Why electric?

In 1998 my wife and I leased our first battery-electric car, a 1997 General Motors EV1. Although we didn't expect this little red car to change the world, it sure changed our lives. Our initial interest in the car was environmental, and we thought that by driving this electric car we'd be making some sacrifices to do something for the environment. We quickly came to the conclusion that electric cars are just better cars and we both fought over who would drive it. In early 2000 we added a second EV1 to the family.

GM discontinued manufacturing the EV1, and recalled all of the existing EV1s from service as soon as their current leases expired. They did this despite a waiting-list for the vehicles thousands long and California law that requires the manufacture of zero-emission vehicles. http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com has more information about GM's attempts to bury this fantastic technology.

Both of ours were taken back, the second on the Fourth of July. Shouldn't we be celebrating independence from foreign oil on this day? With the purchase of a Toyota RAV4-EV, a AC Propulsion tzero, a Tesla Motors Roadster Sport, and a a Tesla Motors Model S, we now have four electric cars.

These vehicles are truly zero-emitting; they are powered by the sun.

These cars attract a lot of questions and one of the common question is "Haven't we just moved our pollution to the power plant?". Well, no we haven't. The emissions (excluding Carbon Dioxide) generated at the power plant are approximately 1% of the tailpipe emissions of an equivalent gasoline car, and that doesn't even count the upstream emissions associated with the extraction, refining, and transportation of gasoline. The upstream Carbon Dioxide emissions from an electric vehicle are only mildly better than a gasoline vehicle; indeed the most efficient gasoline vehicle, the Honda Insight, emits about the same as the General Motors EV1. Never the less, these questions started us thinking towards a cleaner way to generate power for our electric vehicles.

We've since added a 30.5kW photovoltaic system to generate the electricity that we use to power our house and charge these cars.