Heart of Green

Plug-ins, Pinots and Progress

I am thrilled to be co-hosting an eco-event for Plug In America this summer. You have heard of the 3 R's. Well, this is the 3 P's. You are cordially invited to Plug-ins, Pinots and Progress at the magnificent Thomas Fogarty Winery in Woodside. We will toast to accelerating the EV movement, enjoy organic hors d'oeuvres and wine, and experience cool plug-in cars.

Plug-ins, Pinots and Progress Party

When:
Sunday, August 9, 2009
4:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Where:
Thomas Fogarty Winery
19501 Skyline Blvd, Woodside, CA
www.fogartywinery.com

Host Committee: 
Sherry Boschert , John Balbach, Joan Blades, Julie Blunden, Dale Djerassi, Andy Frank, Tom Gage, Bill Green, Lisa Gelfand, Marc Geller, Steve Kirsch, Michelle Kirsch, Felix Kramer, L. Hunter Lovins, Richard Lowenthal, Michael Martella, Laura Marion, Chris Paine, Chelsea Sexton, Jessica Switzer, Jeanne Trombly, Peter Walbridge, Nadine Weil

Invitation & RSVP:
Reserve your spot here:  Plug-ins, Pinots and Progress

About Plug In America:
Plug In America is driving the clean vehicle movement towards widespread adoption of plug-in electric vehicles recharged by clean, domestic energy. Let’s support a regenerative plant through green cars because we all want to get 100 mpg while going 80 mph and looking eco-good.  
www.pluginamerica.org

If you can't wait for the plug-ins to hit the showrooms, visit Luscious Garage and have your hybrid tricked out with advanced eco-features. In other words, pimp your Prius.

Heart of Green is a proud supporter of this event. I hope to see you at the party where you can have your plug-in car and your pinot too.

Plug-in Party at Google

I am thrilled to be co-hosting the GRID Alternatives Plug In To Grid party featuring none other than electric cars and plug-in hybrids at the famed Google Solar Carport. You are invited to join us for an exclusive afternoon event that will undoubtedly leave you charged up about the future of clean cars and solar energy for all.

GRID Alternatives presents
Plug In To Grid Party

When:
Sunday, May 31, 2009
1 pm - 4 pm

Where:
Google’s Solar-Powered Carport
Mountain View, CA

Featuring:

• Hors d'oeuvres and cocktails
• EVs, plug-in hybrid conversions, and scooters
• Sports cars like the Tesla Roadster
• Ride and drives
• Prototypes by Stanford and PG&E
• Silent auction
• Remarks by industry experts
• Mingling with the who’s who of solar energy and clean cars

RSVP Required:
Space is limited. Reserve your ticket online or by calling:
www.gridalternatives.org/plugin
Tracie Troxler at (510) 652-4730 x316

All proceeds benefit the nonprofit GRID Alternatives and their work to bring solar energy to low income families.

Host Committee:
Robyn Beavers, Hill Blackett III, Karen Decker, Loretta Gallegos, Mardina Graham, Kent Halliburton, Emilie Hung, Joseph Karp, Shuja Keen, Ron Lloyd, Ric Lucien, Gillian Moxey, Anthony Ravitz, Nadine Weil

Special Thanks To:
Google, 3Prong Power, Electric Motorsport, Ethical Approach Electric Vehicle Center, Green Wheelin Scooters, Green Vehicles, CalCars, Lloyd Wise Motors, Make Mine Electric, New Belgium Brewery, Pacific Coast Motors, PG&E, Parducci Wine Cellars, Tesla Motors, Stanford Solar Car Project, Heart of Green

Google & Clean Cars:
Kudos are due to Google for their long-time support of clean cars, including giving employees an incentive to purchase hybrids, installing EV chargers at their campuses early on, and launching the RechargeIt program to further plug-in vehicle research.

About GRID Alternatives:
Since 2004, GRID Alternatives has been bringing solar electric systems to low-income families throughout Northern and Southern California. They have also trained over 2,030 community volunteers and job trainees on solar electric installation and provided them with opportunities to gain hands-on experience with real-world solar projects. www.gridalternatives.org

Back in the Day in Detroit:
In 1996, I went to General Motors to work on the EV1 electric vehicle. It was an awesome experience that taught me much about advanced technology vehicles and how drivers view electric vehicles. GM ended up awarding me the Global Intern of the Year Award. You could say that the experience brought out my inner eco-geek.

