Electric cars creating Illinois jobs
Several interesting topics came up at the Liberty Brew & View showing of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" Tuesday night. Over 30 people came to see the movie and hear Illinois State Representative Mike Boland talk about the Illinois Clean Car Bill and other clean energy legislation he's supporting.
Representative Boland mentioned one of the tired old scare tactics auto-industry lobbyists are using against the Illinois Clean Car Bill: that it will cost jobs. They use this rationale so often that they don't even bother to explain or justify the claim anymore. How exactly will it cost jobs? Can't union auto workers make a lower polluting car just as well as old outdated ones? If anything is costing American jobs its the failure of American car companies to offer hybrid and other lower polluting cars that consumers are asking for.
Boland also brought up an electric car company that would like to open a new plant, creating 200 jobs, in Rock Island. One barrier is a state regulation barring smaller electric commuter cars from crossing state highways. This particular brand of car has some speed limitations (not true of all electric cars) that prevent it from traveling on state and federal highways. Boland's bill would allow those cars to go across state highways so they can at least travel across towns that have a state highway going through them.
One point that became obvious during the movie is that American car companies are resisting using existing technology to offer all-electric, and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Earlier this year General Motors lost its place as the nation's top selling car manufacture by allowing foreign car companies to take the lead in offering hybrids and other low-emissions vehicles.
Its unfortunate that the United Auto Workers union is siding with auto-manufacturers in their short-sighted opposition to the Illinois Clean Car bill as well as improved federal CAFE standards. Ultimately, GM's outdated business model and insistence on sticking by yesterday's technology is costing far more American union jobs than any environmental regulation.
I support unions but I don't think the political arm of the UAW is serving its membership well on this issue. After all, when car companies aren't scapegoating environmentalists for lost jobs, they're usually blaming high union wages and benefits for moving plants to cheaper labor markets. Better environmental regulations may be what saves American car companies from their own poor business strategies.
Comments
The movie "Who Killed the Electric Car?" is a pack of lies. Anyone gullible enough to believe that the EV-1 was a viable alternative to the gasoline car should be forced to buy one (at $43,000) and then buy replacement batteries when they wear out ($20,000 plus, every five years),
and then figure out why they are putting up with such crappy technology that they can't go to any destination 35 miles away and reliably get back home. The EV-1 was no advance over the doomed detrit Electric, built in 1907. Anybody can build an electric car, that's no
big deal, but without a practical battery, nobody can build one that can replace a gasoline car.
Want to sit around 8 hours waiting for your EV-1 to recharge? Time's auto analyst two weeks ago caled the EV-1 one of the 50 worst cars of all time. The mystery isn't about why the EV-1 was killed (or the Toyota Rav4 electric or the Honda EV)
but why in the world they were ever offered to the public in the first place.
You don't see any of the 10 electric car companies out there today offering an EV with NiMH batteries like the EV-1 and Rav4, now do you? GM is building the electric VOLT wiht a range extender engine and it will cost a fraction of what the crappy EV-1 cost and go anywhere your heart desires. Only EV ignorant audiences are stupid enough to believe the silly lies in Chris Paine's fictitious "documentary."
Posted by: kent beuchert | October 17, 2007 11:47 PM
Well readers, my blog has just been hit by one of the internet's most notorious trolls. If you google Ken Beuchert's name you'll find hundreds of similar nasty, foul mouthed and factually inaccurate comments on blogs and message boards all over the internet. You'll also find numerous accusations that he's a shill for the oil and auto industries.
The point of Who Killed the Electric Car? wasn't to claim that the EV1 was the best electric car ever made. Kent, I'm not accepting your comments about the EV1 as fact, (because they aren't) but let's assume for a minute that you're correct about there being better technology out there at the time. Even the movie itself pointed out that the battery in the first year's model wasn't as good as later EV1 models. Why would GM produce an electric car with technology inferior to what was available to them? Answer that question and you'll be getting to the real point of the movie.
Posted by: Will | October 18, 2007 10:35 AM
I don't think Kent is a shill for the oil and gas industry. I think he's just a net.kook. He's the EV community's village idiot.
If you really want an education on this subject, I suggest "The Car That Could: The Inside Story of GM's Revolutionary Electric Vehicle" by Michael Shnayerson. It's out of print, but worth seeking out.
Posted by: Tony Belding | October 21, 2007 9:34 AM
Hi guys,
This is the first time I have ever posted a comment online pertaining to electric cars. It is unfortunate however that it is partly in response to Mr. Kent Beuchert's uneducated, immature (probably red-neck hilbillyish) form of attempting to make a point or discussion, and trying to sound like a tough guy in the process. You see intelligent people like us have to learn not to acknowledge people like that so they dont have the satisfaction of knowing someone actually listened to what they said...
With that out of the way I just watched "who killed the electric car" and I must say that it is one of the most informative, factual documentaries I have ever seen! And I am usually disinterested in them. I have always been interested in the idea of electric cars and always wondered why nobody has developed a consumer friendly simple electric car, it really is not that difficult to make one! as a matter of fact they are much less complicated than combustion cars. I honestly had no idea a car like the EV1 ever existed!!! I live near Cleveland Ohio which is probably part of the reason. Because of the research I have done on this topic over this past week there is no doubt in my mind that GM had absolutely no intentions of creating wide-spread interest in electric cars. As i'm sure you know GM is supposed to be rolling out the Chevy Volt by 2010, do you think that program (assuming it doesnt get shut down before then) will be only available in a lease like the EV1 was or do you think it will available to purchase and truly be a step forward in automotive history??
Thanks,
Justin
Posted by: Justin Healey | November 17, 2007 9:42 PM