Our new Camry Hybrid arrived from Japan last week. Wow! I am madly in love.
At a base price of 30K, it’s about half the cost of most hybrid SUV's and it is the smoothest, quietest, smartest car I have ever owned. As I cruise around town with the gas engine completely off most of the time, I have the stealth sensation of canoeing more than driving. At 50 miles to the gallon I must admit that every so often a devilish voice inside of my head wants to scream out explicatives like “bleep.. bleep… George Bush!”
I still like walking, biking and bussing every chance I get, but for those times when we do need a car, driving electric is liberating and good for the soul.
For anyone that has not yet seen the documentary “Who killed the electric car?”, watch it and realize that GM’s EV-1 was among the fastest, most efficient production cars ever built. It ran on electricity, produced no emissions and catapulted American technology to the forefront of the automotive industry. The lucky few who drove it never wanted to give it up. And yet, it was as recent as 2005 that GM ripped all its EV-1 electric cars out of the hands of adoring owners to crush them on the wrecker’s lot.
It makes you appreciate that stubborn allegiance to the status quo has made GM truly earn its recent demise. But it also makes it clear that armed with this awesome battery technology, North American car manufacturers now have the opportunity to turn themselves around and become genius innovators and world leaders once again.
Honestly, if you have not yet driven an electric car, take one for a test drive. They are one of the smartest things we humans have made in a long time.
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