My dream green car is a plug-in hybrid vehicle that I can charge up via solar panels. Now that would be living off the sun in a futuristic way. Allow me to go fast and far on battery power alone. No token battery assisting please. Enable me to sell stored power from my car battery back to my local utility too - Vehicle To Grid or V2G this is called.

I view the plug-in as a wonderful bridge car, a bridge from the world of gas-powered to electric-powered transportation. For most trips around town, you could scoot on pure electric power. Then, when you would need to drive to Vegas suddenly, you could flip to the internal combustion engine. This is the best of both worlds.  My experience at GM showed me that you have to offer this drive-to-Vegas-ability, even if a consumer is never going to use it. Range matters, especially if a car is going to cost at or above the market price of a similar non-EV model.

You also have to give consumers the ability to charge up the car anywhere, not just at fancy rapid EV-charging stations that sound good at press conferences. A household plug has to work as well. Extra extension cords would be nice. Any new garage should be built with sockets near every parking spot. This will help us avoid the infrastructure chicken-and-egg. Make sure the car has 4 seats plus trunk space, emphasize the rapid acceleration due to instantaneous torque (an unrestricted EV can beat a Ferrari any day), and provide a government tax incentive for purchasing one – and we will be well on our way to whirling around town.

Of course, the car has to look darn good, and it is all about the batteries ultimately. Battery technology will determine the future of EVs, and I am still holding out hope for a cost-effective, lithium-based, large-scale automotive battery. Weight and drag also matter. To get the best range performance for our batteries, we need sexy aerodynamic cars made from high-strength, lightweight materials.

On the upcoming clean car front, two vehicles I am particularly excited about are the Mini-E EV and the Aptera 2e. The third generation 2010 Prius model is rumored to have both an Eco Mode that reduces acceleration (less fun) and an EV mode that allows drivers to go up to 25 mph via the battery electric motor alone. The Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE also has 111 teams registered from 25 states and 11 countries, all competing to exceed 100 MPGe and win a $10 million prize.

In five years, we should be able to buy a plug-in version of every car on the market today. This just makes sense. Raising average American fuel economy standards to 35 mpg by 2020 is nice, but let’s make and drive plug-in models that get 100 mpg each. See the cool real-world results of Google’s RechargeIt test drives here. 93.5 mpg is the average high to date. China is already requiring fuel economy standards of 43 mpg in 2009.

Modular production at car companies would be a partial panacea for current ills. Build cars from a consolidated number of global platforms and be able to swap out body styles and propulsion systems, such as battery electric motors, plug-in hybrid technology, and more. This would enable consumer choice and economics of scale, which are critical to economically-viable automobile manufacturers. To generate funds, small car companies can have aggressive technology licensing plans in place to sell their cleantech to the big car companies who need it the most.

I look forward to the day when I can drive my plug-in vehicle around the San Francisco Bay Area. In the meantime, come to the GRID Alternatives party on May 31 at Google and experience the best of breed in action. Don’t forget your G-force-suit just in case an EV shows off and goes 0 – 60 mph in 3.6 seconds.

For related posts, please see Clean Cars - Heart of Green

Start Your Eco Engines

Fast cars are in my background and my blood. My father was a race car driver as a hobby, and we had a Formula 1 in the driveway for a while. I spent many weekends at the track learning about engines and the perils of corkscrew turns. I try to drive my Prius like a sports car with mixed success.

In the mid-1990s, I did a stint working at General Motors in Detroit for the EV1 electric vehicle. Yes, the one that they eventually crushed. The EV1 went 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds because electric motors deliver instantaneous torque; no shifting needed. Despite its old school inefficient lead-acid batteries and anemic range, I loved that space-age machine. If you have a need for speed and no need for profit-guzzling oil companies, the electric car is your new best friend.

Now we all know that the Ferrari is not the most eco-friendly car around with its gas mileage of 11 - 17 mpg. It sure looks and sounds darn good though. A Lamborghini did get 21 mpg recently which is not bad for a V-10 engine with 500 horsepower.

