Not long ago, I asked this question in a comment to the open thread. I was, of course, referring to the documentary film of the same name (IMDB, Netflix). To my surprise, more people were unaware that there really was an electric car made by GM within the last decade.
It was the EV-1 electric car. And its demise is no longer a rhetorical question.
Their owners loved them. States built recharging stations, making the 100 mile range more practical. 5,000 mile maintenance was just rotating the tires.
It was more than just a prototype car - it was settinga standard for electric vehicles. There was an infrastructure growing around it. The Chevy Volt is ok, I guess, but it renders useless all that existed in 2000. Ten years before the Volt's market launch, there existed a viable, desirable electric car.
You really ought to watch the aforementioned documentary, which never pinpoints exactly who did kill the electric car, but does an excellent job at profiling the usual suspects. It also gives a good idea as to when the electric car was killed: After Bush became president and the automakers sued California's elevated CAFE standards.
The measure will not include a provision sought by Democrats that would have barred automakers accepting federal loans from suing states that seek to impose tougher auto-emission standards than are set by the federal government, the administration official said.
This issue was a leading cause of death for the electric car. And here it is again, attached to a $25 Billion handout. I must insist, before we go any further, that GM answer the question.
George Bush's modus operandi has been to delay in every way the forthcoming and inevitable transition to clean fuels, because billions of barrels of oil are trillions of dollars in untapped profits.
And now that GM et al have come to feed from the public trough I believe it's time for our star witness to come forward and 'fess up to who did it. WHO. KILLED. THE. ELECTRIC. CAR? This is no longer a rhetorical question. Who decided that the 100% recyclable car would get unceremoniously crushed?