Electric Cars

Ruchira tells us to go see Who Killed The Electric Car, a movie I also want to catch. The other day I caught a couple minutes of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on the radio; he was talking about health care but someone asked him about transport. He conceded that now he's driven around in a City chauffered vehicle, but that before he was driving an EV1 that he liked very much and misses. This is how I always hear about these cars, and the sheer oddness of taking away a product that tests well is so baffling that I'm looking forward to a serious explanation. One Word Changing blogger dubbed it an excellent murder mystery, while another shrugs and says the real story is who's rebuilding the electric car, citing, among others, the Wrightspeed that Business 2.0 featured a few months ago.

At some level, electric cars are a bit of a shell game. They still have to be charged, and most of our electricity still comes from fossil fuels--coal instead of oil. But powerplants can be more efficient than internal combustion engines, and getting the biggest source of greenhouse gases--the cars--ready and waiting for cleaner energy sources (solar, wind, nuclear, or carbon-neutral biofuel)would still be a big step forward.