A new generation is on the verge of bringing the EV back, and its cousin, the plug-in hybrid or PHEV. The plug-in is the perfect bridge to the future because you can cruise elegantly on electricity around town and then switch into engine mode for your weekend trip to Vegas or Tahoe. Plug the car in anywhere ideally because electricity is virtually everywhere. No proprietary charging infrastructure this time, please. The net result can be gas mileage of 100 mpg or more with no limits on range. Now that is what we are talking about.

Tesla Motors:  Entry No. 1 in the race to deliver the car of the future is the Tesla Roadster of course. Preceded by the AC Propulsion Tzero, the Tesla offers the best of both worlds. A sexy gorgeous pure-electric sports car with high performance and an even higher profile. No lead-acid or NiMH batteries this time, but rather thousands of streamlined Lithium-Ion cells. There is some debate over whether small cells or one large Li-Ion battery would be better, and the conclusion is still as elusive as the Volt. Let’s give Tesla a break because what they are trying to do and succeeding in doing so far is one of the hardest feats alive – launching a new car company. Chairman Elon Musk was beaming last month on April 18 when he took delivery of his sleek black Tesla Roadster in Los Angeles, the first one to roll off the production line. Congratulations and champagne indeed!

Last week, Tesla unveiled its inaugural showroom in Beverly Hills with a star-studded party attended by Daryl Hannah, the voice of Quincy Jones, and enough Hollywood buzz to charge an entire fleet. Not to worry, Menlo Park in the SF Bay Area will be the home of Tesla showroom no. 2 this summer for the well-heeled eco set and car fanatics alike. The Tesla is as quiet as a mouse and almost as fast as a cheetah.

Automotive X Prize:  Entry No. 2 in the race is a race itself. The Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE is offering a $10 million pot of gold to the best car of the future.  Teams from around the globe will compete to design super fuel-efficient cars that people actually want to buy. To win, the cars must be production-capable and exceed 100 MPG or its energy equivalent. A major focus will be put on affordability, safety, and the environment. Concept cars, you have had your day in the sun. It is time for real clean cars to have their day on Earth.

Huge kudos to Progressive Insurance, a 70-year-old company, for stepping up and supporting this revolutionary prize that will help the world break its oil addiction and drive full speed ahead to a cleaner future. See the Jay Leno video on cars and the X Prize. He collects old cars and even has some of the first steam and electric cars in the Jay Leno Green Garage. There were electric cars in 1909 – the Baker!

As announced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the cross-country race will begin in New York City in September 2009. Vehicles in competition will be tested in real-world conditions. Potholes anyone?  Over 60 teams from 10 countries have signed up so far, and the initial cars are ultra-mod and fabulous. Check out the Fuel Vapor ale car and the Velozzi supercar for starters. www.xprize.org

Smart Cars:  In other exhilarating car news, the Smart fortwo cars have launched in San Francisco and are taking the city by storm with their small form, even backing into impossibly-small parking spots and confounding the meter maids. It is over 2 feet shorter than a Mini and can yield fuel economy of 40 mpg in the city and 45 on the highway if you drive smart. I fell hard for the micro Smart cars in Milan and Paris and have been waiting for them to hit our shores ever since. They are here.

Think City:  Smart’s rival for cute eco car of the year may be the upcoming Th!nk City electric car from Norway. Revived from the grave by new CEO Jan-Olaf Willums, Think recently raised an impressive $78 million from Silicon Valley and European investors including Kleiner Perkins and Rockport Capital Partners and held a strategy session at Google. Think will be buying lithium-ion battery packs from none other than Tesla. Let’s hope that someday Ford will regret selling the adorable and eco-in-every-way Think in a fire sale hotter than a globally-warmed planet.

Chevy Volt Concept:  I am not going to comment on the Chevy Volt concept car except to say that seeing is believing, and I hope they do it by 2010. One question: why are they calling it an electric car when indeed it would have an E-Flex range-extending power source that runs on gas or E85 ethanol to recharge the lithium-ion battery pack?  It would be a plug-in hybrid electric car (PHEV), which would be great because people wouldn’t be scared off by a lack of range. You could also charge it using a normal 110-volt household plug - excellent. In the meantime, I think General Motors should not be running ads that say “from gas-friendly to gas-free” because they don’t sell any gas-free cars. The slogan is nice and peppy, and false advertising.

