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Tearing through the crowded streets of Philadelphia, an electric car and a gas-powered car sought
to win a heated race. One that mimicked how cars are actually used. The cars had to stop
at stoplights, wait for pedestrians to cross the street, and swerve in and out of the hundreds
of horse-drawn buggies. That’s right, horse-drawn buggies. Because this race took place in 1908.
It wanted to settle once and for all which car was the superior urban vehicle. Although
the gas-powered car was more powerful, the electric car was more versatile. As the cars
passed over the finish line, the defeat was stunning. The 1908 Studebaker electric car
won by 10 minutes. If in 1908, the electric car was clearly the better form of transportation,
why don’t we drive them now? Today, I’m going to answer that question by diving into
the history of electric cars and what I discovered may surprise you.
The Race for Electric (1870-1920) In 1881, at a blistering pace of 9 mph, inventor
Gustave Trouvé introduced the streets of Paris, and ultimately, the world to the quiet
hum of the electric carriage. For the wealthy socialites of Paris, and their counterparts
in New York, the horseless carriage was a must have, and electric motors were the superior
choice. “By 1900, there were 4,192 vehicles on the streets in the U.S. Steam cars accounted
for 1,681 of these; 1,575 were electric, and 936 had internal-​combustion engines.”
If you just wanted to get around town, the electric carriage was a better option-- that
is, if you were rich enough to afford one. Unlike internal combustion engines, electric
vehicles were easy to turn on, accelerate, brake, there was no exhaust and didn’t have
something exploding under your seat. Oh, and you also didn’t have to crank the engine
every time you stopped, which is part of the reason why that electric Studebaker won the
Philadelphia race so handily. As a result of this ease of use, electric cars were looking
like big business in the early 1900s, especially for the industry giant Electric Vehicle Company.
At the time, the Electric Vehicle Company was the biggest car manufacturer in the country,
and they used a model that seems revolutionary now, but makes sense back then. Instead of
selling their cars, they rented them to people for the day or for multiple days. Each night
the renter could return the car to a central garage and the Electric Vehicle Company would
charge and service the vehicle, a model very similar to how stables worked at the time.
But despite the electric car’s success, its golden age was about to end.
First, an investigation by the New York Herald accused the Electric Vehicle Company of fraudulently
securing a loan, leading to intense backlash that ultimately bankrupted the company in
1901. Then, Henry Ford started banging out gas-powered vehicles, and with the help of
scale, exploitation of his workers, and the invention of the electric starter in 1912,
which meant that drivers no longer had to crank their cars every time they wanted to
travel, people started paying attention to the internal combustion engine. Around the
same time, roads were beginning to be paved, but these roads took people out into the country,
which lacked charging ports and the range of electric vehicles became more of an issue.
Local and federal governments failed to build the needed infrastructure for electric vehicles,
which meant that gas-powered vehicles were a much better option for the growing hordes
hoping to escape the city. And finally, as the auto industry began to attract more customers
in the early 1900s, advertising became increasingly gendered. Electric vehicles, more often than
not, were sold to women as easy-to-drive parlors on wheels. Even Henry Ford’s wife owned
an electric vehicle. Gas-powered cars, on the other hand, were painted as dirty, greasy,
powerful, and masculine cars that could take you out to the country and let you speed through
the streets. So, white men, aka those that had both money and power in early 20th century
america aka the primary buyers of cars, tended to purchase gas powered vehicles. And so,
by the 1920s, the perfectly serviceable electric car was all but extinct. These cars failed
not because they were inferior vehicles. They failed because cultural and societal pressures
steered us into the driver seat of gas guzzlers.
The EV1… Oh Wait Never Mind! (1990-2003) The EV1. A revolution in the car industry.
With California’s announcement of a zero-emissions car mandate, General Motors scrambled to make
an electric car. Their answer was the 1996 EV1. A futuristic (for the 90s) car that could
reach 80 mph on the highway and a range of 70 to 100 miles all on an electric battery.
The electric car was back! Tom hanks grabbed one and loved it, and so did Danny Devito.
But GM wasn’t just making this car because they cared about the environment, or electric
cars for that matter. They made the EV1 because they had to. The California Air Resources
Board required the top seven auto-manufacturers to make 2% of its fleet emissions-free by
1998, 5% by 2001, and 10% by 2003. So, car manufacturers, GM included, initially complied.
They retrofitted their models with electric motors and sold them throughout California.
