Eco-conscious Americans relieved of their green by ZAP

Who killed the electric car? This month's Wired magazine has an absolutely must-read account of the Zap Corporation which promised to deliver electric cars to the people, save the environment, and make a profit. It was all a green pipe dream and the only people enriched were Zap's top officials:

Scheder-Bieschin says that Starr and Schneider have been insulated from criticism because of the business they are in. "Steve plays the game that nobody's ever gonna be tough on us because we're the EV guys.'" (Indeed, Robert Taicher, a consultant for ZAP, called Wired editors as this story was in process, asking the magazine to tread lightly on ZAP, given that "we're in the green space.") "Gary Starr and Steve Schneider have likely done more damage to the EV industry than Detroit and the Japanese combined," Scheder-Bieschin says. "And the failure of this industry to thrive has affected everything from global warming to the war on terror. How do you put a price on that?"

(Have I mentioned before that Wired is the absolutely best magazine out there? Every month they have at least one great article, well worth the cover price. Word on the street is that Kevin Spacey read the September 2002 article "Hacking Las Vegas" and immediately optioned the story to make the movie "21.")

But I digress: the Zap story reaches its denouement with the story of Austin schoolteacher John Martin who turned over his life savings to Zap for a dealership. The cars didn't arrive and when finally did, they were impossible to sell (max range of a charged Xebra: 20 miles) and broke down constantly. The now-destitute Martin is delivering pizzas and at the end of the article you can feel his pain as he says: "I wanted so much to believe."