Toyota:  Speaking of plug-ins, Toyota is rumored to be testing a plug-in hybrid. The Prius is still the best green car on the market today, and a completely redesigned 2009 model is coming soon. A plug-in version would be the holy grail. However, it would only have a cruising range of 8 miles on electricity?  This is not enough. At least the Volt is purportedly aiming for 40 miles of range in the city on pure electricity. Toyota’s toe in the plug-in water is no doubt due to the great work of CalCars, Plug In Partners, and the new Google RechargeIt program, all proving that 100 mpg is possible right now with existing technology.

So if 100 mpg is within our grasp, why did Congress just pass new fuel economy standards mandating an average 35 mpg by 2020, thereby keeping us handcuffed to crude oil and throwing out the key?  Something is better than nothing after 32 years, but today’s technologies can produce far greater gas savings at the sticker-shocking $4.00 pump. California wants to see an average of 44 mpg by 2020 so that it can meet its aggressive AB32 targets to slow down carbon emissions. The state feels so strongly about it, Attorney General Jerry Brown is taking the federal government to court to allow the waiver. That is the maverick Jerry we like.

If everyone could drive a car that gets 40+ miles per gallon, the US would not have to import oil from the Middle East currently and use military power to protect oil reserves in these unstable regions.

Some hypermilers are taking matters into their own hands with the MPG Challenge this summer. Their game is to squeeze every mile they can out of each drop of gas. While their tactics might be a little extreme, we can all pick up a few tips like driving with a light foot and cruising down hills. Look mom, no feet. 

The best defense is a good offense. If you are in the market for a new car, try to buy the model (that you like) that gets the highest possible gas mileage, regardless of its hybrid label or not. Fuel economy is where it's at.

The dream remains plug-in electric cars that connect to chargers powered by solar panels. Plug into the sun, and even store electricity in the battery and sell it back. Vehicle-to-grid. What could be better? Now that is truly gas-free.

Let the race to make the car of the future begin and end. May the cleanest, fastest, and sexiest car win. My dad and I look forward to buying one and breaking a few speed records at the track.

Green Cabs

Spare the air and arrive like the eco star that you are.

Instead of hailing a yellow cab, try one of the new green taxi limo services, and let the hybrid do the driving.

That's Kate Bosworth standing next to her green Prius limo pre-awards show, before getting dressed.

Here are some eco-friendly car services to try:

PlanetTran in Boston and San Francisco
(888) PLNT TRN
(888) 756-8876

Eco-Limo in Los Angeles, San Francisco,and D.C.
(888) 4 ECO LIMO
(888) 432-6546

OzoCar in New York City
(866) OZO-5966

Green Cab in San Francisco
(415) 626-4733

My favorites are still the shiny black, high-mpg Prius hybrids. The Eco-Limo driver who drove me to LAX last week had chauffeured one of the biggest stars to the Oscars so I felt in good hands. A tip: program these numbers into your phone because you just never know.

Cities like New York and San Francisco are also gradually transitioning their taxi fleets to hybrids. This helps the air and the climate - and the cab drivers love it because they don't have to spend all of their money on gas!

So pimp your green ride and support the planet in style.

Driving On Cue (Q)

“She’s the youngest and possibly the cutest driver ever to lease a hydrogen-powered Honda”, says the newscaster.

That’s Q’orianka Kilcher, the young actress and star of the film “The New World” and an upcoming blockbuster to be announced shortly.

On March 7 with cameras flashing at Universal City, Honda gave Q’orianka the keys to her very first car, the Honda FCX, a fuel cell vehicle powered by hydrogen. And to think my first car was my parent’s Volvo!

A pioneering young environmentalist, Q’orianka elected to become a true customer of the FCX by signing a 2-year lease. A radiant Q gushed, “I feel honored and I can’t believe I am actually sitting in this car and am going to take it home today.”

In her rousing speech, Q proclaimed “Social and environmental change is something we, the young generation, have to demand. My hope is that all our nations’ leaders have the wisdom to see the immediate need to bring about a shift in environmental consciousness. A clean healthy environment is a key to our survival as human race.”

