Part of the reason the EV1 an early modern electric vehicle only existed from 1996 – 1999, was because oil corporations, in order to protect their fuel monopolies, purchased and supressed the patent on the nickel metal hydride battery used to power the vehicle. Fortunately technology has evolved and a lithium battery is used to power electric vehicles today.
The General Motors EV1 was a vehicle ahead of its time. Technology (battery life), a lack of infrastructure to support the vehicles, and big oil pressure to relax tailpipe emission regulations, all contributed to this zero emission car’s demise.
This represents industrial greed, and some of the wonderful ideas that corporations have bought out and suppressed in order to maximize their profits, bearing little responsibility or concern for what they do to the planet, or what they leave behind for future generations. I am also having fun with the fact that zero emission could be interpreted in more than one way.
This serigraph has participated in the following National Exhibit;
Eccentricities – Scarborough Arts’ 26th Annual Juried Exhibition, Papermill Gallery, Toronto, National 2011