Oh boy. Now were advocating the use of oil and coal??? Exactly how hot do you want the Earth to get? I thought this was a board about renewables. Maybe I am missing your point, John.
GM spent a billion dollars(or so they say) creating a perfectly good electric car, of which they only produced 1100 or so, put them on the streets for six years, did some improvements, and then collected them all back up (except for 40 or so) and mashed them flat. They never sold a single unit, nor would they sell them no matter what.
The question is why did they stop the program. Some speculators say that they had "secret technology" that they didn't want to get out on the street. That's not it...GM hasn't had any revolutionary technology ever, far as I can tell, and furthermore they wouldn't have donated them to university if that was the case. Gm said that no one would buy them. Thats crap. There was a waiting list, contrary to what GM states on it's own website. GM said that battery technology would "never be good enough". Crap again. Battery technology is advancing just fine (L-ion anyone?)and saying never equates to in the box thinking or an excuse. GM said they'd be too expensive. Crap. Too expensive for who? That's making a large assumption. If you spend a billion on design, R&D, manufacturing and tooling, and then only produce a thousand units, of course each unit would be expensive. But make a run of 50,000, and the price per comes down in a large way. The REAL point is, and what started this whole thread, why would anyone spend a billion dollars on anything, and then decide to literally crush the product and program when the results are good? Why not at least allow the cars to be sold, recoup at least some of the money and walk away, and call it a expensive learning experience. Nope. Now GM is spending a gazillion dollars on the Hydrogen fuel cell program, again with Fed subsidies, and currently the technology just sucks, and will continue to suck for along time to come. Mercedes has been working on this tech. at least ten years longer than GM, and still they (MB) have no production car in sight, and I trust that if any group can get it right, it'll be the Germans. The costs are astronomical (the Ford Focus Hyd Fuel Cell cost about 1 million per) and the final product will be extremely expensive, much more so than EV, not to mention much more complicated and finicky, and more prone to failure than EV. Gm is sadly going backwards, again. No wonder they're losing market share..and investors...and drivers.
Personally, I would have bought an EV1, even if it was $45K and came with no warrantee or factory support, and I don't even like GM. It would be a nice addition to the Prius already in the garage, along with my favorite ride, the 74 Honda CL360 Scrambler, set up to run on alcohol. And please, let me, the user, decide whether or not there is a place where an electric car is best.
disary1