Last year, my wife and I watched a documentary called Who Killed the Electric Car, and it's exactly how it sounds. The movie discussed the first surge of electric cars that came on the market some years back and how they soon disappeared but no one really knows why. That's all in the past though, and its time to look forward. With the gas prices where they are and the focus on going green, it was only a matter of time before car companies moved along with the times.
What I like specifically about this article is not just the Chevy Volt (that got announced a while ago), but that they bring it specifically into the NASCAR arena and try to find out whether it will ever be accepted. To be honest, I don't really care about NASCAR or car racing in general, but I know that if the country and world begin to move toward advances in transportation technology, it will obviously have quite an effect on this sport and how it is carried out.
So, would it be bad if the sport had to sacrifice some of the things that people love (the sound, perhaps the speed) in order to make it more environmentally friendly? Not exactly, but it will take more than just one electric car for them to justify changing the entire sport to a new technology. Maybe once all cars have moved from gasoline dependent to electric (or some other new technology not now known) will they move towards changing the sport (or just making a new one with the new vehicles).
Any NASCAR fans out there who can weigh in?
What I like specifically about this article is not just the Chevy Volt (that got announced a while ago), but that they bring it specifically into the NASCAR arena and try to find out whether it will ever be accepted. To be honest, I don't really care about NASCAR or car racing in general, but I know that if the country and world begin to move toward advances in transportation technology, it will obviously have quite an effect on this sport and how it is carried out.
So, would it be bad if the sport had to sacrifice some of the things that people love (the sound, perhaps the speed) in order to make it more environmentally friendly? Not exactly, but it will take more than just one electric car for them to justify changing the entire sport to a new technology. Maybe once all cars have moved from gasoline dependent to electric (or some other new technology not now known) will they move towards changing the sport (or just making a new one with the new vehicles).
Any NASCAR fans out there who can weigh in?
2 comments:
love love love that documentary!
Lack of demand and GM not wanting to have to make spare parts killed the electric vehicle. It was just a hobby car really, although some people liked them.
If NASCAR doesn't embrace the electric vehicle, it doesn't matter. There will always be internal combustion engines. Hybrids and PIH are incremental inprovements...if they work, great. Just because people like Nascar doesn't mean they won't buy them. And a lot of the country would buy them in any case. Especially if they save money, etc.
CA could mandate them in SoCal eventually to alleviate smog...or put a high tax on ICE and subsidies to PIH...who knows.
That this technology is out there at a cost of billions to GM puts the lie to the "Who killed the electric car" idea that it was a conspiracy of "big oil", etc. why didn't big oil kill this? It's going to have more of an effect than some lead acid electric cars.
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