What are electric cars?
The electric vehicle (EV), or, more colloquially, electric car, is gaining traction as a viable alternative form of personal transportation, and remains just out of arms' reach as a mainstream way to get around. The cars run on energy stored in large packs of batteries instead of the more conventional internal combustion engine, making them very attractive to those concerned with using less oil and causing fewer greenhouse gas emissions. When driving, they don't emit any carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas, nor any nitrogen oxide or other smog-forming compound. The EV1, an electric car manufactured by GE, was a short-lived car that people still talk about.
Who killed the electric car?
Before we dive in to the EV1, a little context: historically, EVs have had issues with high battery costs, limited travel distance between battery recharging, charging time, and battery lifespan, which have limited widespread adoption. Ongoing battery technology advancements have addressed many of these problems; many models have recently been prototyped, and a growing handful of future production models have been announced. Toyota, Honda, Ford and General Motors all produced EVs in the 1990s in order to comply with the California Air Resources Board's (CARB) Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate, which was later defeated by the manufacturers and the federal government.