From all indicators coming from manufacturing and reports from the national media it looks like we are going to actually have electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf and series plug-in hybrids like the Chevy Volt by the end of the year and early next year. For those of us who have been activists in the electric vehicle movement it has been a long time coming. However, now that things are coming to fruition, I am somewhat surprised that things don’t seem to be happening for us who held the torch of EVs for so long. I am especially surprised that the very institution that was so instrumental in making this new world of cleaner, quieter automobiles a reality actually seems to be loosing out.
I am sure you are asking yourself, what institution are you talking about? The organization that I am most talking about is the Electric Automobile Association (EAA). This organization, which was started in 1967, was the organization that gave rise to so many other organizations that have gone on to influence the political thought that shaped much of the legislative change we see today.
The EAA came into being when the demand for electric vehicles was so great that people couldn’t wait for manufactures to some day get around to making electric cars. They built them or converted cars themselves. A combination of gear heads and electric engineers seemed to do the impossible. In their backyards or in their garages they began cobbling together the parts that could convert regular gasoline cars to run on electricity. First attempts may have seemed crude. The cars often had very limited range. The electric motors often times were not up to the task of moving the vehicle with sufficient speed to drive on the highways, but as they experimented with different motors and different motor controllers, they slowly and steadily arrived closer and closer to a vehicle that actually could meet nearly all a drivers needs for daily use. EAA proved to be an early version of an open source communication conduit between all the experimenters and tinkerers trying to make what they couldn’t buy in the marketplace, an electric car.
In the era before manufactured electric vehicles by the major automakers, EAA was the organization that represented the only electric vehicles and the electric vehicle enthusiast around, the people who were so obsessed with the desire to own and drive electric cars that they made them themselves. By the early 1980s there were best practices established and published in books on how to convert a gasoline car into an electric vehicle. By the early 1990s there were high schools putting electric vehicles together as science projects, colleges and universities were building cars powered only by light, and the backyard tinkerer began producing vehicles that actually could meet the needs of most drivers on a daily basis. Some of these backyard tinkerers, armed with engineering degrees and some knowledge of business, began launching ventures into mass production of converted cars. EAA was there, encouraging and supporting not only these ventures but also the owners of the first iterations of these production electric vehicles (EVs).
In the mid 1990s, due to the a mandate for zero emission set forth by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), all major manufactures had to bring zero emission vehicles to the California market or be limited in the number of other vehicles they could sell in the state. All major automakers complied and for a period of time Californians, some Arizonans and some New Yorkers could lease electric vehicles made by major automobile manufacturers. EAA was there to help these new owners form electric vehicle clubs.
The EAA chapter that would end up being the most influential organization of recent times and perhaps of all time was the EV1 Club of California. The members of this club faced with the manufacturers taking back their leased vehicles and crushing them evolved into DontCrush.com and protested. Their protest garnered a lot of media attention and the members of the club became the principles of the documentary, “Who Killed the Electric Car?” They staged a now famous funeral for the EV1 and got national attention for staging a vigil outside a GM facility housing EV1s. They registered with the country their displeasure with the almost universal crushing of their beloved electric cars. GM crushed their vehicles in spite of this group’s protests and the bad publicity they received. After the electric vehicles were for the most part gone from the marketplace, and crushed, DontCrush.com changed its goal from stopping EVs from being crushed, to organizing the grassroots movement that it had attracted and use that momentum to bring back any form of car that used readily available electricity. It changed its name to Plug-in America and has grown to be many times the size of its parent, the Electric Auto Association.
But now that electric vehicles are a virtual certainty in the marketplace, EAA has a role once again. It is the same one it played when manufactured electric vehicles first showed up on the streets of California more than a decade ago. EAA is back as the organization most capable of establishing and organizing local electric vehicle enthusiast groups. Creating a place where new owners of electric vehicles can mingle with members who have been driving electric for years. The new EV owners can put questions to people who have converted their own vehicles and have a deep understanding of the systems that make up an EV. They provide a place where new electric vehicle owners can share experiences with fellow new EV owners.
I envision seeing EAA chapters forming all over the country of Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt and other manufactured EV owners coming together with backyard tinkerers, high school shop classes, college engineering schools and general EV enthusiasts. I see this diverse group of people sitting down in some pub, restaurant or public library, maybe eat some pizza, and drink some sodas and just talk about the latest thing going on with EVs. I see chapters then organizing events, bringing EVs to local schools, taking out their EVs to autocross and EV drag racing events. I see members giving talks about their personal experiences to groups of people gathered to listen and willing to learn.
But, we won’t have that beautiful picture of the future if people simply forget about the Electric Auto Association. I am not here to talk flowery talk and paint visions of the future like castles in the sky. I am here, like Harvey Milk would say, to recruit you. I want you to become active but in a very minimal way. I want you to join the EAA. Even if you don’t have an EV now and don’t think you will get one anytime soon. If you believe like I do, that EVs should be a part of our choices for automobiles on the road, you owe it to yourself to join. You won’t regret it. If there is a local chapter of the EAA near you join it. Go to the meetings. You will be fascinated by what you will hear and see. If there isn’t a local chapter near you, organize one. It isn’t hard to do. Go to http://www.eaaev.org and learn how to become a member, as well as how to establish a local chapter.
One final and very personal favor I need to ask you. When you become a member you will be given the opportunity to receive and read our association’s newsletter, Current Events. It has been harder and harder to get support for this publication in terms of advertising. I need your help in finding companies and organization that will help us keep this publication going. If you know of anyone that would be interested in advertising to an audience of eager EV enthusiasts, please have them go to the website and communicate with us. Oh and one more thing. Please tell them that Joe sent ya. Thank you for your support.