Home Transportation Car industry

Who Killed The Electric Car? (full movie)

976
33

ev1As the movie “Who Killed the Electric Car?” shows, EV1 has been a dream that ended up quickly and painfully for everyone to forget it.

Although “Who Killed the Electric Car?” is an oldie, it shows the facts that stood behind the decision of not only shutting down the EV1 production line, but also destroying all of them altogether. The same story went with the other electric vehicles from Toyota, Honda and Ford.

It’s as clear as daylight that petrol interests dominate the automobile world, and make things worse for the environment. It’s all those people who sell oil and work in the oil industry that don’t let the clean automobile evolve. All the rumors you hear about batteries not being able to carry you more than 100 km… all that is pure BS. We have the technology, and we had it live on our roads.

It seems like GM is trying to re-make a name with its Volt, and it seems much more clearer to me why every automobile manufacturer wanting to build an electric car delayed their release for 2010… you may guess what that reason would be after you watch the movie.

“Who Killed the Electric Car?” is an hour and a half long, but worth watching. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSBjXq_DYDQ

(Visited 1,170 times, 1 visits today)

33 COMMENTS

  1. Yes it is all to clear that as you say “petrol interests dominate the automobile world”. I find this absolutely outrageous that individual wealth overrides the safe keep of or world resources and the planets health for what some short term paper gain. What can be done to correct what is otherwise a great economic and social system. I support free trade and individuals rights to push oneself to limit for financial freedom, however, I stop at criminality for the sake of MONEY and POWER.

  2. The \\\\\\\’Fact\\\\\\\’ that GM Spent a \\\\\\\’Billion $\\\\\\\’ on the EV1 might well be true – but – did they tell you how much it cost to make the really weird Commercial that they aired on TV – and – where were the Hot Chicks and Business Jets that so often go with Sports Car Sales? And if they were (And still are) so concerned about libability (consider the University that got gifted a gutted EV1 and put in their own controller and batteries and drove it to a show – only to get warned by GM Execs) – did they have to crush them all – they made so few!

    They were made like we build aircraft today – by hand – one by one, and sure they cost a small fortune – so why did they set the leasing price value at just $35,000 or so – and then screen the heck out of everyon who actually -really – exactly – wanted one, and then say – they had no buyers – after they sold them of all the things it wouldn\\\\\\\’t do?

    My Pickup only really caries two people – inspite of the two little flaps they call seats in the \\\\\\\’extra\\\\\\\’ cab! Did the Car Company and sales people – stop me from buying because the truck can\\\\\\\’t cary six in spledid comfort like a Limo? Did they Stop you from buying your Sedan – because it can\\\\\\\’t tow 7,500 Pounds like a oversized Chevy Pickup, or tell you that minivan won\\\\\\\’t legally tow that 40 foot Trailer you just bought with your new Raise at your job at the Car Manufacturer? No!

    So why did they go to such trouble – to \\\\\\\’Whittle down\\\\\\\’ the list of 5,000 people who wanted the Saturn EV1 by telling them – they would have a hard time to find a place to charge the car, and it would only go a short distance, or if they forgot to charge it – they would be stuck, etc., etc.! Did they tell you your Car runs out of gas if you don\\\\\\\’t fill it, or Tell you you need to push your Automatic powered monster to over 35 mph to \\\\\\\’push start\\\\\\\’ it if you run out of gas with a dead starter battery? therein lies the rub – they did not want to sell the car, or even – lease it!!

    If the car would go 60 miles with the crappy lead acid batteries – still today – it would mean I could drive it – and not need a Gas Powered car for 98% of the time or about 80% of my annual miles, and for the balance – I could drive it to a car rental place and rent a gas powered – or even – a Hybrid Car/SUV for my summer vacation trips, and occasional drives of 5-6 hours time by time. What? Nobody thought of renting a car without having taken a flight? Why not buy what you need for 75 to 80% of the time and rent what you only need a bit of the time?

    Don\\\\\\\’t forget – the EV1 – with NiMH Cells or Batteries – did make it up to 140 miles range. On that – I could charge it up about once a month – and drive it almost everywhere I go each day for myself. Also – they had plans for a 4 seater version of the car (EV1+?), and a Hybrid version too – but they scrapped not just the car, but the idea, the name, and the concept, and only went back to look at EV\\\\\\\’s again – when Tesla sold a 100 Cars in about two weeks at $100,000 each – up front, paid in full, with no production facitilites in hand yet! Check the history on Chevy\\\\\\\’s Volt website!

