this film. But the world is "addicited" to money.
As for the hydrogen car and cars using an alternate fuel source would still cause a problem in the economy. Sure it would possibly solve our pollution problem but then the amount we pay for corn would increase incredibly as well. In the film they mentioned the H+ car not running well in cold or bad weather, and also the price of the fuel being expensive. So I dont see that being a probable solution either.
This film pointed fingers at many guilty suspects. Which one ultimately killed the electric car is still in question. I think Ill save my opinion and write about this when I get on my soapbox!
Sara- I hope this was somewhat of what you were expecting. Im still confused with how you want us to respond. Please let me know what you want me to work on. Thx!
Honestly when I first heard about this movie, I thought it was a comedy. Well, come to think of it, I thought more that it was a musical with an absurd name.
ReplyDeleteHowever, that's not the case at all. It actually was a serious, biased documentary about a car. An electric car. That's what I saw. But to the car owners, it was more than that. It was a symbol. It was their passion. It was their child. It was their love.
A car. Transportation. That's all it was. What did they see in it? Let's take a look at their reasons.
1. It was 100% independent from gasoline and oil. No more need to buy expensive $1-$5-per-gallon gasoline. No more oil changes. Just the simplistic technology of plug it in during the night and wake up in the morning, fully charged.
2. What's the byproduct of gas? Pollution. No more exhaust coming from the tailpipe. Smog would drastically be reduced, especially in big cities, such as Los Angeles.
3. Quiet. No more loud engines. Just the sweet sound of humming. As someone mentioned here, its a reduction of noise pollution.
Those are pretty good reasons to LIKE a car. Or at least the concept of an all-electric vehicle. But to love and completely be obsessed with a mode of transportation that has many cons is....well I just dont agree with it. And for a few reasons, as listed here already.
1. These vehicles are expensive. The majority of consumers are cheap. When you have a vehicle that is only available for lease and no option to buy at all tells me that its quite more expensive than a typical gasoline powered vehicle.
2. The components to make the vehicles are expensive. Mainly the battery. Batteries that cost many thousands of dollars to first be used and then be replaced? Then when replaced, where do they go?
3. Pollution is not a pro as they say. The vehicle is just a longer tailpipe. What powers electricity in the United States? Coal. Lots of it. More electric cars = more coal burned. Referring back to #2, batteries would just stack up.
4. Inconvenience. Come on, 70 miles per charge? Come on. A cheap old 90's Civic will get close to that on 1 gallon. And it hold more than 1 gallon. I wouldnt want to worry on such a small limit when driving around, even if I drive less than 70 miles a day.
5. Power. or the lack thereof. Horsepower and torque is what the public loves to see. And those who need trucks for work to haul and tow? Diesel engines by far is needed for this. Not electric motors.
To me, my car is just a car. My mode of transportation. I like it. It gets me where I need to go. Just like millions of others on the road.
RIP Electric Vehicles
Happy Birthday Gasoline and diesel vehicles
Welcome to the party Hybrids
The concept of an All electric vehicle seem great. What would be better than a car that you could just plug in to charge and never have to worry about gas? This would cut down on the pollution caused by the combustion of gasoline. I am going to have to disagree with julious29 about creating electricity to power the cars creating more pollution. While I agree that obviously using coal creates pollution, you forget that there are many ways to create power that do not create pollution. We may not really be all that close to harnessing these, solar wind and geothermal being some of the better ones, but at the same time, we aren't anywhere near having an all-electric car for mass use either.
ReplyDeleteHowever, they are very expensive to make, and the range is rather limited. Another problem is that the technology really isn't close to being decent enough for mass use. Also, most of the people attempting to make electric cars are making these awful looking boxes that seat one to two people, which is very inconvenient no matter how you slice it.
Pros:
ReplyDeleteWell I think the electric car is awesome, there are a bunch of things that I liked about them. I have been doing a little bit of research and it looks like they have tried to make an electric car before, back in the 1800s and it was really good at the time. but for some reason it just dies most of the time, then someone new decides to work on the elctric car again. Before, electric cars didnt go very far or very fast. but it looks like their starting to perfect the car.
most electric cars are converted from gasoline cars, so they looks pretty much identical. the only clue you would have to know it was an electric car is by how silent it is, so with that being said. one reason i like the lectric car is because it looks just like any other car, not uglier nor prettier. the electric car will help our planet by reducing the pollution. also who wouldnt like charging thier car in the convenience of their own house? its just like filling gas up in your garage lol. another reason i like it is because they are starting to make the electric cars fast, and i am into fast cars.
Cons:
One of the biggest things that i dont think ill like about the electric car is the price. i am pretty sure that when an electric car comes out for purchase it is going to cost alot more than a normal gasoline vehicle. another thing is it is electric, i like cars that i am able to modify and have fun with. one of my hobbys is fixing up cars, and i dont think the electric car is very modifiable.
