Jason Preston
Writing

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Jason Preston · 1 min read ·

[Image: EV1]I just got done watching this documentary, and it’s a very good movie. Part of the reason I picked it up is that my big big project before I graduate is making a documentary, and the more I watch, the better I’ll be at making one.

Also, I’ve wanted to see the movie for a while.

It’s paints a bit of a depressing picture. To boil it down into a comically simple numbered list, I took away the following story:

  1. GM decided to develop an electric car (so far so good!)

  2. They made a really good one called the EV1 (pictured above). They made a couple hundred and leased them to CA drivers.

  3. California passed a law mandating a certain percentage of cars in CA be “Zero Emissions Vehicles” like the EV1

  4. GM, Ford, and the US Government under George W. Bush sued the California Government, claiming that there was no demand for electric vehicles.

  5. They won the suit.

  6. GM pried the existing EV1’s from the hands of their current users and crushed them and dumped them.

  7. The reason GM did this is because the EV1 didn’t need to be serviced very often (where dealers make mucho $$), and each individual car made less money than a Hummer

So, in short, GM made an electric vehicle that was cool, fast, reliable, environmental, and reasonably priced, and killed it very very quickly when they realized it was actually a success. This way, they get to dangle Hydrogen cars in front of us while they continue to milk the profitable combustion engine.

WTF!!??