Hydrogen cars always generate lively discussions. On the plus side, fuel cells convert hydrogen and oxygen into water and produce electricity. Their only emission is water vapor, not CO2. On the challenging side, hydrogen is an energy carrier, not an original energy source; therefore, the energy to make the hydrogen must come from somewhere, ideally from renewables. Also, a new infrastructure to make, transport, store, and fuel up with hydrogen must be created, and last time I checked, the FCX was costing Honda $1 million per car to make? It’s a good thing that Q’orianka is a responsible teenager with wisdom far beyond her years. Regardless, I applaud Q and Honda on their initiative to make the future a cleaner place for us all.

Stay tuned for the launch of Q’orianka’s new On-Q Initiative. And honk 3 times if you see Q’orianka on the road in her new Honda FCX.

I See Smoke!

Bored sitting in traffic? See a dirty car that is belching exhaust into the air? Fear not, the antidote to both is here: 1-800-EXHAUST (1-800-394-2878)

It’s the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Smoking Vehicle Complaint Line and it rocks.  You call the number and answer 3 quick questions anonymously about the offensive vehicle:

• CA License Plate #
• Date & Time
• Street & City

Warning: You might have to perform a few fancy driving maneuvers to get the license plate number.

Smoking vehicles contribute 20% - 30% of the soot and toxic particles in the air that cause asthma and other health problems. You can report a dirty car seen in any of these San Francisco Bay Area counties:  Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma.

You can also fill out this Online Form, but that seems harder to do while driving.

Program the number into your cell. Blue sky is just a phone call away. You’ll be helping to clean up the air, and I guarantee you will never be bored in traffic again.

Bringing Sexy Back to Clean Cars

The clean car dream is alive and kicking, and getting sexier by the second. The Toyota Prius transformed the landscape forever by making the first desirable, cost-efficient, profitable 4-seater hybrid car, the Prius.  Toyota had the foresight in the early 90s that fuel economy was going to become increasingly important to drivers in the future. This insight came at a time when SUVs were selling like hotcakes.  Toyota originally built the Prius on the existing Echo platform. Very smart move to gain economies of scale and avoid the custom death spiral suffered by our friend the EV1.

As of October 2006, the Prius is still the best hybrid on the market in terms of practicality, fuel economy and high tech gadgets. The 2006 Prius has a stated 60 mpg city and 51 mpg highway. It is more efficient in the city because the electric motor starts the car and operates at low speeds and short distances. Hopefully, Toyota will expand the Prius’ ability to utilize the electric motor in the near future, thereby moving beyond gas dependence.

For green-friendly people shopping for a new car, I might suggest looking first at fuel economy, regardless of “hybrid”. Hybrid is just a tool to deliver high fuel economy and lower Co2 emissions. If a non-hybrid car trumps a hybrid with its mpg, then so be it. May the highest miles per gallon win.

Celebrating Clean Car Successes

Let’s celebrate the most recent clean car successes, the sexiest ones:

Tesla Motors:  Like Justin Timberlake, Tesla is bringing sexy back to clean cars. The Tesla Roadster is a showstopper in looks and performance. “Burn rubber, not gasoline” is their apt slogan. Its gas mileage is an impressive, well, infinite mpg. It runs on thousands of Li-On batteries. Its stats are impressive: 250 miles per charge, 135 mpg equivalent, and 0-60 mph in 4 seconds.

Tesla has busted through the EVs as golf carts myth and presented electric cars as the ultimate in eco-desirable. I attended their grand launch party in Los Angeles and the line for a ride was around the block. Their Signature 100 program (the waiting list for the first 100 cars at $100,000 each) is already closed, sold-out, snapped up by the lucky few. Tesla is taking names for the next 100 cars. Don’t delay. Huge kudos to Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, and Elon Musk for making the dream happen!  Tesla Motors

Calcars Plug-In Hybrids (PHEVs):  So you’ve had a Prius…what’s next for people on the cutting-edge? Just another regular Prius? Boring...! The nonprofit CalCars.org promotes plug-in hybrid Prius conversions that get 100+ mpg. PRIUS+ is the official name of the wonder car. It is led by the intelligent and assiduous Felix Kramer. With a plug-in hybrid, your local travel is electric. If you want to drive to Vegas, you have the gas tank as a back up.

