Who killed the electric car?

Answer 1

"Who Killed the Electric Car?" is a 2006 documentary that investigates the birth, (limited) commercialization, and subsequent death of the battery electric vehicle in the United States. It focused on the General Motors EV1 electric automobile of the 1990s.

As for who actually killed the electric car, the film's producers presents a list of possible suspects:

- Consumer ambivalence to the new technology

- Car companies intentionally sabotaged the program

- Government backed the auto industry in suit against California and failed to act in the public interest

- California Air Resources Board caved to pressure from the auto industry

- Hydrogen fuel cells are a compromise favored by the auto and oil industries and government since it buys time for additional profits for "Big Oil".

- Batteries (limited range and reliability)

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There were some aspects to destruction of the electric car that the film did not go into.

The EV1 did not pass auto safety standards at the time it was introduced. The standards had been adopted some time after the time design for the car was begun. GM's response to this was to get the car standards waived for the test of the vehicle. In order to do this, they had to restrict the time of the test and promise the Federal Government that at the end of the test all the cars would be recalled and disposed of. The time line of the car's history would seem to indicate that the people at GM thought they might be able to convince the government to allow them to sell the car during that time, but, obviously, this did not happen. Anyway, it explains why the cars could only be leased, and why none was allowed to be left in the hands of their drivers. There may have been a conspiracy involved, but my guess is it had to do with GM people not wanting anyone to understand that the cars did not pass safety standards, rather than some dark mystery about how they "killed" it.

Answer 2

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