GM: "We didn't kill the electric car"

He predicted that gasoline would be $2.50 by spring - and ridiculed anybody who didn't buy into his brilliant economic logic. He was obviously proven 185% wrong, and wouldn't even bother to own up to it. Haven't really seen him since. Gotta be tough to sell GM SUVs in today's market, so maybe is a bit busier than normal these days.

 

This was a common theme for EV "marketing." Toyota shares this guilt - I attended the hearing where they said that they put MORE money and effort into advertising the Rav4EV as they did the Prius.

Think back five or six years. Anybody remember a Prius ad? How about a Rav4EV ad? The few Rav4EV ads that DID appear had no contact information. If you called the Toyota 800 number, nobody knew where to buy them. There were exactly 25 dealerships in the entire nation where they could be purchased.

I'm not making this up. I lived it.

In the end, GM And Toyota hung their credibility on the same lie: We marketed the hell out of the cars, but could only sell X number of them (X stands for the exact number of vehicles that they allowed for sale/lease). So obviously, there was no market.

 

Yes, he last said that he just had the timing wrong - he thinks gas prices will drop later this year. :lalala:

 

Or maybe he made a typo and actually meant "$4,50 by Spring"

Locally, the various GM brand dealerships are hurting, big time. Row after row of pickups and suv's that nobody wants. Toyota dealerships are also having a bit of trouble selling their new Sequoia and Tundra, but the Tacoma's are moving

Toyota dealerships can't seem to keep Yaris, Corolla, and Prius cars on the lot, they *fly* off

 

The only thing worse than this is to be an RV dealer right now. Because my GF was temporarily insane and wanted to drive one from CA to NY, we were shopping for RVs last week. We were the only customers at 5 different RV lots. You can get a really good deal right now on a motorhome; the manufacturers are giving rebates up to $15k because all of the lots are full and none of the dealers are ordering from the factory.

She finally came to her senses when I pointed out that we would never be able to sell the motorhome for anything close to the purchase price so we had better find the cheapest one available because we would essentially be flushing that money down the toilet. She decided that she would look into taking the train across Canada instead.

 

Oh geez, stay away from a purchase like that. If you two really have your hearts set on a whacky adventure, just *rent* an RV. I really doubt you would have the same excitement as Robin Williams did, with the exception of various sewage-related issues

You'd probably spend around $3,500-$5,000 with rental and fuel, for a cross country jaunt, but that's still way cheaper than being married to an RV you couldn't give away

It would also be an excellent test of your committment to each other. If an adventure like that doesn't have you two clawing at each others throats, nothing will

 

I think she's over it now. I've learned just to humor her when she has a wacky idea - eventually she comes to her senses.

The plan was for her to drive out to NY with our two dogs. Then stay for a month to help care for her mom (85 years old, legally blind). Then I would fly out and drive back. We would stop at some fun places on the way back, like Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, et. al.

It would take a total of two months, 2 wks out, 2 wks back, 1 month in NY, so that wouldn't work for a rental. The going rate for rental is at least $1k per week + mileage + fuel. We estimated fuel cost alone would be 2500 mi /(7mpg)*$3.50 / gal = $1250 each way .

The age of the motorhome is over.

 

We tested the EV1. Talked to the apartment complex we were living in at the time - they were willing to put in the charging station. The company I work for was willing to put in a charging station too... It was great. Only GM was the problem.

Why we did not get one (or 2 as we really wanted):
1 - the guy who took me out on my testdrive, would not let me drive the car. On the freeway he turned on a F(*&^%&%#&%Q football game. and ignored me till we returned to the dealership. I was SO mad I was shaking when my husband came back from his testdrive (different salesman) I did put in a formal complaint & have never returned to that dealership.
2 - you had to live/work within 5 miles of each other. Very few people do that in this area.
3 - anything over 12k miles per year of the lease was $.50 per mile to turn in the car. (financially - not an option)
4 - you could not purchase.

