2010: The Electric Car Returns

2010: The Electric Car Returns
Posted By: Dale Schornack

VACAVILLE, CA - Five years ago, there were at least 100 all-electric vehicles on the streets in Vacaville. Ed Huestis remembered pulling up to a red light and seeing three EV-1s at the same intersection.

Huestis is the director of Vacaville's Alternative Fuel Vehicle Incentive Program. The program uses federal air quality grant money to help residents lower the cost of buying or leasing an electric car. The $42,000 sticker price of an all-electric Rav4 EV could be knocked down to a more affordable $23,000. And when you consider there's no gas or oil changes to pay for, the price looks even more attractive.

In the drive to put more electric cars on the highway, Vacaville is miles ahead of any other city its size in the country. You still see signs at every highway exit in town, pointing the way to the nearest recharging station. There are 45 of them around town, including some that are powered by solar. You can drive a hundred miles on a charge, from energy provided by the sun. Now that's cool!

Well, sadly, these days there are only about 10 privately owned electric vehicles on the streets in Vacaville. The drive down the electric highway suddenly shifted into reverse in late 2003, when General Motors killed the EV-1.

In 1990, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), mandated that 10 percent of cars sold in California would need to be Zero Emission Vehicles by the year 2003. But under pressure from automakers, CARB backed off the mandate. That allowed GM to declare that there was no demand for an electric car and it killed the EV-1.

A thousand EV-1s were leased to drivers in California and Arizona. And they loved the sporty electric two-seater. The later models could run 100 miles on a charge, with quick acceleration on the highway.

When GM demanded the return of all EV-1s, drivers offered to buy the cars rather than be forced to give them up. No way. GM took them all back and smashed them flat.

Well, that was brilliant. A few years later, gas prices hit record highs, sales of gas-guzzling SUVs dropped like a rock, and GM lost millions and laid off thousands of workers. So now, GM and all the major automakers are scrambling to produce an electric vehicle.

The new wave of electric cars will begin appearing in showrooms in 2010. We will turn a corner, and there is no going back. Electric cars make too much sense. The driving range of the EV-1 was already more than enough to cover 90 percent of the driving we do every day.

The Chevy Volt, due out in a couple of years, will also have a small electric motor. It will re-charge the battery on longer trips, over 40 miles. And it will plug into a standard 110 volt home outlet.