Pros
ReplyDeleteThe pros are endless for electric car especially when you think of the possibilities. I am a firm believer that the powers that be have an agenda that involves maximization of profit. Just like the cell phone industry, the car industry has technology that is far more advanced then what we see but they become unprofitable if they implement every new innovation immediately. This is where ethical business becomes an issue. Who am I to force private companies to make bad investments in new technology? But on the other hand when man kinds future, i.e. global warming, energy consumption, gas prices, do major corporations have any responsibility to our race? My solution is to reimburse corporations for money lost, as well as regulating their ability to censor new technology.
Cons
I don't see any cons to investing in non polluting, less expensive transportation. I did some research and most of the websites out there against clean technology are directly supported by the oil, and car industry. Obviously there is a conflict of intrest there. Almost nothing is perfect it's first few years in circulation, consider the computer. This is one of the most visible cases where complication has led to complete abandonment. But if I had to make a case against electric cars, which I do, I would say the range is to small, they're too expensive, and if you're still producing the electricity from coal plant they are not entirely clean.
People are afraid of change, and that includes differences. If something is different then the norm has been, it does not fly well with the population. Why the Electric car has not been implemented into our way of life yet... I don’t know, but I bet it has something to do with the ignorance and intolerance of the human race. It would be better cheaper in the long run, sure they are pricy at first but buying gas grows exponentially it catches up! Also it would help our economy with all that pollution.
ReplyDeleteI think that the electric car is a really good idea. I know we have the technology to make it work. Think about it. If most of the developers time and technology went into perfecting the electric car, my bet is it would be better than what we have to work with now. The torque and power that diesel trucks give us to work and haul stuff could be developed with electricity I'm sure. If we just had the funding. but it all comes back to the population. The developers can’t spend the time and money and technology on something that will just inevitably be rejected by the public. What a dilemma.
Pros
ReplyDeleteJust the idea of cruising around town in an electric car is pretty cool. Zero emissions is deffinately a great benifit for the enviroment itself but also us as we breath in the (currently) filth filled air outside. Holy crap how much money you would save by not using gas. This is the most attractive feature for anyone who is looking into electric cars.
Cons
Although I support electric cars there are still many problems with them which will hopefully be corrected and these vehicles can be reintroduced. First of all the range. Sure its great for driving to work and the grocery store everyday and to grandmas house but beyond that what are your options. The only one you have is have a second car (gas powered) for when you want to go on a road trip or even go visit relatives that are only 100 miles away or so. And what about camping and all that fun stuff? There is now way you can fit all your gear in that little thing much less tow your fishing boat up to the lake, or your atv's out to the dunes. Another downfall is creating all this electricity will produce emissions at some stage. Utility bills? I bet it aint cheap to charge that sucker everynight and what about the batteries they cant last forever. And one of the most important features on any vehicle: Safety. If you get into an accident in that little EV1 you're toast no if ands or buts about it. These things were not designed with anything in mind other than "an alternative to gas"
Conclusion
This is a great idea however it has many problems. Hopefully they will be corrected and we will have the option of an electric car sometime in the future.
I am so deppressed about the electric car. Let those poor people have their cars back, crap you jerks! It's all a big conspiracy. We know why they killed the electric car. And we know it was the oil companies, the government, the car companies, and everyone else who is glued to money. They let money rule their thought proccess so you kinda just gotta pitty them. Really though, guys give it back! Those kids in california need there air. please let them breath. Is money worth those little kidlets lung damage?? Save the children!! Kid killers
ReplyDeletepros: the pros of the electric car are that we would be totally reducing the amount of polution that we release into our atmosphere. the air would be cleaner and clearer and we woudn't be dependant on foreign oil anymore.
ReplyDeleteCons: the cons of the electric car are that they create more harmful things for the environment to make. not everyone would want to use an electric car. it would be very expensive for the whole world to switch to the alternative. it is too much of a leap for out economy to grasp.
Pro..
ReplyDeleteThe electric car was a fantastic idea, who doesn't want to save money? Charging your car at home is one of the greatest ideas ever. The pollution now a days seems like it gets worse and worse and running on electricity instead of gasoline come on! The economy has changed so much and we need to do what we can to make life just a little bit easier for everyone. You don't have to worry about emissions and you wouldn't have to worry about the maintenance of the car as much as a gas powered car. A car that reaches high speeds is something younger kids are into imagine what the next generation could do with the Electric Vehicle the possibilities of a better environment and economy.
Cons..
Having the electric car around would probably put many mechanics out of work, the time and effort these mechanics put it would be a bit useless they would have to either adapt to the electric car or move on to a different job meaning a lot of angry people. I would expect the cost of an electric car would also be very high compared to a normal automobile, but still in the end it is probably worth the money. lol
the pros for the car can lead to better earth. It will reduce the pollution, people will have less health problems. It will save a alot of gas. Then you have the problems which can include how many miles can you drive on one charge? What will you do if you your planning a big trip and you stuck in the middle of now where? Its a good idea for the car but it also takes out business from other dealers and gas companies. Which will lead to some new law.
ReplyDelete