    With All Rechargeable Batteries – it\\\\\\\’s both Age (Self Discharge, or Shelf Life), and Cycle Life. A Car with a 40 mile run cycle – and 1000 cycles will (in theory) get 40,000 miles on that set of Batteries. (Might need to change out a cell here or there along the way), and a car with a 200 mile run cycle and just 1000 cycles life will get 200,000 miles on a pack before replacement – and most importantly – that pack you take out – can be installed in your garage to hook up with your newly installed, government subsidized – or mandated – Solar Installation for the purposes of Grid-Leveling and surge power support, just like V2G or Vehicle to Grid, but you loose the Vehicle and make it House to Grid! In that application it could go another 8 – 10 years before finally needing recycling! (And it would have more run time if the grid went down to power your house, than the little pack that had just 40 mile range would have!)

    A Bycycle is not the vehicle for everything – but driving your Lincoln Navigator or Hummer – two blocks to carry your 250 lbs to the corrner store to buy a pack of smokes, just so you can be seen as to be rich, is pathetic! Take a walk for once! The Health care system is overloaded because of nobody walking, or taking a bike for even a bit of their daily or semi-daily needs!
    Move Closer to work – if you can\\\\\\\’t buy a house closer – rent a place, Landlords need the money too – not just Oil Companies!

    When was the last time you used your trip meter and a notepad to see how much you drive – day by day, in miles or km, and then find the biggest distance you drove in a month, compared to the next biggest distance, and the average distance you drove a day – and look at not just how far you drove in 1 day – but in 2 days! If an Electric Car can get you to work, bank, grocery store, kids games, and back home – for two days in a row on one charge – it does everything it needs to and allows you some slack if you forget one night to plug it in! (Not everything you THINK you need it to do, because you Want it too) On the error of safety – take 2 1/2 Days average driving as the distance of need or the second largest distance your drove in any one day in a month, buy or make your own EV that covers that – dump the gassers, and rent one when you need it only! Heck – remember 1 – 2 – Free? Discount Rents cars for Free on the 3rd booking!

    Happy Thinking All!

  3. Yes the movie was one sided, but it had one fact right. People did want an electric car. The big 3 car makers made it then tried to erase it. They didn’t make a profit from it, they didn’t have the vision, that is why they are in trouble now. Toyota’s Prius didn’t make a profit for several years but they stuck with it. The Prius is having a reasonable recognition, the Volt – wtf is that? The lesson is to not throw something away and then play catch up when a competitor has reached considerable success.

  4. The pseudo-documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car” certainly appeals to the masses who want to believe that there are big business conspiracies against the well being of the people and the country.

    I say “pseudo-documentary” not because what they portray isn’t correct, but because it is so very incomplete.

    If you google Time’s 50 Worst Cars of all time, EV1 is there….so there’s certainly a counter opinion on the vehicles too.

    But what disturbs me most is the blatant omission of the important facts surrounding the whole EV1 program.

    GM has traditionally had a very low market share in California.

    California announced very strict new regulations that would require a certain percentage of sales to be zero emission vehicles. Manufacturers who did not do this would not be able to sell vehicles in California.

    So this presented an opportunity for GM as they knew not all manufacturers were planning to market electric vehicles. They invested hundreds of millions in the EV1 and the payoff would come from increased sales of regular vehicles.

    Well, deprive Californians of their BMWs and Mercedes and Porsches? That would be political suicide!!!! So the regs were quietly changed to allow “business as usual” for the companies that made no effort to comply with the zero emission regulations.

    Companies were allowed to give electric golf carts to golf courses and count them against the requirements!!!!!!!!!!!

    So GM did the right thing, got screwed by the politicians for the sake of their re-elections, and to add insult to injury, now get targeted and blamed!!! In reality, GM is the victim, not the criminal. Put the real blame where it belongs.

  5. Shant

    You work for GM right?

    Good to see them die for pulling such a low trick.

    Shame they’re still sucking money from the tax payers though.

  6. Great system. But the easiest and fastest way to reduce gas emissions and consumption is to use the HHO system.
    It’s easy to install, cheap and the savings are huge !
    Check out for yourself at hydromake.com.
    Happy driving !

