Why don't goverments force oil companies to release electric cars?

Question

Unless I've been fooled, oil companies own all(most) of the patients to entirely electric run cars. Why aren't governments forcing their release into the consumer market?

Answer 1

I think you have been fooled. All electric cars have been around for 100 years. The technology is not there to make them practical or affordable. Automakers do not own the patents. I'd be more concerned if governments had the power to force companies to do anything like that. I don't think that's not the job of a government. The automakers are hearing consumers loud and clear and are taking reasonable measures in light of the economy to do what can be done.

Answer 2

The oil companies don't own patents on electric cars. There are many manufacturers that have built electric cars with varying degrees of success:
Saturn
http://www.svcn.com/archives/saratoganews/01.12.00/car-0002.html
BMW
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3165/is_n3_v28/ai_12031771
Ford
http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1460

Just to name a few. There are 3 reasons why electric cars don't do well in the marketplace:
1. It takes hours to recharge the batteries (imagine having to stop on the way to work for 6 hours to recharge your car). Too much planning is required.
2. Infrastructure. You can't just pull up anywhere and "fill up" with electricity. There are electric car refueling stations but they are few and far between
3. You're really just moving the energy problem from oil to some other polluting way of generating energy. Most electricity is generated by burning coal and from nuclear plants. Not exactly green or without other massive problems.

Don't buy the old urban legend that oil companies own all the patents. People have been saying that for 30 years and it's BS. Patents are only valid for seven years, so they would have expired by now and anyone could use the technology.

Also- the oil companies don't care where their money comes from. If they did have technology that would make battery powered cars feasible it would be worth BILLIONS. They would surely jump into that game too.

Answer 3

Oil companies don't make cars. Car makers like GM, Ford, and Toyota do. There is a recent government quota on hybrid cars that they must make and release to the public by a certain year, I believe. Not enough to convert the entire driving nation to hybrid cars for sure. But the government, at least the current administration, wouldn't force the auto or oil companies to release hybrid cars because the profits these companies get from gasoline used to fuel cars is higher than ever before. And who's running at least the oil companies? Pres. Bush's buddies. He's just trying to help his old Texas oil friends get richer while everyone else has to suffer at the pump and pay ridiculous prices for gas.

Answer 4

The more feasable solution is to mandate that car manufactures make all models available with the multi-fuel engines that many already offer as options. These cars can run on gasoline, methanol, and ethanol. Once all cars had these engines this would force oil companies to make methanol and ethanol available at their pumps. They are much cleaner burning fuels, we could produce them domestically, it would give us an additional export product, it would take money away from countries sponsoring international terrorism, and it could be accomplished in just a matter of a few years.

Answer 5

The answer is obvious. The Oil companies make money distributing oil. If they could make more money making electric cars available to you, they would. They own the patents because there is a finite amount of oil, and eventually the opportunity to make more money on alternative fueled vehicles will come around.

Answer 6

It is because the government makes a lot of their money from the oil companies and they don't want to shoot themselves in the foot by doing that. Here in the US, it is because we as the voting public allow the government to control us instead of the other way around, which is the way it is intended. We control the government.

Answer 7

Electric cars are not yet practical for the marketplace. They are painfully slow, and don't have a decent range yet. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles would be more practical. Now if we can get the oil companies to become interested in peddling hydrogen...

Answer 8

Simple..the government isn't stupid. It knows that it will loose a lot of money by releasing Hybrid cars. They are waiting for the hybrid/electric cars to more to maintain than gas powered cars, when this happens we will have hybrid cars.

Answer 9

Cause there is no money in it for them, the oil companies lobby, to keep gas vehicles & other petroleum based technoigies going, cause if we all went electric or hydrogen... they would lose a lot of money in revenue

Answer 10

You've been fooled.
The oil companies certainly are screwing America in many ways, thanks to our corrupt politicians, but they have nothing whatsoever to do with electric cars.
In 2010, Honda will be launching their FCX, which is a fuel-cell powered electric car. That will be the first really practical one on th emarket.