SHOT Panel Info

• Why did the electric car fail, and why does it keep coming back?
• Is the era of the electric vehicle finally at hand?
• Where does the electric vehicle fit into American technological culture?
• How do we as individuals shape the history of technology?
• What does it mean that companies like GM and Honda are now making electric vehicles?
• How does owning and driving an electric vehicle influence your answers to these questions?

As we enter the late 1990s, asking people what they think of electric cars is like a Rorschach test: the responses may tell you a great deal about the person, but precious little about the technology, its past or its future. The electric vehicle has become a cultural football tossed back and forth between competing visions of the American future. To some, mentioning the electric vehicle induces paroxysms of anxiety about government meddling in the free market for technology. Others see the electric vehicle as the soft path into the next millennium, the green escape from the petroleum economy. Still others see the electric car as the new technological frontier; they are focused on the novelty of the technology-the possibility of building new industries and markets-and are less concerned with the social and environmental consequences of this potentially revolutionary technology. Finally, a small but devoted group views the electric vehicle as their own means of transportation; since the late 1960s these hobbyists have built and driven their own electric cars. Since December 1996, a few hundred intrepid drivers have leased vehicles from major automotive manufacturers like GM and Honda.