  7. I’m sure if this was seen by more people, people would all contribute to make it more reliable. And why couldnt t you make a battery powered truck? Just a bigger battery.

  8. I know what im talking about.

    Lithium ion is not a reliable source of engergy for cars!
    It does not last longer than 3 years from date of production. It has great power to weight ratio. It can get a car to travel a good 200-300 miles. It works. But NOT GOOD because who the fuck will change a battery pack ever 3 years. Within a year and a half it will only go about 100-150 miles to a charge. Thats the lithium ion limitation. Also i mentioned the Tesla… READ!

    Number two, other battery technologies exist like the other guy said, such as NiMh and etc. And when you find me a reasonable price to replace it with “recycled parts” and costs under about $3000, get back to me (parts plus labor, cuz you know you cannot replace that yourself, prob need to be certified for that stuff.

  9. Yes, I saw an interview with the CEO of a California company proposing that the batteries would be leased separately from the plug-in cars. There would be swapping stations to simply trade out spent batteries. Makes sense…
    I am also a fan of the Picken’s Plan proposal to push for natural gas powered large trucks. There is an abundance of cheap domestic natural gas that burns much cleaner that diesel or gas. The UPS truck fleet already uses nat. gas and the Dallas Metro bus system is considering nat. gas over diesel right now. I understand that 70% of gasoline use is by large trucks, not cars, and batteries won’t pull heavy trucks. At least it is cleaner and local…

  10. From Wikipedia:

    Encumbrance of NiMH technology use in electric and hybrid vehicles

    The NiMH chemistry used in modern hybrid vehicles was invented by ECD Ovonics founder, Stan Ovshinksy, and Dr. Masahiko Oshitani of the Yuasa Company[22] [23] In 1994, General Motors acquired a controlling interest in Ovonics’s battery development and manufacturing. On October 10, 2001, Texaco purchased GM’s share in GM Ovonics, and Chevron completed its acquisition of Texaco six days later. In 2003, Texaco Ovonics Battery Systems was restructured into Cobasys, a 50/50 joint venture between Chevron and Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) Ovonics.[24] Chevron’s influence over Cobasys extends beyond a strict 50/50 joint venture. Chevron holds a 19.99% interest in ECD Ovonics.[25] In addition, Chevron maintains the right to seize all of Cobasys’ intellectual property rights in the event that ECD Ovonics does not fulfill its contractual obligations.[26] On September 10, 2007, Chevron filed a legal claim that ECD Ovonics has not fulfilled its obligations. ECD Ovonics disputes this claim.[27] Since that time, the arbitration hearing was repeatedly suspended while the parties negotiate with an unknown prospective buyer. No agreement has been reached with the potential buyer. [28] Cobasys’s patents relating to NiMH batteries expire in 2015.

    In her book, Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America, published in February 2007, Sherry Boschert argues that large-format NiMH batteries are commercially viable but that Cobasys refuses to sell or license them to small companies or individuals. Boschert argues that Cobasys accepts only very large orders for these batteries. When Boschert conducted her research, major auto makers showed little interest in large orders for large-format NiMH batteries. However, Toyota employees complained about the difficulty in getting smaller orders of large format NiMH batteries to service the existing 825 RAV-4EVs. Because no other companies were willing to make large orders, Cobasys was not manufacturing nor licensing any large format NiMH battery technology for automotive purposes. Boschert concludes that “it’s possible that Cobasys (Chevron) is squelching all access to large NiMH batteries through its control of patent licenses in order to remove a competitor to gasoline. Or it’s possible that Cobasys simply wants the market for itself and is waiting for a major automaker to start producing plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles.”[29]

    In an interview with the Economist, Ovshinsky subsribed to the former view. “I think we at ECD we made a mistake of having a joint venture with an oil company, frankly speaking. And I think it’s not a good idea to go into business with somebody whose strategies would put you out of business, rather than building the business.[30]”

    In December 2006, Cobasys and General Motors announced that they had signed a contract under which Cobasys provides NiMH batteries for the Saturn Aura hybrid sedan.[31] In March 2007, GM announced that it would use Cobasys NiMH batteries in the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu hybrid as well.

