# GM Recharges the Future of the Electric Car



## EVDL Archive (Jul 26, 2007)

Cambridge Energy Research Associates estimates that if the entire U.S. vehicle fleet suddenly became electric, gas consumption would drop 70 percent, and electric-power consumption would jump about 17 percent.

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## LeTank (Jun 24, 2008)

GM killed the electric car idea in California already, what makes anyone think GM is going to bring back their EV when their stock holders are Oil companies. 

I hope GM goes belly up. I am just waiting for Toyota/Honda to introduce a full electric car that outdoes anything on the road today. 

Ford is also owned by oil companies. So is Chevy and all other car companes in America. Don't expect anything from them. If you want something, you have to build it yourself and thank goodness for Diyelectric to help in that matter.


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## saab96 (Mar 19, 2008)

in other related news:

http://news.bostonherald.com/business/automotive/view.bg?articleid=1103490


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## Manntis (May 22, 2008)

LeTank said:


> GM killed the electric car idea in California already, what makes anyone think GM is going to bring back their EV when their stock holders are Oil companies.


To be fair, a lot of GM's decision to kill off the electric car had nothing to do with the car itself, nor some oil conspiracy. At the time GM was hurting - losing 4.6 billion dollars a year. They'd replaced the infamous Roger Smith with Stempel, who continued running the company into the ground, and Stempel championed his friend Reuss who made some very bad decisions that, according to Paul Ingrassia and Joe White, exacerbated GM's hemmoraging of working capitol. Reuss had been put in charge of Saturn and the Impact/EV1 projects. When the directors revolted and Smale set the terms for Stempel's ousting and Reuss' firing, the company was near bankrupcy and had to cut back almost everything - including the money-losing EV1.

IMHO the cancellation of the EV1 was yet another short-sighted decision, as it would have positioned them as industry leaders now, but that's 20/20 hindsight. At the time people were snapping up Hummers, gas was cheap, and GM desperately needed to focus on profits to crawl out of a very deep sea of red ink.

GM has just announced buying back the rights to those batteries from Esso/Exxon Mobile. The next few years should be interesting indeed.


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## saab96 (Mar 19, 2008)

Manntis said:


> GM has just announced buying back the rights to those batteries from Esso/Exxon Mobile. The next few years should be interesting indeed.


Unfortunately they are doing it at a time when NiMh is losing its cachet to lithium in the automotive sector.


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## Kreb (Apr 30, 2008)

Chevy's EV1 was a case of the body being at war with itself. They had very talented engineers working on it, and a lot of people who wanted it dead. All reports that I've seen on the Volt says that they're serious this time, and Toyota has proven that there's a real market for alternative technology. I'm optimistic, and I hope folks like LeTank can see through their bias to recognize the upside to a viable domestic manufacturer of the vehicles of the future.


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## Coley (Jul 26, 2007)

I still think a major part of the decision to kill off the EV1 was the fact that it needed NO dealer servicing....
When you have a car that doesn't use most of the ICE car replacement parts, where is the profit in replacement sales?????
Nope, all you will see from the big boys are hybrids, to keep the ICE parts selling and keep us on the oil companies.....


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