EV1 Recall

“Little Car’s Big Shadow” (editorial, March 12) misses the real significance of GM’s EV1 recall. GM recalled all of the older EV1s, not with the intent to fix them, but to keep them. The second-generation EV1s with improved batteries would make good replacements, but there is already a waiting list for them. Can GM build more? Not easily; it dismantled the EV1 assembly line.

GM says it wants to create and build a market for electric vehicles, but its actions speak differently. GM is not alone. Honda built only 300 EVs and Toyota never made its EV available to the general public. Now those two companies promote their Insight and Prius hybrid vehicles, implying they are almost like EVs but with better range. In fact, those hybrids use only gasoline, not electricity, and they pollute as much or more as other new gasoline vehicles.

If auto makers trample the budding market for EVs as they try to overturn the mandate, only those few of us who have had a chance to live with these friendly vehicles will know what we are missing.

ALEC BROOKS

Vice President, tZero

AC Propulsion, San Dimas