Have someone watched a documentary about electric cars? I mean those with battery banks that are recharged at home (not hydrogen cars). The documentary is found as torrent but I don't know about the copyright. Anyway, the performance was very competitive and the car could be a good solution for average car driver (miles/day). The problem for the car companies, however, is that the car has no or very little need of service (no oil or filter change). The oil companies has some problems too, they sell no gas for those cars (really?!). So the board members (a committee) of the car companies decided to shut down the production for some reasons.
The documentary is titled "Who Killed The Electric Car" and might be found on torrent search engines.
Some more info about the EV1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1 By no means will the production/research of a car that doesn't require oil to run ever be halted. It may be covered up, but this is just too important of a revolutionary breakthrough to be thrown out because some people will be out of jobs. Soon, if we don't incorporate these types of cars, we'll be seeing another ice age.
Well you say there's no need for service, but eventually the batteries will need replacing probably. This isn't cheap, particularly if lithium ion based cells are used.
Electric cars are still a pipe dream although it's a shame more hasn't been done to actively promote them in metropolitan areas. Performance-wise, the distance isn't really great. However they will accelerate very impressively, much better than a comparitive petrol engine.
Electric powered cars have indeed been quashed by the major automakers in North America, with some help from the Japanese auto giants. In the 70s and 80s, when the technology first started becoming viable for consumer use, these auto companies sent a bit of funding thet way to see what the big fuss was all about.
When they saw the power and flexibility of electric autos, they immediately clamped down on them, and what I see happening is a slow and very purposeful implementation of certain technologies into the consumer market place. What they are doing is making sure that they can still remain very profitable while presenting these alternative options.
Sadly for us it means that we have to wait decades or more before a real EV is presented to the marketplace, and we need them now if we want to lessen our oil dependency.
Regarding the EV1, GM's technology was in no way revolutionary. Furthermore, the vehciles were not street legal. The government gave GM a pass for a few years to experiment with them. Once that period was over, the vehicles had to be destroyed.
As for electirc cars, they are alive and well. Please visit the following website for a practical, high-performance 100% electric car:
http://www.teslamotors.com
The first 100 production models were sold in three weeks at $100k each.
Regarding hybrids, that technology is nothing more than an interim. I don't expect companies to produce new hybrids beyond 2020. BMW won't even consider producing hybrids for that very reason. Its all great to be talking about electric cars and other alternative fueled cars but you all do realise how long its going to be before anything changes. With the amount of money in the oil & gas industry and their size its going to be a long time before anything changes. That being said it would be nice to see a change, but hey only time will tell right?