    In October 2007, International Acquisitions Services, Inc. and Innovative Transportation Systems AG filed suit against Cobasys and its parents for refusing to fill a large, previously agreed-upon order for large-format NiMH batteries to be used in the electric Innovan. [32]

    In August 2008, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Inc. filed suit against Cobasys claiming that Cobasys isn’t delivering the batteries it agreed to build for Mercedes-Benz’s planned hybrid SUV.[33]

  11. Encumbrance of NiMH technology use in electric and hybrid vehicles

    The NiMH chemistry used in modern hybrid vehicles was invented by ECD Ovonics founder, Stan Ovshinksy, and Dr. Masahiko Oshitani of the Yuasa Company[22] [23] In 1994, General Motors acquired a controlling interest in Ovonics’s battery development and manufacturing. On October 10, 2001, Texaco purchased GM’s share in GM Ovonics, and Chevron completed its acquisition of Texaco six days later. In 2003, Texaco Ovonics Battery Systems was restructured into Cobasys, a 50/50 joint venture between Chevron and Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) Ovonics.[24] Chevron’s influence over Cobasys extends beyond a strict 50/50 joint venture. Chevron holds a 19.99% interest in ECD Ovonics.[25] In addition, Chevron maintains the right to seize all of Cobasys’ intellectual property rights in the event that ECD Ovonics does not fulfill its contractual obligations.[26] On September 10, 2007, Chevron filed a legal claim that ECD Ovonics has not fulfilled its obligations. ECD Ovonics disputes this claim.[27] Since that time, the arbitration hearing was repeatedly suspended while the parties negotiate with an unknown prospective buyer. No agreement has been reached with the potential buyer. [28] Cobasys’s patents relating to NiMH batteries expire in 2015.

    In her book, Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America, published in February 2007, Sherry Boschert argues that large-format NiMH batteries are commercially viable but that Cobasys refuses to sell or license them to small companies or individuals. Boschert argues that Cobasys accepts only very large orders for these batteries. When Boschert conducted her research, major auto makers showed little interest in large orders for large-format NiMH batteries. However, Toyota employees complained about the difficulty in getting smaller orders of large format NiMH batteries to service the existing 825 RAV-4EVs. Because no other companies were willing to make large orders, Cobasys was not manufacturing nor licensing any large format NiMH battery technology for automotive purposes. Boschert concludes that “it’s possible that Cobasys (Chevron) is squelching all access to large NiMH batteries through its control of patent licenses in order to remove a competitor to gasoline. Or it’s possible that Cobasys simply wants the market for itself and is waiting for a major automaker to start producing plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles.”[29]

    In an interview with the Economist, Ovshinsky subsribed to the former view. “I think we at ECD we made a mistake of having a joint venture with an oil company, frankly speaking. And I think it’s not a good idea to go into business with somebody whose strategies would put you out of business, rather than building the business.[30]”

    In December 2006, Cobasys and General Motors announced that they had signed a contract under which Cobasys provides NiMH batteries for the Saturn Aura hybrid sedan.[31] In March 2007, GM announced that it would use Cobasys NiMH batteries in the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu hybrid as well.

    In October 2007, International Acquisitions Services, Inc. and Innovative Transportation Systems AG filed suit against Cobasys and its parents for refusing to fill a large, previously agreed-upon order for large-format NiMH batteries to be used in the electric Innovan. [32]

    In August 2008, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Inc. filed suit against Cobasys claiming that Cobasys isn’t delivering the batteries it agreed to build for Mercedes-Benz’s planned hybrid SUV.[33]

  12. I have heard of a very practical business model for solving the charge up question for electric cars. A battery exchange service could be established for long distance driving or for anytime people need to drive further than the current charge on their battery allows. One would simply go to the nearest battery exchange and have them pop out the drained cell and pop in a fully charged one. Batteries would be owned, upgraded, rented or leased to members by the battery exchange in a kind co-op member system. There could be various levels of membership in the battery exchange and I could imagine a regular, gold card, or platinum member depending on how much long distance driving you do.

    There are so many creative solutions for a clean, happy, future and their has come. Yes, we can!

  13. I saw and enjoyed this movie a few years ago…I can’t say it’s propaganda or complete BS…what’s interesting though is that the all the cars were taken back from those who leased them and then destroyed. What sense does that make?

