Cars bought out by gas companies?

Question

I heard my fiances dad talking about an all electric car that came out in the 70s but the gas companies bought the patent to the car, repoed the cars, and then buried the cars in Arizona? Has anyone else ever heard of this?

Answer 1

I wonder if that was the Voltaire II. there was a car made by Electric Fuel & Propulsion in the early 70's. it was featured in Popular Science if memory serves me correct. it was capable of highway speeds and up to 350 miles per charge. the oil industry does not want electric cars. just think of the profit loss. Petro Can just posted 1.08 billion dollars earned in the first quarter of this year.

Answer 2

You don't even have to go back that far, thing like this happened only several years ago, see the video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...

Answer 3

Yet another conspiracy theory, not unlike the car that runs on water.  The truth is that every electric car ever put on the market failed miserably because they were overpriced, underpowered and didn't have enough range to be practical so consumers stayed away in droves.  You can't sell something that people don't want.

People love to blame "big oil" whenever gas prices go up or when they're unhappy with the cars that are available, but the truth is that oil companies have no control over the price of oil because more than 80% of the world oil supply is owned by governments, not industry.

Answer 4

Your finances dad is a conspiracy freak.

Okay, so there really was a conspiracy to remove the electric streetcars from the road and replace them with buses.  That really happend.

Regarding the electric car, that would refer to the EV1 built by General Motors.  There was a documentary on this called, "Who Killed the Electric Car".  GM claims that the car just didn't make economic sense and therefore it couldn't be considered for production.  Its technology has been incorporated into today's modern hybrids.  And they were never buried in the Arizona desert.  In fact the Smithsonian museum has one of them.  

It's also illogical to think that American businessmen could control something like that.  Toyota and Honda make better vehicles and could have stolen the technology... or the communist,.. or what about the smart people in Europe??  No, it just doesn't make sense.

Answer 5

the first cars ever made were actually electric.  they didnt run as well as gasoline which is why they switched.  the idea you heard is ridiculous.  the gas companies bought the patent to the electric cars and then chose to repo all the cars that were electric?  did they have the title to those cars? were the people behind on thier payments?  if they bought the patent to electric cars why wouldnt they just make those and keep the patent to themselves and sell the electric cars as a monopoly?

Answer 6

He was talking about GM's EV-1.  It was featured in the documentary, "Who killed the electric car?"  Been out for a long time but I just happend to catch it.  Pretty depressing.  Plug-in hybrids are on the way next year and they wont be stopped this time...