Maximum Federal Tax Credit for an Electric Vehicle in 2002:
$4000

Maximum Federal Tax Deduction for 6000 lbs. + vehicle in 2003:
$100,000

When the Hummer was first released, no one wanted to drive one. They were too big, too scary, too fuel inefficient. Then GM spent millions of dollars on advertising and gave incentives to custmers to buy the Hummer. Suddenly people were convinced that the Hummer was bigger, and safer and that they needed the protections that the Hummer offered. If GM had tried 1/2 as hard to sell the EV1 as they did to sell the Hummer, then maybe the hundreds of EV1s that were leased in Southern California wouldn't have been taken away and crushed into nothing.

In 1977 President Jimmy Carter developed an energy plan that he hoped would keep the United States from ever using as many barrels of oil per day as they did that year. In 1977 8.8 million barrels of oil were imported per day. In 2005 we imported 13.5 million barrels per day. President Ronald Reagan came along and tore down the solar panels that President Carter had put in the White House lawn. President Carter inacted a peice of legislation that resulted in vehicle fuel efficiency doubling from roughly 15 miles per gallon up to 30 miles per gallon. Since then, there has been no increase in average miles per gallon under any President.

In 1990 Congress inacted the Zero Emissions Mandate which required that in order for an auto maker to stay in business, a certain percentage of the cars they produce must be Zero Emission Vehicles. That is when the EV1s were released. After the auto makers, mainly GM, fought and dismantled the ZEM, electric cars virtually disappeared. There is no reason why if the Army can produce an electric tank, which they have, we can't produce any SUV or sedan in an electric model.

As of 2006, the Japanese had Hybrid Vehicles that achieved 42 miles per gallon. Why, in that same year, were American-made hybrid cars still averaging 25 miles per gallon? Because in order for an auto maker to market a vehicle as being "clean" it must admit that it's other vehicles are dirty! And what company wants to spend millions of dollars making most of it's automobile fleet look bad?

When it comes to buying hybrid, a lot of people say that the amount of money you save on gas, does not offset the extra initial cost of the car. Who cares?! I'm not going to buy a hybrid because it's cheap, or even to save money on gas. I'm going to do it because I know it's what I should do and it is what needs to be done if we are going to save this planet. As for electric cars, people have these arguments like, "I don't want to drive a small car. I don't want my house to be cold. I don't want to live like a European." What the hells is so wrong with any of those things? Our planet is grossly over-populated so choose to have fewer children and drive smaller cars. Our planet is being suffocated by our gasses and polution, so lets keep our homes a little more cold in the winter. The Europeans do those things, and I'm jealous of them for it. They have amazing public transportation systems and they have more government regulation. Maybe that is socialism and maybe that isn't what America wants to be. But America's going to be left behind.

This was 1990:


This should be now:


Not this: