The Quest

Where is my Electric Minivan? is about a hunt. I've written about lots of potentially green cars and realized most of them weren't for most people.

Nissan eNV200 - Wikipedia Commons

Manufacturers like to show that they're doing something to get away from gasoline, but rarely do they produce anything people will actually buy. 

I've seen lots of city cars that wouldn't fit a single me comfortably, let alone passengers and cargo. You'd never feel safe in one looking up at the full-sized vehicles on American roads.

I've seen exotic, esoteric dream mobiles that look like props from a science fiction movie, but may never appear in a real neighborhood.

NanoFlowCell Quant e-Sportlimousine - Wikipedia Commons

I've seen California compliance vehicles. California is progressive in pushing the auto makers to change. They require them to build a certain number of alternative fuel vehicles or they can't sell cars in the state. So things like the Toyota RAV4 EV and the Chevy Spark EV pop up in limited numbers, but never sell anywhere else.

I saw an electric car revolution come and go with eery quietness in the 1990s. We'll get into Who Killed the Electric Car, the General Motors EV1, the electric Ford Ranger, Chrysler's electric Caravan and more later.

General Motors EV1 Junkpile - Wikipedia Commons

All I wanted was to see was automobiles that most people could afford and use. I don't believe you can change people very much. We drive what we drive. We like to go where we want when we want. Therefore mass transit will never replace the car. We'll never drive tiny boxes. We want useful cars. We want sexy cars.

We need big cars. We need three rows of seats and cargo space. That's why minivans and full-sized SUVs are king. Nothing is available in this class with acceptable range that doesn't run on fossil fuel.

So I'm asking: "Where is my Electric Minivan?" I'll take a zero-emissions big SUV too. I believe middle-class families deserve zero-emissions, long-range, family-sized affordable transportation.

That's all.

Some vehicles out there almost fit. We'll look into those. We'll watch the industry come closer and closer. We'll expose ways to save money going solar. We'll learn about green tech.

And we'll make noise. We'll let the auto industry know that we'll buy these things when they build them. It's capitalism. They'll listen.

Here's to garages with solar panels on them and EV chargers in them with no exhaust anywhere.

Thanks. Let's do this.