  14. People who say this movie is propaganda completely miss the point. It’s the fact that the technology “WAS” but still is right in our face. If GM just developed the technology and paid attention to it more instead of “trying” to. If the mandate was pushed harder they would of been forced to focus on development. They should of educated the public more. Seeing this movie was the first time I’ve heard of the EV1. When living in California for a year coming from the east coast I saw a Toyota EV SUV on the road and figured it for a cheap go cart. Maybe some sort of NEW thing that didn’t catch on yet and wasn’t efficient enough. Meanwhile it was the same car in the movie that’s 10-20 years old let alone the technology was there during the rise of the automobile industry. Have mainstream BIG 3 cars not improved in the past 10-20 years? Leaving some extra information out of a film to support it’s cause doesn’t make it negative propaganda considering that is what the car companies and other “suspects” have been doing for decades to promote more bullshit products to ease your mind like CLEAN COAL or FUEL CELLS. The technology is there, purchased, owned, and hidden from the general population until “suspects” can profit immensely from it. Let’s not forget about the Tucker back in 1948. What is wrong with vision’s of a fully electric, solar panel car with tires that don’t need air finally becoming a reality. The pieces of the puzzle are here but flipped over and rearranged so the general population can’t see the final picture that has been here all this time.

  15. The only thing that will save humanity from chaos is technology and constant evolution through ages. It’s understandable that people are afraid of big changes and it took time for humanity to accept concepts that are totally contrary of their knowing. Even if the battery is way from perfection we still needed to see that movie to make us know that there are some new technologies that NEED improvement but we are almost there to make a big change! This movie is a start to let people know that it’s there!

  16. I have to agree with a lot of the comments. There is one major reason why the electric car was killed – the battery. It is ironic that I went to a presentation on sizing and building car batteries only a few days ago. Strong evidence was presented to everyone why the car was killed. Several polarization curves were presented and the power degradation, 30 days after the first polarization curve was calculated, was absolutely terrible. One of our engineering teams tested a similar battery setup in the Equinox vehicle we have and from the first battery we only got 9 miles….9 miles, before we had to replace it. To be fair, our vehicle is much, much heavier and the current could have fried the battery.

    This movie is very biased and if there is a viable alternative to gasoline powered vehicles, consumers will adopt it and oil companies will jump to invest money into the technology to secure their future profits…

  17. To Shant:

    Uh, dude, the Tesla uses lithium ion batteries (lap top) batteries and gets 250 miles from a full charge. Dont comment unless you have knowledge bro.

  18. Interestingly enough, there is one of these (EV-1) behind the mechanical engineering building here at Virginia Tech, coolest thing ever. I have some pictures of it, sad they don’t make them anymore.

  19. “it is that there isn’t a battery technology that can last 200-300 miles after date of production”

    are you kidding me? lead,lithium,nicd,nimh can all be charged hundreds of times and some thousands of times, the reason most batteries fail isn’t because of the battery, its because people abuse them and they aren’t charged properly so their life is cut short. cars can have very intelligent battery monitoring and charging technology.

    “guess how much it will cost to replace that battery pack? Yea, its about 1/3 of the entire car”

    that is for an entirely new battery pack, batteries made today are recyclable, when you already have all of the raw materials to make the battery, replacing it will be a smaller expense.

    “electronic cars are COUNTER productive to our way of life. to fully charge an electric car it takes a few hours. can you imagine traveling across the country and having to make a “gas” stop . . . for 4 hours?”

    charging overnight will not be a problem for most people in their day to day life. to get around the charge problem cars have been designed that charge in 5 minutes, or you could use a battery pack design that would allow you to automatically swap out the entire battery array with a charged one. or using a hybrid system. there are several ways around this problem.

    “battery technology was created, and then was BOUGHT by oil companies”

    if you research NIMH technology Chevron owns the full rights to it, they have limited the technology, this is technology that is 20 years old, similar things are going on with other battery technologies. the truth is no one knows the entire scope of how the oil companies are controlling battery technology, but one thing is for certain, THEY ARE. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_metal_hydride_battery#Encumbrance_of_NiMH_technology_use_in_electric_and_hybrid_vehicles

  20. If you actually watched it, you will realize that the battery issue is fake – battery technology was created, and then was BOUGHT by oil companies. They own the rights to it and no one else can use that technology. Other battery technologies indeed are not good enough or are very expensive.

    That is the single most compelling piece of evidence that shows this to NOT be some kind of propaganda.

