Viable Electric Cars

At a recent dinner for a global environmental organization, a new Tesla was auctioned for $110,000 in ten minutes. Starting bid was $80,000, discounted from the $100,000 sticker price, and the actress emceeing that portion of the program expressed frustration that the guests filling the New York hotel ballroom were not more forthcoming in competing for this totally electric vehicle.

Tesla attracted considerable media attention when its two-passenger Roadster was introduced last year, though one might wonder what incentive there is to purchase an environmentally-friendly car that costs more than most gas-guzzling SUV models. Meanwhile, General Motors recently announced that the electric Chevrolet Volt will be available in 2010, demonstrating that even a leading U.S. automaker can be innovative.

Electric cars are a viable option to help diminish our dependence on oil from hostile nations and reduce poisonous emissions polluting the atmosphere. But the technology is hardly ground-breaking.

After all, nearly 100 years ago the first cars manufactured in the United States ran on batteries.

More recently, Ford and GM introduced at the beginning of the twenty-first century the Think and the EV1, electric cars built to respond to the dual concerns of energy independence and the environment. For those who had the opportunity to drive either of these innovative vehicles, they were a success, and there was hope that further investment in developing the technology and marketing the cars would lead to expansion of the programs.

I drove the Think for three years in a pilot project sponsored by the New York Power Authority, a governmental agency that says it is committed to promoting alternative energy options, in cooperation with the commuter railroad Metro-North and Ford. The Think was a small, comfortable car for two passengers with plenty of room for groceries, soccer team equipment or other luggage. One could travel 50 miles on a fully charged battery, a sensible range given that more than 80 percent of U.S. drivers venture less than 50 miles a day, according to the website PlugInAmerica. It took about six hours to fully recharge the battery, done at a plug-in site at the train station, or in my garage overnight.

Despite interest by consumers in expanding the program, Ford summarily ended the Think leases a few months early. Notwithstanding repeated calls from Ford, I resisted, and only returned the car after I saw that no others were showing up at the train station. It was a sad day in December 2004, and the electric car is sorely missed. It was an affordable, practical solution – and with the right commitment it could have been further developed to accommodate more passengers as well as extend the battery endurance.

The collapse of the Think program coincided with the death of the EV1, a small electric vehicle produced by GM. See the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? to get the full, and dramatic, story. Yes, the U.S. automaker that is now promising to roll out the Volt in another three years already had an electric car solution earlier this decade.

But, GM also produces the Hummer, a ridiculously oversized passenger vehicle which even one of my neighbors ended up selling because he could not get it into his garage, let alone fit in his driveway. GM, like Ford, focused on manufacturing and heavily marketing a variety of SUVs, the behemoths that New York Times correspondent Keith Bradsher aptly called in his bestseller book, High and Mighty, the most dangerous vehicles on the road.

One evening, entering my Think at the train station, the driver of an idling Lincoln Navigator, a huge SUV ironically manufactured by the Think producer, Ford, appeared to be quite interested in learning about the electric car. After a brief conversation about the car’s merits and ease of use, he declared, “Good for you!” That’s the kind of praise my social worker cousin tells me he often gets; basically, “Yeah, someone’s gotta do it.”

For the sake of ongoing efforts to achieve energy independence and a cleaner environment, everyone has a stake – and a role to play. What car do we buy or lease or rent?

As Gal Luft, executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, pointed out at the AJC Annual Meeting last month in Washington, D.C., the U.S. already is completely independent when it comes to electricity. Unlike petroleum, no electricity is imported. Our nation already is ahead when it comes to fueling an electric car.

The challenge is to secure a real commitment by the federal government and major auto companies to manufacture and service quality, affordable, practical electric cars. I will be among the first to sign up and plug-in, again.

Kenneth Bandler is AJC’s Director of Communications.