Who killed the electric car
1. The seven suspects who may have contributed to the failure of GM’s EV1 program are:
a. Customers (guilty)
a.i. Consumers wanted a three hundred mile range and eighty-five mile per hour speed on their electric cars but this was not plausible when running off of a battery.
a.ii. When customers compare cars they don’t care much about the environmental risks they only care about the price, the miles per gallon, and the mileage range. Customers had a difficult time seeing the difference between regular cars and electric cars so there was not enough demand.
b. Battery Technology (not guilty)
b.i. Batteries were too weak to make the car go as far as consumers were hoping so they bought the less expensive gasoline vehicles that could go the desired distance.
c. Oil Companies (guilty)
c.i. Oil companies got very involved with electric cars because if everyone were to switch to battery operated vehicles, there would no longer being a large demand for gasoline.
d. Car Companies (guilty)
d.i. The GM car didn’t seem to be catching on and there did not seem to see a profit in electric or hybrid cars so they didn’t see it as effective to keep manufacturing the car.
e. Government (guilty)
e.i. Government officials did not approve of the electric car so they did nothing to assist General Motors in selling it.
e.ii. President Carter supported clean energy but President Nixon cared so little about clean energy he had the solar panels taken off the roof of the White House.
f. C.A.R.B. - California Air Resources Board (guilty).
f.i. Lloyd was elected chairman of the board four months before they got rid of the electric car and he persisted to demolish it.
g. Hydrogen Fuel Cells (guilty)
g.i. Hydrogen Fuel Cells seemed more appealing to consumers because Shell stations could provide hydrogen.
g.ii. Hydrogen Fuel Cells had General Motors beat because their cars could travel 100-125 miles per fill up while the EV could only travel about 75 miles. Also,
a. Customers (guilty)
a.i. Consumers wanted a three hundred mile range and eighty-five mile per hour speed on their electric cars but this was not plausible when running off of a battery.
a.ii. When customers compare cars they don’t care much about the environmental risks they only care about the price, the miles per gallon, and the mileage range. Customers had a difficult time seeing the difference between regular cars and electric cars so there was not enough demand.
b. Battery Technology (not guilty)
b.i. Batteries were too weak to make the car go as far as consumers were hoping so they bought the less expensive gasoline vehicles that could go the desired distance.
c. Oil Companies (guilty)
c.i. Oil companies got very involved with electric cars because if everyone were to switch to battery operated vehicles, there would no longer being a large demand for gasoline.
d. Car Companies (guilty)
d.i. The GM car didn’t seem to be catching on and there did not seem to see a profit in electric or hybrid cars so they didn’t see it as effective to keep manufacturing the car.
e. Government (guilty)
e.i. Government officials did not approve of the electric car so they did nothing to assist General Motors in selling it.
e.ii. President Carter supported clean energy but President Nixon cared so little about clean energy he had the solar panels taken off the roof of the White House.
f. C.A.R.B. - California Air Resources Board (guilty).
f.i. Lloyd was elected chairman of the board four months before they got rid of the electric car and he persisted to demolish it.
g. Hydrogen Fuel Cells (guilty)
g.i. Hydrogen Fuel Cells seemed more appealing to consumers because Shell stations could provide hydrogen.
g.ii. Hydrogen Fuel Cells had General Motors beat because their cars could travel 100-125 miles per fill up while the EV could only travel about 75 miles. Also,