From Hollywood, Bob Pool reports on an unusual memorial service held by enthusiasts of an electric car killed by GM.
The memorial service began with a few moments of silence as the funeral procession moved slowly through the Hollywood cemetery. And why not? All 24 vehicles in the sad caravan were whisper-quiet electric cars.
Their drivers gathered to mourn the demise of the EV1, the futuristic, battery-powered General Motors car which was hailed in the late 1990s as the answer to smog alerts and petrol shortages.
GM produced about 1,100 of the wedge-shaped two-seaters from 1996 to 1999 in what seemed to be the first wave of electric cars designed to meet tough air-quality rules. Because the EV1's technology was considered experimental, the company leased the cars to drivers instead of selling them.
Then the California Air Resources Board relaxed car-emissions requirements. GM, claiming efforts to market the car were a dismal and costly failure, pulled the plug on the EV1 last autumn and began reclaiming the cars.
Although drivers have remained enthusiastic about their electric cars, GM has refused to extend the $300-per-month leases or sell the vehicles.
Drivers offered eulogies to the peppy, clean-running car during a sometimes-emotional mock service attended by more than 100 others at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Behind them were parked 15 sleek-looking EV1s, one shrouded in black crepe and covered with a funeral bouquet and others bearing personalised licence plates such as NOT OPEC and REVOLTS. Nine electric-powered Toyota RAV-4s were also in the procession.
"We are gathered here to say goodbye," Rabbi Brian Zachary Mayer of Van Nuys intoned solemnly. "We are here to say goodbye to a special friend, goodbye to an idea - to an ideal, to a dream."
Santa Monica filmmaker Chris Paine organised the unusual memorial. He has been ordered to turn in his EV1 on August 13th. It will then be scrapped by GM.
"She died before her time, in perfect health, and perhaps when she was most needed," he said. "Unfortunately, very few Americans had a chance to drive an electric car before it was cancelled."
The EV1 was offered only to motorists in California and Arizona. Enthusiasts say most of them were snapped up by southern California drivers. GM has reclaimed many of them, leaving only about 100 on Los Angeles streets, according to Paine.
Hollywood-area city councilman Eric Garcetti, who has had an EV1 for five years, got a laugh from the crowd when he said he will continue driving his "until December, when GM will have to pry it out of my charger's dead, cold hands".
Actor Ed Begley Junior said he has driven electric cars since 1990. He drew applause when he wryly observed that "the detractors of electric vehicles" are correct when they claim battery-powered cars aren't for everyone. "Given their limited range, they can only meet the needs of 90 per cent of the population," he said.
Several designers and engineers who helped create the EV1 were among the mourners. One of them, Wally Rippel, suggested that the electric car is not dead. "It will go on, perhaps with a different body," he said.
"Really, it's a time for rejoicing," said famed aeronautical and solar inventor Paul MacCready of Pasadena.
"Technology makes it inevitable that there will be more electric vehicles in the future. And it's all because of the EV1."
The crowd lingered after the service ended. Actress Alexandra Paul, an EV1 driver, took a test ride on a battery-powered Segway scooter.
There were hugs between the environmentalists, engineers and EV1 enthusiasts while a bagpiper mournfully played a dirge. Then they piled into their electric cars and - very quietly - faded away.
- Los Angeles Times