Heaven Could Have Been a Place on Earth! 20 years ago…

Last night my better half surprised me for my birthday, with tickets to a Belinda Carlisle concert! We rocked up in the wife’s I-PACE, parking at Brindley Place in Birmingham. Of course, gaining entry to the ‘VIP’ parking, purely because we had an electric car. While we rushed excitedly over to Symphony Hall, where Mrs Carlisle was ready to wow a few thousand of our generation, the car charged back up to 250 miles. The concert opened with ‘California Girls’, launching me into a world full of 80s nostalgia! This feel-good atmosphere combined with my EV-controlled head really got me thinking about how far we have come in 30 years. How many opportunities we missed all those years ago!

You see, Belinda is from California.

There are many things we all know about California; but many don’t realise that the first mass-produced electric car was produced there, by General Motors, long before the millennium! The first electric car is called the ‘EV1’; it was a sporty coupe with initially just over 100 miles range. At the time, there was no public charging, and it was a huge success! Right up to the moment it was abruptly killed by its creators.

General Motors created over 1,000 of the EV1 and they were loved!

They were created when Belinda released her beautiful, but lesser-known track, ‘In Too Deep’. General Motors rapidly found themselves in that exact position! The EV1 was only ever available on lease; when the leases ended, GM called back all the cars and crushed them. Just a handful remain in museums, as a reminder of what could have been. ‘Why?’ remains a mystery. They turned away customers who wanted to buy their EV1?

Conspiracy! Petrol producers lobbied the government hard to pressure GM, and the pressure was brought to bear around legislation, parts, and funding.

But just like Belinda, electric cars are back, and even better with age and experience!

So, will the latest revival be The Same Thing? Well, let me just put this into perspective. In Birmingham alone, it’s estimated that 900 children lose their lives every year as a result of poor air quality. In the UK, Kia sold out their 2019 allocation of e-Niro’s in just under 4 days! The amount of e-Niro’s imported is the same number as EV1’s created by GM for over 6 years!

We see electric cars daily, and the sales of EVs are rocketing whilst diesel and petrol are plummeting. In Belinda’s birthplace, 5% of all cars are an electric or plug-in hybrid, and the numbers are only increasing! Next year in Birmingham, the council are adding another 70 charge points! They’re introducing a clean air zone, and we’ve seen 3 of our schemes go live in the area in the last few weeks!

So, could Heaven be a Place on Earth if we all get behind electric?

Well, I’m not sure about that, but it would certainly be a better place. Pollution and climate change really are a Big Scary Animal, and we need to scare them off, Whatever It Takes. How? Well, we can’t do it overnight, but we can at least make a start, with electric cars!

Nowadays, you don’t have to compromise to run an electric car! As my wife portrayed fittingly when she started singing ‘Mad About You’ to her I-PACE! I think we’re on the verge of an amazing electric revolution, but Do You Feel Like I Feel? If not, why not?! We love converting people to electric here at Fleet Evolution. Couple it with salary sacrifice and the savings are unmatched! There really never has been a better time to make the change!