Grasping defeat from the jaws of victory. We were so close.

With arguably the most sophisticated, successful and popular production electric vehicle ever made, that most of the country outside California and Arizona has only vaguely heard of (if at all), GM terminated their EV1 program, recalled the vehicles they had leased to the fury and dismay of their devoted customers, destroyed them at significant expense and lied to the public that there was no demand, fighting to discredit those who revealed the waiting list of thousands who never got their cars. And all this, just when the story was getting good, and the battery problems were finally being solved after a century of mediocrity. GM and the other manufacturers gave up, stopped the research, took their ball and went home.

Why they did this is not entirely certain and perhaps never will be, but there’s a remarkable story here to be told based just on what we do know. And we know that there was certainly some dirty pool being played. As a matter of fact, someone else has evidently had the same thought, and produced a movie about it, called Who Killed the Electric Car? It’s been playing at the Sundance Film Festival and hopefully will soon be released to theaters.

Until then however, there is a really good half-hour documentary video available on Google Video called FutureCrush that really does a great job of summarizing the story. Some parts are kind of crazy, showing how far activists will go to support their passions (shouting with a megaphone on the street, standing with signs in the rain, engaging in civil disobedience and getting arrested), but there are some really good interviews here with people who were there and involved, not just the random-voices-on-the-street stuff. Included is a spot with Chelsea Sexton who spoke at the EAA chapters conference last year, as well as some great historical information about the Aerovironment Sunraycer project which led to the Impact project which then in turn became the EV1. Some good points on the folly of fuel cells, a demonstration of the very powerful AC Propulsion drive system as installed in a late model VW Golf, a little peak oil prophecy thrown in if you’re into that, and some optimism that perhaps the automotive industry will eventually come to its senses and realize the mistake it made at the dawn of the 21st century when they killed the electric car.

Other casualties:

• The Ford Electric Ranger
• The Honda EV Plus
• The Toyota RAV4 EV
• The Nissan Altra
• The Chevrolet Electric S-10
• The Chrysler EPIC minivan

None of these vehicles were adequately advertised even within their mandated market in California, and are virtually unknown elsewhere. How many of these have you heard of?