They don't call the New York Times the Gray Lady for Nothing. We suspect the newspaper's copy editors invented the phrase "dull but worthy" — and then went back into creative hibernation. So when we encountered "Electric Cars are Still Showing A Pulse" (almost as much of a groaner as our headline), we were prepared for a nice long nap. Even the lead's reliance on a former Baywatch "star" couldn't fool us; this was a by-the-numbers alt fuel story heading straight for PC World. And then we saw something that made us laugh...
After explaining why mainstream manufacturers stopped building electric cars — now that The People's Republic of California no longer forces them to do so in order to sell anything else — ace writer Danny Hakim trotted out a GM PR guy to explain why the company prised the keys to their all-electric EV1 from the fair hands of Baywatch's least buxom star, Alexandra Paul, making her cry (!).
A spokesman for GM, Dave Barthmuss, said the company stopped producing the EV1 because it had little to show for more than $1 billion in investment.
If GM used the same logic for the rest of their product lineup, they'd be selling... mortgages.
Electric cars still showing a pulse [International Herald Tribune]
Related:
Electric Car Dispute Leads to Arrests [internal]