How General Motors Killed the First Modern Electric Car

[integral]

• General Motors (GM) produced and leased the EV1, an electric car, in the 1990s but later reclaimed and destroyed nearly all of them, despite public demand for the vehicle. This was later discovered to be due to concerns about the impact on profits from maintenance and repair, as well as pressure from oil companies and political interference.

Edited January 28, 2023 by integral

[Danioover9000]

@integral

3 minutes ago, integral said:

• General Motors (GM) produced and leased the EV1, an electric car, in the 1990s but later reclaimed and destroyed nearly all of them, despite public demand for the vehicle. This was later discovered to be due to concerns about the impact on profits from maintenance and repair, as well as pressure from oil companies and political interference.

   Nice share! A case study of spiral dynamics stage orange and green values clashing, and other ideologies in the mix.

[Leo Gura]

That car was so ugly it deserves to be killed twice.

Whoever designed that thing should be put before a firing squad.

Edited February 3, 2023 by Leo Gura

[meta_male]

On 28.1.2023 at 6:01 PM, integral said:

• This was later discovered to be due to concerns about the impact on profits from maintenance and repair, as well as pressure from oil companies and political interference.

The demand for something like this wouldn't have been high back then. Electric cars are only just becoming popular now because today's technology allows for better imitation of what people love about cars with combustion engines. 

[DocWatts]

2 hours ago, meta_male said:

The demand for something like this wouldn't have been high back then. Electric cars are only just becoming popular now because today's technology allows for better imitation of what people love about cars with combustion engines. 

Thing is though that companies don't just passively  respond to what customers demand.

They also actively inculcate and drive that demand as well. This is especially true with new technologies; in the days of horses and buggies Ford had to sell the public on car ownership.

In short, the adoption of a new technology always involves proactive advocating for change within a given domain.