In Europe and Asia, the Prius had an enviable pure-EV button. In the U.S., this option was stripped because Toyota thought Americans would be too leary of plugging in. When the Prius first came out, they proclaimed loudly, “and you don’t need to plug it in, ever!” This is backlash from the disastrous decision in favor of proprietary paddle chargers in the early EV days, rather than the ubiquitous wall socket or 30 Amp garage socket.  PRIUS+ brings back the pure-EV button and more.

I can tell you as someone who drove an early prototype of a flex gas-electric car, it is amazing. I was stuck in massive traffic on the 405 in LA, and I switched the car into pure-EV mode. Ahhhhhhhhh, silence. No noise. No gas being used. No emissions. Just coasting along peacefully. The EnergyCS plug-in conversions now switch to electric automatically!

A question I hear frequently is, “well, if you are plugging the PHEV into a wall socket that gets energy from a dirty coal-fired power plant, how is this better?” A very good question. The good news is that when you drive a PHEV, you produce 45% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a gas-only car according to Felix. This positive % will only increase as utilities switch to more renewable energy sources.

All of the positive attention CalCars PHEVs has received has gotten the attention of Toyota and potentially some other automakers like GM. CalCars’ mission is to spark car-makers to manufacture plug-in hybrids for the marketplace. When will this happen? There is momentum but Toyota needs to hear from people who would be willing to buy one. If this is you, please visit Plug-In Partners and let them know of your interest.  I'm in.  You can also sign up for CalCars news and support their PRIUS+ program. Bottom line, there are so many Priuses in San Francisco now. A great thing! But what car is there for people who want to be different and even greener?   CalCars.org 

Automotive X PRIZE:  Revolution through competition is their humanitarian mantra. The X PRIZE Foundation shook up the atmosphere with its first $10 million Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight. The winner was SpaceShipOne. Now they are poised to do it again on the road with the Automotive X Prize. Their goal is to reduce oil consumption and global warming emissions, and stimulate a plethora of marketable clean car innovations in the process. Let the race begin.

Other exciting developments include the rumored new Smart fortwo EV and return of the Th!nk, probably the cutest electric car ever made.

A shout out to the popular Ozocar, the hip high-tech hybrid town car service in New York founded by former EV1 driver and Virgin Records executive Jordan Harris. Say goodbye to the old school black town car. Ozocar please come to San Francisco soon so that we can order sleek black Priuses, rather than a Hummer limo.

The holy grail is to install (efficient) solar panels and then use them to charge your electric or plug-in hybrid car. You are then harnessing the pure renewable, non-polluting power of the sun. Cities could manage fleets of plug-in hybrids that recharge from solar panels. Batteries in vehicles could even store energy and deliver it back into the grid. This is called V2G, Vehicle To Grid. Why build dangerous nuclear power plants when we have the greatest source of nuclear energy available? The sun.

With sexy electric cars, practical plug-in hybrids, new clean biodiesel, and flex fuel cars with cellulosic (not corn-based) ethanol on the horizon, the clean car future is a bright shade of green. And not a minute too soon.

Who Killed and then Revived the Electric Car?

In 1996, I packed my bags and became an intern at General Motors for the EV1 electric vehicle. In Detroit.

As a California girl, I was like a fish out of water but no matter. I fell in deep like with the EV1. It was cute, uber-responsive, quiet, gas-free, non-polluting, space-ship like, and a beacon of innovative technology. Clean air is a beautiful thing, and it had the foresight to fight global warming. The perfect summer love affair.

Like all good crushes, it had a few flaws. It ran on inefficient lead-acid batteries, it had a short range per charge, the batteries hated cold weather, and it was a 2-seater. The EV1 was very expensive for GM to make because it contained many original custom-made parts and was manufactured in small batches in a custom factory. Read: destined to be unprofitable even at the $35,000 lease price. A price which guaranteed that this 2-seater would be primarily a high-class toy.

And the clincher. A fatal decision. To demand a proprietary charging infrastructure for the car. Electricity is (almost) everywhere. Why require users to drive around in search of a rare paddle charger? Why not enable users to plug the car into the wall?

