A few years ago I went to see the movie Who Killed the Electric Car in the theatre.  A total of 4 people were in the audience.  That documentary made me very angry, but what was worse - was that I was alone in my outrage. Basically, no one knew about the story of electric cars.

First off, electric cars are not small.  They can handle highway driving and they're safe.  If it's electric, it doesn't only have to be a car, it could be an SUV.

Yet everyone thinks Electric cars are small, goofy-looking compacts that no one would drive, except new-age hippies with pony-tails.  Screw that.

But this post isn't about the viability of electric cars.  If you want to learn about the specifics, and why electric cars pollute less,  use less energy, cause less pollution, please see the references in the forum post... Here.

The point of THIS article is to talk about why electric cars haven't made it big yet.  

For example, why is it possible for an oil company to buy the rights to NiMH battery patents, the same batteries used in the electric SUV above, and never be prosecuted for Anti-Trust violations?

Imagine if Microsoft bought up patents for computer processors, and then said "I'm sorry, if your Operating System wants to use our patented processor, it needs to pay a ton of money.  So much money in fact, that only Microsoft will be allowed to utilize the processor."  How fast would Microsoft be sued into obvlivion?

Well, that's exactly what happened with electric cars using NiMH batteries.  Chevron/Texaco bought the patents to NiMH, and since then we haven't seen any EVs with NiMH.  They charge outrageous fees for rights to develop a large NiMH battery... yet no one asks for Antitrust prosecutions.  Why can an oil company completely destroy future competition before it even exists, while Microsoft gets prosecuted for packaging a browser with an Operating System?  

The DOJ should be investigating oil companies stifling future competition, by burying technology they don't like. NiMH is just one example.

On the other side of the oil barrel, are the auto manufacturers who have had a love/hate relationship with future electrics.

Actually it's more like they love electric car PR and green-washing, while they hate the idea of making electric cars a reality.

If they didn't hate EVs, why did EVERY major auto-manufacturer tell their EV customers in 2001 that they need the cars they were leasing back, to be used for research to build better EVs.  Then turn around and crushed all those cars, sue the CA government for having them make EVs, and then switched all their research to Hydrogen?

That entire story is covered in Who Killed the Electric Car.  If you haven't seen the documentary already, it's a MUST SEE.  I don't want to completely re-hash the story here, but basically, auto manufacturers actions speak louder than words.  Their actions prove they're hostile towards EVs.  

Even after proving the EV market exists, they only use EVs as PR to talk about their non-existant green credentials, when in reality, EVs were green and viable over 10 years ago.

If you look closer at how car companies make money, it's pretty obvious why EVs haven't been developed.  The profit-margins just aren't as great with EVs. In EVs you don't need oil changes, tune-ups, and thousands of parts that go into the the assembly of an internal combustion engine.  All these parts may need repair in 3-10 years, at which time, the dealership salesguy will have a talk about trading in your "old" vehicle.  As if 5 years was an acceptable/natural life-span for car.

Electric motors are just too simple, and they last too long.  That's why auto-manufacturers refuse to make them, and why they'll do anything to stop them. 

It's also important look at their long relationship with the oil industry.  The same industry that claims we only have enough oil for transportation, not enough electricity.  According to MIT that's not the case:

Anyway you look at it, EVs are long overdue.  It's been 8 years since we had a wide range of EVs leased to the public, and here we are - 8 years later, still looking at the crushed corpses of the electric car, still being told that EVs are years away (maybe 2011).  It's time to stop believing auto manufacturers, and start making EVs a reality ourselves.  

Unfortunately while there are a few start-ups that claim they are mass-producing EVs, the fact of the matter is that U.S. Safety Laws and vehicle testing cost any company wishing to make a highway  compatible vehicle hundreds of millions of dollars.   There's just too few companies with that kind of capital that can afford those market entry costs.  On top of that, those companies get their parts  from manufacturers closely tied to the existing auto-industry.  

That's why the only reasonable solution, other than re-instating the EV Mandate nation-wide, is to convert existing cars to electric ourselves.  It's better for the environment anyway.

There's already conversion shops working accross the country selling conversions.  Just Google "buy used electric car" to get some websites.

There's also places that will convert your car for $10k or less.  It's these places I hope people turn to more and more.  With the bad economy, increasing gas costs, and endless foreign wars and tensions over declining oil reserves, people should be looking for an alternatives.  And if you're ready for the alternative now, don't wait.  Get an EV.