I was watching the show NOW on PBS last night. There was a segment called "Who killed the electric car?" They interviewed the director of a new documentary film coming out about GM's ill-fated EV1 electric car and why GM mysteriously took them all back and then destroyed all of them despite their rabid popularity with the small number of people who were given the chance to lease one.

I had totally forgotten about the EV1. The director leased one and he, like most who have ever driven the EV1, totally fell in love with them. He said that it really moved and it "just worked".

According to the director, as for why GM pulled the plug, so to speak, on this experiment even though people offered them lot's of money to keep their beloved EV1's, is that all-electric vehicles threaten a whole host of industries--from Big Oil to parts manufacturers to your local Jiffy Lube. It's interesting that companies like Toyota have steadfastly refused to consider building plug-in hybrids even though people have made conversion kits for the Prius for some time now. We could all be driving electric vehicles right now. It's been done. Think about it.

Oh, Minnesota's governor just signed a law that promotes plug-in hybrids for the state's vehicle fleet, the first such law in the country, I believe. A part of the plan is to eventually start building plug-in's at an old auto plant in the state that is slated to be closed down by the company. Boy, that law must annoy a lot of vested interests. If you get a chance to catch the movie later on this summer, it could be interesting.