| Falling Sales, job cuts and the threat of | | | | prospects of the EV1, aided and abetted by state |
| bankruptcy, just where did it all go so wrong for | | | | legislators, oil companies and even the |
| General Motors? Many people think it can be | | | | government, but surely they found themselves in |
| traced back to the final days of the EV1, when | | | | an invidious position. If the EV1 was as good as |
| General Motors effectively killed a goose that had | | | | has been claimed, it could easily have been |
| the potential to lay golden eggs. By 2003 GM had | | | | disastrous for General Motors. In designing and |
| recalled and crushed all but a few EV1's, those | | | | building a clean electric car, they were in effect |
| that weren't were placed in museums. If this act | | | | showcasing just how unclean and polluting the rest |
| of recklessness had never happened General | | | | of the cars they produced were. If this was the |
| Motors could now be a world leader in clean | | | | situation then GM would have found itself with |
| vehicle technology. Instead, they find themselves | | | | just one product. But it was a product that was |
| way behind their competitors, trying to catch up | | | | leading the world. Leading in a direction that may |
| with Toyota and Honda in the production of | | | | have helped to reduce our dependence on oil, a |
| hybrid vehicles, most notably with the Chevy Volt. | | | | dependence that has caused conflicts worldwide. |
| Rick Wagoner has gone on record as saying his | | | | For whatever reason General Motors chose to kill |
| biggest regret was "axing the EV1 electric-car | | | | off the EV1, they now find themselves in a dire |
| program and not putting the right resources into | | | | situation, they designed and built an electric car, a |
| hybrids. It didn't affect profitability, but it did | | | | car that appealed to a market, a car that worked. |
| affect image." An image that with hindsight has | | | | When the Chevy Volt is launched, if it ever is, GM |
| been irrevocably tarnished and as a result | | | | will have to win these people over again. The |
| Wagoner paid the price with his job. Had GM | | | | same people who had their hopes crushed when |
| continued to develop the EV1, the Chevy Volt or | | | | GM crushed all those EV1's. |
| possibly an even better design would have been | | | | So today GM finds itself looking backwards, |
| on our roads for years now and the one time | | | | backwards to electricity and clean technology, |
| world leader of the car market may have found | | | | looking backwards to the good old days, good old |
| itself in a much better situation to deal with the | | | | days when they led, not followed. If only they'd |
| present downturn. | | | | had hindsight, or even more importantly, courage, |
| General Motors made a huge mistake in crushing | | | | things may have turned out very different. Their |
| the EV1's, but were they solely to blame for the | | | | image would have been a lot healthier and their |
| demise of this burgeoning technology? Many feel | | | | profits... well they certainly couldn't be any worse |
| that General Motors intentionally sabotaged the | | | | than they are today. |