Did GM and other auto manufacturers deliberately sabotage the electric car is the million dollar question. It is hard to say for sure, but as someone who spent 3 months there living and breathing EV1s, I can say this. GM should have known better than to design a completely custom car in a custom factory for supposed mass-sales through Saturn. Small volume and original parts are the kiss of profitability death for a car.

However, the EV1 teams were pouring their heart and soul into the car. Working 16+ hours days. A genuine spirit of camaraderie and determination around the noble mission. If there were sabotage occurring to wiggle out of the CA ZEV Mandate, it would have had to have been at the highest levels of GM.

GM invested all total over $1 billion in the EV1 program and has been accused of then trying to kill it. $1 billion sounds like a lot to me, but if you compare the potential cost of having to comply with the ZEV Mandate (and the precedent it sets), perhaps it is cheap. Also, part of this $1 billion was for advanced technology vehicles in general and was subsequently leveraged for fuel cells.

The Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate was created by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and required an increasingly % of new car sales to be zero-emission, up to 10% by 2003.  Battery technology caused no tailpipe emissions. Note that battery car performance is very sensitive to weight. Lightweight and small reign supreme. Heavy and big do not. Which cars were the most profitable for automakers at the time? The heaviest trucks and SUVs on the road, basically the opposite of the EV1. Because of all of the fixed costs in auto production, it is insanely difficult not to lose money on small cars unless you leverage cross-platforms, like Toyota does.

In 1996 under intense pressure by companies, CARB eliminated the ZEV sales requirement in exchange for a "good faith effort" to market EVs. GM had slapped the GM logo on the EV1. I remember the CEO making a big deal about this. It was to be the first car ever branded GM. This gave the appearance of a concerted effort to make an EV go of it, all of the underlying challenges aside.

And the batteries? I was asked to conduct research on the future of advanced technology vehicles. It became clear that nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries had higher energy density than lead-acid and delivered longer ranges per charge. Lithium ion (Li-On) batteries would be the holy grail, someday, but weren’t ready yet. Note that it took until 1999 for GM to release a NiMH EV1. 

And the charging decision? I sat through those meetings, and I can say that no one seemed like they were trying to set up barriers to adoption. They were dreaming of a new revenue source from chargers and charging stations. I know people who quit over this decision however, because it was so illogical.

During my internship, I discovered a large cabinet of market research from the EV1 Preview Drive program. Stacks of binders just sitting there with driver feedback forms. Never summarized or tabulated. With permission from my direct boss, I analyzed the data. The results pointed to many issues with the practical marketability of the car, but it was too late. The EV1 was launching at the Olympics.

Regardless, I and countless others formed a strong connection with the EV1. It was like a best friend who greeted you every time with a thrilling clean ride. Whoosh.

For the intriguing rest of the story, please watch the outstanding documentary film “Who Killed The Electric Car” by director Chris Paine. You can now order the much-awaited DVD of Who Killed The Electric Car online! 

I first met Chris Paine at an LA Auto Show riding in the Tzero electric sports car by AC Propulsion. Chris filmed my hair standing on end after the car went 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds. The great thing about EVs: they have instantaneous torque. They are always in the right gear. No shifting needed, so acceleration is impressive.

The precursor to the hot Tesla Roadster, the bright yellow Tzero regularly beat Ferraris on the track. The Tzero used Li-On batteries and could be plugged in…anywhere.  Hooray! Consequently, AC Propulsion regularly drove the Tzero up from LA to San Francisco and reveled in its 200+ miles per charge. Kudos to Alan Cocconi and Tom Gage for keeping the EV dream alive.

When Gildo Pallanca Pastor from Monoco caught the electric sports car bug, he tapped AC Propulsion for the technology. The Venturi Fetish ev sports car is still one of the sexiest and most beautiful clean cars ever designed. Here are Venturi Fetish pictures. It had the low minimum price of $500,000. 

It was thrilling to see Chris Paine's movie premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Heartbreaking to see the EV1s being crushed, but I’m glad that he memorialized the saga and spirit of the EV1s on film forever. We hosted a Clean Cars Party for Chris at the San Francisco Film Festival on Earth Day. Please see cocktail party photos here. Chris, you are a hero for clean transportation. We look forward to a new era of clean cars that help solve air pollution, oil dependence and global warming.