Why did General Motors kill the electric car?

Question

The EV1 electric car was a very sucessfull electric car that Gereral Motors distroyed after California repealed the clean air act. Now hydorgin full cells are the choice of the con men.

Answer 1

If there is money in making electric cars why doesn't a new manufacturer start up to make them? The reality is that they are not viable alternatives for most people. Families don't fit in them and if you have to drive long distances they won't make it. At best you would need a conventional car as a backup. Wouldn't the manufacturing of the second car consume more energy than you would save in the first place? Don't even talk about saving money, you could only get service from a dealer with factory parts. Not many people could afford the maintenance. Most complex issues are made easier when you don't look at the details and only consider a few broad allegations that may or may not be true.

Answer 2

because they are still making money on petrol

Answer 3

GM did not kill the electric car. The EV-1 was not successful due to a variety of handling problems low mileage between charges and even some safety issues. I worked in a lab that helped develop that car and it amazes me how little of the truth is really known about it. Actually the EPA killed the EV-1 by expecting to much from GM to quick!

Answer 4

It was too successful.As you well know the auto manufacturers and the fuel (read oil) suppliers are in bed with each other, it was apparent after a year that the electric car filled a real need. None the less, it was to the advantage of the oil industry to continue use of the diesel and gasoline powered engines. But hold on! There may be hope for us all; Dr Jerry Woodall, PhD, Purdue University has developed a cheap and efficient way to split water into Hydrogen and Oxygen..so a fuel cell is obsolete, and the car runs on hydrogen, and has water as a byproduct..It's a fairly simple way of using aluminum metal and gallium to generate hydrogen.. if this sounds interesting, Googl Dr Woodall, and read all about it, and his interview with Glen Beck on CNN.. Good news for all of us!

Answer 5

The electric car was cheaper to operate then normal cars.

The EV1 could drive 75-to-150 miles ( on average roughly 110 miles.) per charge with Gen 2 Avionic nickel-metal hydride batteries. Fully loaded these batteries would contain 26.4 kWh of energy. If I use the average U.S. electricity price (9.82 cents/kWh.) I calculate that the EV1 would use: 9.82*26.4= 259 cents --->2.59$ for 110 miles. This is 2.36 cents/mile.

Based on the average fuel consumption of American cars, which is 27.5 miles per gallon, and the price per gallon, which is 2.23$/gallon, it costs 8.92$ to drive an ordinary car 110 miles making the cost of the electric car to 29% the fuel cost of ordinary cars.

The batteries lasted longer then the cars themselves.

Also, the cars were never massproduced which ould have driven down the manufacturing costs significantly.

The Tesla Roadster currently have a fuel cost of 2 cents/mile

and emits 1/10 of the of the pollution. It takes about 3.5 hours to fully charge the batteries which lasts over 200 miles per charge.

Answer 6

The electric car was very expensive to operate.

The cost of electricity per mile traveled was much higher than the cost of gasoline. (many people were able to recharge their cars at their place of work with the employer paying for the electricity, so many users never actually paid the true cost of operating the car)

The managers at GM knew that if the electric car became popular most employers would stop subsidizing the cost of electricity.  

The batteries only had a five year life and were very expensive to replace.

The managers at GM determined that the cost of operation and batttery replacement was so high that the electric car would not be successful as a widely marketed car. It would only be successful with the people who were fans of the electric car at any price. The number in this category is too small to make the car commercially viable.

Answer 7

If there was money to be made on electric cars, people would make them.

Yes, big companies do spend time trying to eliminate competition.  But GM couldn't keep Honda, and especially Toyota from basically taking over their market.  So I'm pretty sure the days of GM being so all-powerful that they can alone determine the vehicles which are available to the public.

That Tesla Roadster mentioned costs 98,000 as a base cost.  You could buy a much larger BMW (530xi) and you wouldn't pay off the car for 400,000 miles.  Yeah, electric cars are cheaper.  That's a comparison to a luxury car with options and premium package.

Answer 8

GM is going to try again its called the Volt. Its a plug in car

Answer 9

I have to go along with Wychfinder, Cameron, and Anders on this one.  I'm sure the oil companies and motor companies are pissing in each others pockets and because the cars was so efficient it had to scrapped. Tyre manufactures can produce a tyre that will outlast the life of the vehicle under normal driving but you won't see them on the open market.

Answer 10

Until the government grows a set of nuts and passes legislation making car companies increase MPG and run off of alternative fuels then they will not. As we knoe the government will not do that because the Oil Companies and the Saudi's are the biggest lobbyist in Washington. I think that we should move to be free of oil imports. And yes this can be done Brazil strived to make itself free of oil imports after the oil crisis in the 1970's and has been very effective. We have 100 million more people than Brazil, but we also have a much more technilogical country. I would love to see us come up with a way to be oil free.

Answer 11

i saw the movie too and i thought it was fantastic, i think GM was pressured to make sure it would fail and never be released for sale and when it didn't fail they removed them by force and had them all destroyed, i think the EV1 worked to well and GM and other un named companies (i think oil) know that early on, and forced the destruction of the models, which makes me wonder how many times this has happened

and on the other question GM and other companies can make more money from hydrogen and ethanol because its still a fuel and you still havet to buy it, electric cars were limit less except for a plug in at night that barely used any power. see it worked to well, it was a great car for the consumer but not the auto companies

Answer 12

I agree that we are being conned with the hydrogen hype.

I worked on the design team at GM that developed the EV1 and it never lived up to the promises that we had hoped for. Now that battery technology has improved it is closer to being what it was intended to be, a commuter vehicle. GM never promoted the EV1 as a commuter vehicle and just tried to slide it in with all the other brands it produced.

When some of the legislature started babbling about how electric vehicles are not totally pollution free because of the coal used to power the electric dynamos no one stepped up to mention that electric vehicles would be charged at night when the dynamos are shunting power to the ground because there is so little power usage at night. You can't just turn off a dynamo, then flick a switch and turn it back on. Charging an EV at night produces no more extra carbon dioxide than is being produced now, and when cleaner means of producing electricity are in use it will be even less.

As with anything new there rumor mongers, con men (for and against) and misinformation surrounding it. Be informed and make your own decision.

Answer 13

The electric car is pointless if the power plant they recharge from is burning fossil fuel.  It effectively just moves the exhaust pipe from under the car to the smokestack.  Even if that problem was solved with hydro, nuclear, wind, or solar power, employers or whoever are eventually going to see the electric bills rise and make everyone recharge at home, where the mothly utility bill will go up just like the gasoline bill used to.

Answer 14

Hydrogen is not the answer. It is very explosive and the atom of hydrogen is so small it will leak through anything. I know I worked with helium.