Ten-Year-Old Tells Compelling History of Electric Cars

What a great multimedia paper on the history of the electric car. I have been involved off and on in the design and engineering of electric cars since 1986 and I don't think I have ever seen a paper that does a better job of expressing the history of electric cars.

I had forgotten just how creepy that shadowy EV-1 ad was.

The other thing that happened back in the EV-1 days was that GM had a really thick application form that people had to fill out to prove they were good enough to rent an EV-1. It had nothing to do with their ability to make the lease payments. It had a whole bunch of personal questions. Mel Gibson, who was a leading star in Hollywood at that time, failed to make the cut. He had to pull strings and put pressure on people to finally get an EV-1.

And no one could even get one of these forms unless they could find the special sales agent at each dealership who was authorized to give out the forms and talk about the EV-1. I had a lot of friends at the time, including an employee, who went from GM dealer to GM dealer trying to find this ellusive special sales agent. They made it really hard to get an EV-1 and then turned around and complained that no one wanted one.

But it is a new and more hopeful time now. We have finally returned to a period of time when EVs are in regular production. It only took a century to get back here.

By the time Allison is driving (in 6 years or so) there will be used EVs on the market. I hope she gets one as her first car.

Great work Allison! Don't listen to those naysayers on Fox News, you are on the right track!