Social Essay: Who killed the electric car?

Question

It is a 7 paragraph social essay and the question is "who killed the electric car?"

The three body paragraphs will focus on car companies, oil companies, and the government/CARB.

Does anyone have any tips or any points or good evidence I could use?

I'm really stuck and appreciate everyone's help!

Thanks.

Answer 1

The electric car killed itself. Most people just do not want them due to the cost and inconvenience. Anyone is free to make and sell them. Many have tried. They just have never gone over well. It is absolutely silly to think the car and oil companies had much to do with it.

Answer 2

I think GM planned the whole thing in advance just to say that the electric cars don't work. That way they stop getting pressure to produce it and continue to make them selves money as well as the oil companies.

In the documentary people who drove the car really like and even claimed that it had better acceleration than most cars.

One of the big reasons it was killed is because it is almost maintenance free, reducing profits on maintenance for oil and car companies.

Isn't it funny that whatever excuses they had, the didn't give themselves a chance to evelve the car. I'm sure the first internal combustion engines had problems of their own.

Answer 3

It really wasn’t the oil companies, or the car companies, or the government/CARB, it was the public.

A long time ago, before you were born, there were many different types of cars, steam, electric, and gasoline. Steam and electric were on top, women really like the electric car, they weren’t messy to start, easy to drive, easy to maintain. Electric cars only had a range of about 100 miles before you needed to recharged, and it took a long time to recharge.

Steam was easy to start and very fast and more reliable then internal combustion engine, but it took time to get up a head of steam. And steam required a lot of skill to maintain, and if you make a mistake with a boiler you could not only kill yourself but anyone around you. Now steam use fuel supplied by oil companies so they had no reason to kill it.

Now the internal combustion could be and was worked on by many people, and if you made a mistake the odds of you hurting or killing someone was very small. Compared to electric car it had almost unlimited range, it took only a few minuets to fill up a car with gasoline. They were faster to get going compared to steam, most steam cars took 30+ minuets to get up a head of steam to get moving, the exception was the Doble which could be up and running in less then a minuet.

The internal combustion engine lends itself nicely to the modern assembly line. When the model T came out the internal combustion engine was taking over the automobile market, and the model T really set the internal combustion engine (IMHO) as king as far as automobile go. The market was flooded with engines. With that huge number of engines on the market and the manufactures gear up to supply all the parts you would need at a reasonable price. Add the infrastructure for the oil, fuel, tires, etc. it became much cheaper to maintain an internal combustion engine car then a non-internal combustion car. Add the electrical start to the engine and now anyone could easily start and drive an internal combustion car.

With the cheaper price and ease of maintenance the public voted for the internal combustion engine, and steam and electric power cars companies died out.

So it was really the public, not the oil companies, not the car companies (who were making many different types of cars), not the government who didn’t care one way or another, who made the internal combustion engine king.

And yes I saw movie too, and you need to ask if you would be willing to pay $35,000 for a car that couldn't be driven more then 100 miles before you had recharge it and you had to wait hours for a rechage, or would you spend $25,000 for a nicer car that could be recharge (filled with gasoline) in a few minuets? The public already decided.

EDIT

One more thing before I forget, back then gasoline was a very small part of the oil business. They were much more worried about kerosene (used in lights), and gasoline wasn’t sold at gas stations but at the general store.

Answer 4

The free market killed the electric car. They didn't sell well unless the price was reduced too low to pay for the cost of making them so nobody could make money selling them. There was no conspiracy to kill them.

Answer 5

The market killed the electric car because it was not competative with conventionally fueled vehicles in the absence of a government mandate.

Answer 6

The oil companies themselves. They give many advertisements to people about how good their vehicles are. They will not stop selling them and the companies that would be created for production of electric cars, would fail because their vehicles are not so good (for example, they can't have a speed higher than 70 km/h) and get bankrupted.

Answer 7

Watch "Who Killed the Electric Car?" It is really a good movie.