Car Owners in the Driver's Seat

By Felix Kramer, AlterNet. Posted August 25, 2005.

The hybrid wave that's taken car makers by surprise continues to astound the world with its vitality and its unexpected turns. Clearly, a growing number of Americans want cleaner, better cars.

"Outsiders" have long wanted a say about the kinds of cars produced in this country. But the industry's insiders -- car makers, the oil industry and the federal government -- are still firmly planted behind the wheel. But some outsiders have had at least limited success, not the least of whom are Buckminster Fuller, Preston Tucker, Ralph Nader, Paul MacCready, Amory Lovins and William McDonough. (These links are to their auto-related activities; all these visionaries also have excellent profiles at Wikipedia.)

We may be in the midst of what scientists call a "punctuated equilibrium" as the auto industry rapidly evolves. And catalyzing it are groups of outsiders, spearheaded by the legions of individual car buyers who've snapped up gas-electric hybrids in recent years and led to months-long waiting lists for the Toyota Prius. Some very recent developments in Toyotaland include:

• Four self-described "middle-aged hybrid drivers" staged a two-day LeMans-style race to see how far they could drive a Prius on a tank of gasoline. Using "pulse and glide" techniques (as described at HybridCars.com by Kip Munro), they got 110MPG. After an initial silence, Toyota found the good sense to applaud the group and send them goodies.
• Toyota representatives asked by journalists about their reactions to Prius conversions began to sound increasingly open-minded. The pressure increased when they got criticism about the MPG of Lexus and Highlander hybrids. (See the CalCars News Archive.)
• RAV4 EV owners and other electric vehicle advocates organized DontCrush.com, rallied and worked for months to gain support from public officials. Their campaign succeeded: Toyota agreed to extend leases and allow lease buyouts for these cherished electric compact SUVs.
• Attention to plug-in hybrids ratcheted up significantly as advocacy streams for environment, energy security and economic development met at an intersection called "record-high oil prices."

These breakthroughs wouldn't have happened if we weren't all so "plugged in." As interactive media have claimed turf alongside the top-down print and broadcast outlets that bloggers call "MSM" -- the Mainstream Media -- car culture has morphed.

Felix Kramer is the founder of CalCars.org, The California Cars Initiative, and has been promoting 99+ MPG plug-in hybrids full-time since 2001. A version of this op-ed appears as the inaugural entry for his Blog at hybridcars.com Power, Plugs and People

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