Who killed the electric car

There is an interesting documentary out at the moment, called "Who killed the electric car". So in the early 90's California had a zero emission law, which meant that car makers who sold cars in California had to also sell a certain percentage of zero emission cars by a certain date. The spured innovation and the creation of the electric car.

This movie tells the story how this was fought by the car industry, oil industry and the federal government and how these cars disappeared. One might say the story is a bit one-sided. Well, that is not really how I walked away. There are some compelling arguments this documentary makes. The hardest to swallow being how the electric car - a working solution which needed improvements - was abandoned and replaced by the hydrogen car - which is an unproven technology decades away before it will be commercially available.

Anyone who has some interest in what's happening in today's world and how sometimes the system doesn't work should go and see this documentary. Also go and see "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore - see my earlier blog post. I think these are important topics and the consumer - meaning every single one of us - has a big control in this.

This also ties into some other interesting topic I recently read about - The World Is Flat. If America wants to compete with other markets and geographies and if we want to stop our environmental destruction, there is only one solution. Innovate, fast-paced innovation, which means we need to invest in infrastructure, technology, science and education. Areas we started to neglect more and more in the last couple decades. And as usual here is your YouTube clip!