The first modern electric car
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 31 August 2021
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This electric car revolution is finally on the horizon: many car manufacturers have promised to make only electric vehicles in the near future, in response to the climate emergency. But the first mass-produced modern electric car, the General Motors EV1, was launched back in 1996. Within a few short years it was scrapped: almost every vehicle was recalled and crushed, and the car of the future disappeared in history’s rear-view mirror. Viv Jones hears the story from one of the car’s creators, research engineer Wally Rippel.
Photo: The GM EV1 (Kim Kulish/Sygma via Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. This is the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Viv Jones. |
| 0:46.0 | Many of the world's leading car companies have vowed to switch to making only electric vehicles in the near future to help tackle climate change. |
| 0:54.0 | Today the story of the first mass produce electric car, |
| 0:58.0 | the General Motors EV1, launched back in 1996. |
| 1:02.0 | Within a few short years it was scrapped, literally, the vehicles were rounded up and crushed, and the car of the future disappeared in history's rearview mirror. |
| 1:12.0 | Woolie Rappelle is one of the car's creators. |
| 1:15.0 | People loved it who had it. |
| 1:17.0 | It was fun to drive. |
| 1:18.0 | It accelerated 0 to 60 miles an hour in 8 seconds. and it gave people the feeling of a jet plane taking off. |
| 1:27.0 | Wally first began thinking about electric cars 30 years before the GM EV1, back when he was a student at Caltech University in California. |
| 1:35.5 | It was the mid-1960s, and the big issue of the day in Southern California wasn't climate change. |
| 1:40.8 | It was air pollution. Fumes from the millions of cars on LA's roads were creating a thick |
| 1:45.6 | blanket of toxic smog. What was it like? Well, it was bad enough that you would often be crying when nothing sad was happening. |
| 1:55.0 | The air was so contaminated. |
| 1:58.8 | And that's what got me to thinking about, okay, what should we be doing technically to deal with a smog problem? |
| 2:05.0 | I learned that if all cars on the road were made electric, the total emissions would be cut dramatically. |
| 2:12.0 | Wally didn't come up with the electric vehicle. total emissions would be cut dramatically. |
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