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SF Activist Wants To Make Electric Vehicles Everyone's New, Cool Car
As gas prices rise and sea levels inch upward, kicking the nation's oil habit is becoming a priority. Now one group of activists wildly passionate about their electric vehicles (EVs) is fighting to put a plug on American autos. Brian Shott, an editor at New America Media, interviews one such advocate, who says a tiny, ugly EV changed his outlook on energy use and personal transit.
SAN FRANCISCO--It was his passion for automobiles more than a growing concern for the environment that first pushed activist Marc Geller to purchase the electric vehicle he says changed his life.
In 1999, "I was looking for my next cool car," says Geller, a tall, wiry man who came to the Bay Area in 1976. Keeping up his old Citroen -- a funky French station wagon with hydraulic suspension that Geller says rode "like traveling in a living room" -- was simply too expensive. Plus, the car's leaking hydraulics nagged at his conscience.
Geller's search for a desirable but cleaner car led him into a world of electric vehicle owners wildly passionate about their "EVs," and powerful automakers reluctantly building, barely promoting and then reclaiming and crushing many of those same vehicles. He's emerged as a committed EV driver and activist and solar panel salesperson determined to get electric cars the respect they deserve.
If former vice president and presidential candidate Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" put global warming in the national spotlight, the smaller but similarly well-reviewed documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car" could help focus those concerns around Geller's transportation agenda. Geller, who knew director Chris Paine from battles to save EVs, has helped promote the film.
Finding an EV to replace his old Citroen back in 1999 wasn't easy. Geller tracked down leasing agents "hidden away in the back of the dealers," only to be told that no cars were available. California, through its Zero Emissions Mandate of 1990, had required the major auto companies to produce non-polluting vehicles. Carmakers used a variety of ways to keep those vehicles' profiles low while obeying the requirement to put them on the roads, often leasing EVs only as fleet cars, typically to municipalities.
After almost two years of searching, in the spring of 2001, Geller found Ford's Th!nk City, a car he describes as "little, plastic, scary-small... a glorified golf cart." He leased one because he knew it might be his only chance to get an EV.
Read More
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=a6239db278ad2de3b78251493f0025df
In 1999, "I was looking for my next cool car," says Geller, a tall, wiry man who came to the Bay Area in 1976. Keeping up his old Citroen -- a funky French station wagon with hydraulic suspension that Geller says rode "like traveling in a living room" -- was simply too expensive. Plus, the car's leaking hydraulics nagged at his conscience.
Geller's search for a desirable but cleaner car led him into a world of electric vehicle owners wildly passionate about their "EVs," and powerful automakers reluctantly building, barely promoting and then reclaiming and crushing many of those same vehicles. He's emerged as a committed EV driver and activist and solar panel salesperson determined to get electric cars the respect they deserve.
If former vice president and presidential candidate Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" put global warming in the national spotlight, the smaller but similarly well-reviewed documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car" could help focus those concerns around Geller's transportation agenda. Geller, who knew director Chris Paine from battles to save EVs, has helped promote the film.
Finding an EV to replace his old Citroen back in 1999 wasn't easy. Geller tracked down leasing agents "hidden away in the back of the dealers," only to be told that no cars were available. California, through its Zero Emissions Mandate of 1990, had required the major auto companies to produce non-polluting vehicles. Carmakers used a variety of ways to keep those vehicles' profiles low while obeying the requirement to put them on the roads, often leasing EVs only as fleet cars, typically to municipalities.
After almost two years of searching, in the spring of 2001, Geller found Ford's Th!nk City, a car he describes as "little, plastic, scary-small... a glorified golf cart." He leased one because he knew it might be his only chance to get an EV.
Read More
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=a6239db278ad2de3b78251493f0025df
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