Why do you think G.M. stopped making its EV1 electric car ?

Question

Some suggest that G.M. -- which says it invested some $1 billion in the EV1 -- never really wanted the cars to take off. They say G.M. intentionally sabotaged their own marketing efforts because they feared the car would cannibalize its existing business. G.M. disputes these claims.
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/223/index.html#here

Will TESLA MOTORS new electric car meet the same fate ?
http://www.jalopnik.com/cars/news/mechanical-resonance-the-tesla-motors-press-intro-complete-with-governator-188590.php

Answer 1

GM was very clear when the program started in 1994 that they thought it would fail, and wanted it to.
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As Matthew L. Wald wrote in a front page New York Times story (January 28, 1994):
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"General Motors is preparing to put its electric vehicle act on the road, and planning for a flop.

With pride and pessimism, the company, the furthest along of the Big Three in designing a mass-market electric car, says that in the face of a California law that requires that 2 percent of new cars be "zero emission" vehicles beginning in 1997, it has done its best but that the vehicle has come up short.... Now it hopes that lawmakers and regulators will agree with it and postpone or scrap the deadline."
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GM only made the car to comply with the California ZEV mandate. As soon as the mandate was killed, so was the car. They had no plans to build EVs beyond that, demand or not. Electric Cars are too disruptive to the existing business model. The first successful mass-market EV will almost certainly come from Asia, where many EV concepts are being worked on right now.
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Regarding true demand for electric vehicles, a survey from 2003 Commissioned by the California Electric Transportation Coalition shows significant consumer demand for an electric car, if the right price target and range can be acheived. Up to one-third of car buyers expressed interest. Of special interest is that half of those buyers would still be interested even in the range of the vehicle were as low as 60 miles.
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Answer 2

Just think about that CONSPIRACY for a moment.
If GM were to sabotage the sales of the EV-1, it will have a significant negative impact on its CAFE standards.
And consider, if GM could really make a car that would actually DO what everyone says they really want, and for a reasonable price, GM could actually corner the automotive market, and literally run ALL of the competition out of business. It doesn't make sense.
The reason that GM folded that production model up is because, even selling them at a production net loss, (making the rest of the GM stable subsidize the cost of the EV-1), NOBODY was buying them. The public wasn't willing to put up with the trade-offs necessary to own one.

Answer 3

There is no market for electric cars beyond golf courses. They are too heavy, too expensive, too complicated, too short-range, too small, and take too long to recharge. And when the batteries need replacement, they cost too much. When GM decides to build a new car, there is a break-even point below which it becomes economically stupid to build the car. When GM can build an electric car that performs at least as well as a petroleum-powered car in terms of speed, acceleration, range, maintenance and operating cost, and initial purchase price, that is when you will see them on a large scale.

Answer 4

I'm guessing E85 will do well, as soon as we ca get any. But in the end hydrogen fuel cells look like the answer.

I'm guessing the EV1 was such an uneconomic vehicle, GM decided to stop research into electric & divert it to some other alternatives.

Answer 5

You could only go 80 miles on a charge and it took like 4 hours to charge the car to full again. You can't go anywhere with that thing. One of the smoothest running vehicles I have ever been in tho.

Answer 6

Because the state of CA caved in and keep pushing back the deadline to make all vehicle emission free.

Answer 7

I would guess that they quit on the car when they realized that they couldn't hold the cost of the car down to a reasonable level. The car would be too expensive for most people to buy.

Answer 8

Ironhand is right........nobody bought them

You cannot force a vehicle on to the market, as Ford found out with the Edsel, and Preston Tucker found out with the Tucker.

The "Conspiracy" is that nobody bought them.

Answer 9

Conspiracy?

tesla will see the same fate

Answer 10

It raised environmental issues when it came to disposing the battery.