In the beginning, it seemed like the auto-industry was going to make a momentous change, that
is, until people started looking under the hood. While GM was leasing their EV1s to the
likes of Tom Hanks, they were also mounting lobbying, advertising, and astroturfing campaigns
to dismantle the zero-emissions mandate. Why, you may ask? Well consumer advocate Ralph
Nader seems to think it's pretty simple: “the executives at the top, their motto seemed
to have been, ‘Going backwards into the future.’ And that's what they've been doing
for decades.” Despite consumer demand, and large waitlists for the EV1, GM actively sought
to dismantle EV production, because it was inconvenient for them. This was around the
same time when they started selling SUVs and Hummers en masse. So, they not only successfully
got the California Air Resources Board to repeal the mandate, but afterwards GM rounded
up every EV1 they had leased out, took them to a junkyard, and crushed them. That’s
right, the company that just ran this superbowl ad had a successful electric vehicle program
in the early 2000s, and they purposefully tanked it because they wanted to sell more
SUVs, Hummers, and gas vehicles.
The Electric Car Revolution? (2010 - 2021) Are things different now in 2021? Or will
we just repeat the mistakes of history? If Tesla’s and other electric vehicles' trajectory
are any indicator, EVs might be here to stay. If and how quickly they replace gas-powered
cars seems to be up to strong government policy. Policy, which up until November 23rd, 2020
GM was ruthlessly opposing. Their flip-flopping might just have something to do with the fact
that Trump is no longer in the White House. In fact, throughout Trump's presidency, the
auto industry fought tooth and nail to prevent any sort of emissions standards. In March
of 2020, Trump, with the support of auto industry giants, rolled back a landmark Obama-era emissions
mandate. The rollback would’ve led to nearly a billion additional metric tons of CO2 in
the atmosphere, if not for Biden’s reinstatement of the order. Much like California’s zero-emissions
mandate in the early 2000s, GM was right there on the ground lobbying for that rollback to
happen. The National Auto Dealers Association, which GM works closely with, has spent over
$57 million lobbying congress since 1998. The reality is that emissions mandates and
electric car subsidies do work, but while great for us, for the auto-industry it forces
them to do away with their “going backward into the future” mindest. But it is possible
to rapidly ramp up electric vehicle use. Norway is a perfect example. In 2012, 3% of the country’s
new cars were electric, just seven years late, that number is up to 56%. What Norway did
is quite simple. They subsidized EVs heavily to the point where they were cheaper than
their gas-powered counterparts, and they built a lot of charging infrastructure to support
these new cars. It does seem like the U.S. is starting to follow suit, with California’s
Governor issuing an executive order banning gas-powered car sales by 2035, and GM saying
that by that same year it will only sell electric cars. While this is hopeful news, considering
the history of the auto-industry, which Rollie from the YouTube channel, Climate Town did
a video all about the auto industry over on his channel, it’s hard to fully embrace
these announcemnets without some skepticism.
Are Electric Cars Actually the Best Solution? (2021-2050)
As we move closer and closer to 2050, the year when the world must be at zero emissions
to avoid the worst climate change scenarios, I think it’s important to take a step back
and consider whether switching to electric cars is the best solution. No, I don’t mean
we should stick with the internal combustion engine, what I’m saying is that we should
by trying to replace our current cars with electric models while also envisioning a world
with less cars. Because to be honest, cars suck. The co-founder of ZipCar, Robin Chase
puts the failed promise of cars perfectly in a documentary on CuriosityStream: “We
were promised that cars brought independence and that probably was true in the 30s, 40s,
50s, but we all know that most of us our driving is in very dense traffic. It’s not a pleasure,
it’s very expensive, and time-consuming.” Even electric cars have an impact, both in
terms of emissions and the green colonialism and exploitation that accompanies corporate
desires for metals like lithium. So when we begin to support new infrastructure for charging
systems we also need to consider how to build cities and towns that no longer center cars
as a resident’s primary mode of transportation, and make walking, biking, using public transit
really easy, really pleasurable, and really cheap or free. The key question should be
how can we connect countries, states, cities, and towns through affordable and clean public
transportations, without cars? Yes, the electric car will have a role to play in this new transportation
system, but it should be seen as a piece of the puzzle rather than the essential tool
that unlocks travel. Creating this alternative transportation system will certainly be difficult,
but not only is it possible through militant community organizing and consistent public
pressure on corporations, politicians, and governments, it is also an essential part
of a more ethical, and just zero-emissions world.
After being on YouTube for over four years, I still find it really hard to create climate-oriented
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