[ Golden Gater Online - October 23, 1997 ]
Last summer, a friend of mine named Charlie built an electric car. He rescued a convertible Volkswagen Rabbit from the jaws of the junkyard and parked it in his driveway, where it sat for a year before he could get enough money together to convert it from a gasoline-powered car to an electric-powered car.
He did it, in large part, to see if he could. He also did it for the same reason everybody else who builds electric cars does -- to help slow the spread of environmental pollution.
No one can argue that automobile emissions are ruining the environment and the air we breathe. If you need evidence, park yourself on the rim of the Los Angeles basin and observe the toxic, brown cloud that smears all L.A. vistas. No one would argue that electric cars are a bad idea.
The problem with electric cars, so far, has been that the execution hasn't lived up to the idea. But with Tuesday's announcement that scientists have discovered a clean and economical method of converting gasoline into electricity, that should all change.
You see, because of all the batteries, Charlie's electric-powered Volkswagen weighs about twice as much as a gas-powered Volkswagen does. He did all the work on it himself, except for the shocks, which he had to have specially installed to handle all the weight. It's not exactly a smooth ride.
More importantly, it can only travel about 60 miles before it runs out of juice. And it takes about eight hours to recharge the car. In other words, the Rabbit has a short leash.
That has been the crutch that prevented electric cars from gaining widespread acceptance. A man who wrote the definitive book on electric cars, helped Charlie build his, and even that guy drove a rusty, old VW bus -- probably the biggest gas guzzler you'll ever see.
So Charlie's car, although nice for a spin around the block, seems umbilically attached to the outlet in his garage.
A large-scale conversion to electric cars would also require a large-scale conversion of gas stations, and a large-scale conversion of the fossil fuel market, which economists frown upon.
The scientists who invented the fuel cell battery, which takes gas right from the gas tank and processes it into electricity, have solved the problem.
Electric car owners could pull into a filling station and gas up, instead of having to tap into the local power grid in order to drive their car. Not only that, cars, which use the fuel cell batteries, can go twice as far on the same amount of gasoline as today's gas-powered cars, and give off a small fraction of the emissions. People can drive farther than they ever could without stopping, and the environment is spared.
So the very American promise of the open road remains intact. Except for Charlie. He went away to school in New Mexico and had to leave his Rabbit at home.
[ Golden Gater - October 23, 1997 ]