Producing Electric Cars

On the Commentary page (Dec. 23), the president of Southern California Edison, Michael R. Peevey, deplores the shelving of plans for mass-producing an electric passenger car by General Motors. He says that “ . . . unless the federal government steps in and actively supports an industrial strategy that builds on the nation’s electric vehicle strength, the retreat of General Motors will cause the U.S. to become an electric vehicle also-ran.” The reasons for this retreat, he explains, are financial, not technical.

May a guest in your country (from Israel) ask why this urgently needed project should now be loaded on the overburdened shoulders of government? Cannot public-spirited bankers, industrial leaders, environmental-minded foundations and the public jointly launch an electric car development fund by issuing bonds or shares? If the barriers to U.S. success in the future electric vehicle market are “financial, not technical,” as Peevey writes, they are in fact human. Where is the American spirit of self-help and enterprise hiding these days?

YAACOV ARDON

La Jolla