7/31/2019 The Electric Car and the Burdens of Culture

1/12

The Electric Car and the Burdensof Culture, Political Economy and

History

Ernie Yanarella, Director,

Environment Studies Program

7/31/2019 The Electric Car and the Burdens of Culture

2/12

Key Question

Why did the gasoline-powered, internalcombustion engine win out over the electricmotor-driven car in the race for pre-eminenceas the standard for private vehicle

transportation in the United States in the firsttwo decades of the Automobile Age?

Was the victory of the gasoline fueled automobile

inevitable?

Was it a conspiracy?

7/31/2019 The Electric Car and the Burdens of Culture

3/12

What Does the HistoricalEvidence Suggest?

Not foreordained

Early success ofelectric-powered

automobile, taxi,and truck

Early preferenceover gas-fueled

automobile,particularly in townsand cities

7/31/2019 The Electric Car and the Burdens of Culture

4/12

The Electric Vehicles Liabilities

The electricautomobile'sAchilles' heel--itsbattery

It could not be fastand go farsimultaneously

The separatespheres dichotomybroke down

7/31/2019 The Electric Car and the Burdens of Culture

5/12

The genderedelement of the

separate spheres

idea undercut itsmore neutralrendering

The Pluto effect

came to favor thegasoline car

7/31/2019 The Electric Car and the Burdens of Culture

6/12

A variety of factors came to advantage the

gasoline propelled auto as the single-carfamily vehicle for in-town and long-distanceexcursions

7/31/2019 The Electric Car and the Burdens of Culture

7/12

But

Technology not a monolithic process--it isthe sum of technical, social, political,economic, and value decisions and choices

For a time, steam, gasoline, and electricvehicles competed in a variety of contextsand many enthusiasts for one or the otherexpected that a range of variants would

survive the process of technologicalstabilization

7/31/2019 The Electric Car and the Burdens of Culture

8/12

Also

A kind of techno-corporate complex shapingand dominating major public policy realms--the auto-highway-petroleum-rubber-national

defense complexdid begin to emerge andincreasingly shaped the evolution of theAmerican transportation system

The scaling up and expansion of the gas-

powered automobile transportation systemhad vast consequences

7/31/2019 The Electric Car and the Burdens of Culture

9/12

The Impact of Culture, Technology,

and Political Economy The predominance of consumer preferences

embedded in deeper American cultural values forprivate automobile transportation, touring or

excursion, and individual over mass transportation Abetted by the gathering clout of the emergent auto-

highway-petroleum-rubber complex in consolidatingits hold over the auto marketplace and widertransportation field, and

Its success in using its tightening political andfinancial grip to buy up, tear down or convert masselectrified transport into gas-powered, rubber tiredbus lines and taxis that fitted into its socio-technicalmold and profit-oriented interests

7/31/2019 The Electric Car and the Burdens of Culture

10/12

The Twin Legacy of 1890-1928

We are now the inheritors of these multipledecisions and choices and the options theyclosed off just as we are caught up in theweb of dependencies, burdens, and risks.

7/31/2019 The Electric Car and the Burdens of Culture

11/12

They have:

shaped our urban land-use patterns and

designs;

wedded us to the powerand interests, twistsand turns, changing

fortunes and compul-sions of Big Oil, theleading automakers,OPEC, and the MiddleEast

7/31/2019 The Electric Car and the Burdens of Culture

12/12

Contributed to heatingup the earth throughthe noxious chemicaland fumes being

vaulted into the air

The rise and fall of theEV-1--the "car thatcould"--and its chosen

fate must be under-stood against thisbackground and itstriple burdens that haveshaped that fateful

choice