Are the big car companies preventing highly efficient cars from coming to the market?

Question

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/entertainment/15190229.htm

GM produced the EV1, a decidedly efficient, very low maintenance, fully electric car in response to a California law that required 2% of cars sold there to be fully electric. Instead of selling the cars, they leased them, until they could get the law overturned. When that was done, they fired everyone who was involved in its development, but not until after signing a non-disclosure agreement that prevented them from working on the same project with anyone else. Then they recalled all the cars and had them destroyed. Isn’t this a clear sign that GM cares little for it customers or the enviroment?

Answer 1

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There is little economic incentive for GM or any other corporation to care about the environment. But if you want to make your own statement, buy an electric car for yourself, and show it off to everyone you know.
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By this time, you've no doubt heard of the Tesla electric sports car - http://www.teslamotors.com - but did you know that this car is the child of the EV1? The inventor of the drivetrain technology in the EV1 started his own company, http://acpropulsion.com , and he has licensed his electric drive to Tesla.
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If you can't afford the Tesla, there's an affordable Chinese import coming next year:
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http://www.milesautomotive.com/products_xs200.html
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The Miles XS200 has a range of 200 miles per charge, and costs $28,500. The Chinese make all the lithium batteries we use, so this doubtless gives them a cost advantage.
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I did a comparison of fuel costs this morning: we drive 1300 miles per month. In our 18mpg car, that costs us $225 per month at current gas prices. That same 1300 miles costs $8 in an electric vehicle. Yes! EIGHT DOLLARS! (4 miles per kilowatt-hour, and we have an 'EV charging rate' for electric cars here of 2.5 cents per kwh.) The fuel savings, plus EV tax breaks will almost cover the monthly payments on that Miles car above.
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Answer 2

If you are talking about the US market, yes. DaimlerChrysler may finally be bringing the Smart line to the US, but they've had it in Europe and Asia for years. GM has a whole line of Chevy microcars that they sell in Latin America that you can't buy here. Ford has the Ka, which is smaller than the Focus. Japan has its kei-class microcars with 660 cc or smaller engines. Right now none are sold here.

There's a couple reasons these things don't turn up here. One is that many of them do not meet US crash specifications. Another is that back when gas was $1.50 a gallon, nobody thought American customers would buy them.

Some of this is understandable. How did American buyers react to the Geo Metro? The Ford Aspire? The Yugo? Seems most Americans prefered to laugh at them rather than buy them. Many American buyers would feel nervous about driving these things in typical American freeway traffic - although probably not as nervous as I'd feel if I were driving a Chevy Tahoe down an English B road. This has been a time-honored pattern. Back in the '60s, Italy was building tiny Fiat roadsters, most Honda cars had engines under a liter, and American companies were cranking out two ton muscle cars with seven liter engines.

Some of it may be pure shortsightedness. More like stupidity than conspiracy. With gas prices on the way up, I suspect we're going to see a lot more of these small cars turn up here.

Answer 3

my guess it is OPEC and the car companies coluding to keep the standard petrol and diesel engines as the dominant force on the roads. why else would oil prices be so damn high.
if what you say about GM is true then yes you are corect they have more respect for the profit margin than they do for the environment.
but if every single car owner started demanding environmentaly friendly vehicles then the car companies would have to start to produce them if everyone refused to buy a car unless it was good for the environment such as an electric car.
but if the demand was not there for the electric cars then they had no choice but to destroy them. and if no one is demending the electric vehicles or the LPG (which though not as clean as electric is cleaner than normal petrol) and then apparently there are hydrogen powered cars now which only output clean water so a good one for the environment.
but the car companies like GM, Ford and well all of them should be working on cleaner mor efficent cars but they are not.

they are a a decade behind what real consumers want. that being high powered energy and environmentally friendly and efficent cars.

in my opinion it will be another 100 years or more before all cars are environmentally friendly.
it is time the governments of the world forced all cars to be converted to be LPG, hydrogen, electric or a combination of fuels.
and tax petrol and diesels off the road with a tax so high it is cheaper to convert, and a tax incentive such as two years without having to pay full road fund licence (vehicle excise duty)
for example.

Answer 4

I believe the answer is yes, but it is far deeper than GM or any of the auto companies. . The root is basic world economics. Our world economy is based on OIL. If suddenly, we decreased our oil consumption by even 30%, the entire US economy would crumble. My father in law was a lockheed engineer since the late 60's. In the mid 70's he designed and built a high pressure / heated 2 barrell carb that would get 40 mpg on his full size 390 CI ford pick up. It would convert the gas to a vapor before it entered the intake manifold. He tried to market it in several areas. After a few weeks, he abruptly stopped work on his carb....I never saw it again....and he has never spoke of it again. To this day, he will not talk about it.....even when asked. I can't prove it, but I am certain that someone "shut him down". ??????????

Answer 5

It's just some stupid conspiracy garbage. The EV1 had lots of problems with it and it was never going to be a money maker for GM, so they took their electric car knowledge and used it in other ways. Look at the hybrids. (By the way check out the GM web site below.)

And baby, others are still working on electric cars. Look at this from Tesla Motors:
http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php?js_enabled=1
And that's an all electric car.

Answer 6

regardless, the cars run on energy, whether that energy is created from a gasoline engine or a coal burning powerplant, either way the car is still polluting the atmosphere somehow, plus electric cars are definately NOT the future. batteries will never hold the same charge as they do initially and will never be fully charged and the charge keeps going down, so would the cars range. they take way too long to charge so the range is far too limited for any practicle use. they cons outway the pros, the cars make no sense

Answer 7

I think this car was just a bad idea. Batteries have to be charged, and if even only a few percent of California would buy this car, there should have been built an enormous amount of extra electricity generation capacity. We know there is just sufficient power now in summertime, if that many cars would be charging their batteries, the power supply collapses.

Answer 8

I'm not convinced that it's the oil or car companies. Too many inventors have been shot at, killed, bought out, jailed, harassed, and even locked away in institutions to shut them up. I just can't figure out why the gov't is so adamant that we may not have such devices, when it's only a matter of time before oil prices collapse the economy anyway!

Answer 9

THEY LAUGH SAID THAT THE FOREIGN CARS WOULD NEVER SELL IN THIS COUNTRY NOW THEY ARE KICKEN OUR ASSESS YOU WILL SEE A GOOD ELECTRIC CAR IN THE FURTURE AND IT WON'T BE US TO MAKE IT WILL MOST LIKELY BE TOYOTA OR HONDA OR ANOTHER FOREGN COMPANY WHAT A SHAME SO MANY AMERACANS OUT OF WORK BECAUSE.OF THIS.NOW FOR THE FOLLOW UP TO WHAT YOU WROTE IT SOUND LIKE GM .WHAT I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT IS THEY MADE THERE MONEY WHAT THE HECK! BUT I CAN SAY WHEN THEY BUILT A CAR THEY BUILT A CAR YEARS AGO LIKE MY 1977 CORVETTE DAM IT FEELS GOOD WHERE DID ALL THE PRIDE GO INTO A GOOD AMERICAN CAR

Answer 10

yes they most certainly are, but i think it goes alot higher than the automakers. the technology is definitely available to produce affordable and practical electric cars. im not an expert but i do know that the govt is the one cashing in on the sale of gasoline ...its not about the price of a barrel of oil ... its about a hidden tax ... and a huge one.