GM made it difficult to get the car... unless of course you fit into their VERY tight rules.

 

From what I've heard, that is the best course of action

 

Angelfish, that is unbelievable! It's a wonder they leased any.

While they leased most in California, I did see a few here in Michigan, although they may have been GM employee cars.

Interestingly, I had a co-worker whose husband worked on the EV1 (battery-he was an electrical engineer). In fact, they brought a proto-type to a party about 2 years before the California launch. They had to plug it in to recharge with the hosts extension cord--it didn't have the paddle-type recharger. The guy did give short rides to everyone--it was very zippy-good acceleration, so quiet. Yep, it had the back-up beep!

There's one at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. It sits there all by itself with a charging unit. It is so very sad, it makes me want to cry for what could have been had they been willing to actually commit to the electric car. Actually in the same section is a steam car that had incredible range and acceleration but the company had a big stock scandal and went out of business. Also there is a 1912(?) Gas-Electric hybrid car.

You just wonder how different things would be if we had gone down the steam or the gas/electric or full electric vehicle path instead of the gasoline path.

Donna

 

This is just like the H1-B workers visa. All these greedy companies have to do is to insert some tiny two line help-wanted ad that is really vague and uninteresting and then when they can't find anyone who applies for the job, either because they are in an inconspicuous area of the newspaper or it sounds yucky, they turn around and import a foreigner (at a much lower salary that they would pay to an American) to do a job that several citizens are more than capable of doing. If some American bothered to apply for that job, they will make sure that he does not get that job on one technicality or the other.

Then they take it to the next level. They will blame Congress for cutting back on these visas, cite the same lies in that there is not enough Americans willing/capable of doing the job, so they just move the job oversees. They will never accept the fact they were unwilling to pay higher salaries (hence lower profits) to the existing workforce, but they would rather trash them to get someone else for cheap and reap bigger profits.

Dan

P.S. Sorry if I offended someone with this rant.

 

Oh, that's just the tip of the iceburg. There were TONS of ways of disqualifying potential lease holders. Not only was it exteremely difficult to be accepted, but there were often waits for the vehicles up to a full year after acceptance. Surprisingly, none of this is mentioned by GM...

All of them were GM employees when the cars went back East. GM didn't want private drivers to get their hands on them again once they managed to get the cars back from CA drivers.

Check it out - I even have a page on this very display:
EV1 Dearborn

 

I love the part in WKTEC? where the mechanic said he didn't ever get his hands dirty maintaining the EV1. Certainly, as soon as the dealers and GM realized that they sold a car that would probably never need costly repairs, they panicked and killed it.

 

Busier than normal? With nobody in your showroom? I imagine he's busy playing solitaire or maybe sweeping the floor for the fifth time that day...

 

Chrysler is solving that problem. They're offering to subsidize the cost of gas if you buy one of the cars on their "list". You can guess what cars those would be.

$2.99 gas from Chrysler.

 

They specifically exclude the Dodge Ram Chassis Cab and Dodge Sprinter (motorhome chassis). Crap, there goes my plan to make them pay for RV fuel.

I think this plan will only appeal to those individuals who can't comprehend what might happen 3 years from now. :flock:

 

Busy filing bankruptcy.

 

Here is a picture of the EV1 management team to include Jill Banaszynski (3rd from left).

 

I get it now. She isn't talking about GM as a representative of the company; she is talking about the development team that was responsible for designing the EV1.

They didn't personally cancel the program or crush the cars. It was someone else at GM who was responsible for that.

 

The Sprinter is actually made in Germany by Mercedes. The older models used an inline 5 cylinder common rail turbodiesel, the newer ones use the new 3 litre V6 common rail turbodiesel

Ironically, the Sprinter gets far better fuel economy than the Ram pickups. Fleets here report averaging upper 20's summer, around 20 winter. Something like a 3/4 Ram Hemi used for fleet here will average low teens summer, around 7 winter