    Hopefully things will change soon.

  21. The only problem here is that a wide majority of people that actually owned one of these cars wanted to keep their electric vehicle after the trial run expired and the cars were recalled — and this was back even when the price of oil didn’t hit such highs at the pump … that car companies weren’t forward thinking enough to see the potentials of new markets is one of the reasons that they’re failing and falling to international competition now … I can also look to the future — if parking meters were replaced with pay per use power outlets for electric plug-in cars, the gas guzzling dinosaur would become a thing of the past …

  22. umm, yeah. this video is sad. very sad–almost as sad as anyone who believes this bull.

    i talked to an engineering teacher at cal state la when electronic cars were becoming the new sliced bread. he told me then that they were not going to sell as well as people liked back then. his reasoning was simply looking at the energy requirements created so that each household could own and operate one electronic car. this would require the development of numerous power plants across the country to supply that electrical energy. even though all of us would appreciate those jobs right about now, it poses a large risk (what if it was a nuclear power plant and it melted down? simple statistics, more plants means greater chance of something going bad if something can go bad.)

    not to mention, electronic cars are COUNTER productive to our way of life. to fully charge an electric car it takes a few hours. can you imagine traveling across the country and having to make a “gas” stop . . . for 4 hours? again, new job openings created because now we silly americans need to be entertained for that 4 hours cuz we can’t do it ourselves, but your 28 hour trip from chicago to los angeles just about doubles. this means you cant apply the technology to any other means of transportation. ha ha ha, i just thought about how funny and chaotic an airport would become if we had electronic planes.

  23. Ok seriously, i didn’t read who did the research for this but this entire movie is ridiculous.

    THERE ARE SO MANY REASONS WHY!!!!!
    Many of the reasons the movie mentioned are not reasons for GM to shut down its electric car division are actually the legitimate reasons. Whoever wrote this movie is highly uneducated.

    1. Batteries – Battery technology is the NUMBER ONE REASON!!!!!!! read tat carfully, that you do not see electric cars. It is not that we do not have a battery that cant last 200-300 miles at a time, it is that there isn’t a battery technology that can last 200-300 miles after date of production. The man who said that electric car had lithium-ion battiers “same type of battery used in our laptops”, this is what should’ve been shoved into the EV1, is a complete IDIOT! Am i seriously the only who knows that lithium-ion batteries dont last longer than 3 years? 4 yrs is pushing it. And this is after date of production people, not when you buy it. And weather you use it or not it wont last more than 3 – 4 yrs. NOW! guess how much it will cost to replace that battery pack? Yea, its about 1/3 of the entire car. Try dishing that kinda cash out. Before you finish paying off your car you have 33% more to pay on top of all that principal an interest you raked up over the years.

    2. The Car Companies? Seriously guys? Now this is the reason you guys aren’t your own boss’ and work for somebody. General Motors hated the EV1 huh? ok.. lets pretend I am GM. Let me go spend 100 million plus on research and development. Test it. Approve it. Market IT. AND LOSE MONEY ON IT! That was my intention all along.
    I hope you realize that i am being sarcastic. because in no ones right mind is it to not even gain back 10% of what they invested.
    Seriously the reason why they pulled it off is probably due to a huge flaw they found! Anybody remember Sony’s Lithium-ion battiers exploding on people? Anybody remember Fords Pinto? Mistakes happen people. I’d rather make you wonder wtf is wrong with me than have you sue my ass. Especially if im GM.

    And is it just me or GM is actually releasing the VOLT in 2010, and that is the biggest plug in all electric vehicle that will be in production. Doesn’t this show that GM has been hard at work? Tesla has to make a small roadster in order to just barely get 200 miles. And other car companies still dont have full plug-in electric cars.

    Don’t beleive everything you hear people. EDUCATE YOURSELF!

  24. That movie was pure one sided propaganda. The EV-1 was primitive battery technology that GM could not sell and make money. Each car really cost $100,000 and to replace the battery would have cost $30,000 virtually every 25,000 miles. They were subsidized by GM for testing and were never meant for real world consumption. I test drove one for two weeks and while interesting its range was less than 75 miles.

  25. Interestingly enough, there is one of these (EV-1) behind the mechanical engineering building here at Virginia Tech, coolest thing ever. I have some pictures of it, sad they don’t make them anymore

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.