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

Look. If there is one thing that will separate the car companies from the oil companies, it is the price of gas.
The oil companies benefit from inflated gas prices, the car companies suffer--they can't sell most of their cars. Something's gotta give--so the song says.

 

Since that, in turn, turned off interest for electric cars until, well, now, maybe "kill the electric car" isn't accurate, but "gravely wounding the electric car" would be better.

 

Toyota stopped selling RAV4 EV's exactly the same day GM stopped leasing EV1's.....when the California Air Resource Board modified their ZEV mandate. True, Toyota didn't crush them, but they also "pulled the plug".

 

Toyota responded to pleas and allowed for people to purchase their Rav4's rather than rip them out of the hands of people willing to buy them just so they crush them. GM did this all in the name of protecting the customer.


In addition, GM sold the EV battery patent to Chevron who then sued Panasonic and Toyota getting a multi-million judgment and shutting down RAV4 EV battery production from then on. So yea, GM didn't kill the electric car, it just basically got rid of it's fuel source so that it died a slow death

 

Uh guys, I think GM is pretty well done now. They whinged their way into a nice deep hole, and that hole may well become their grave. In the meantime:

PriusChatters -> :deadhorse:

........................GM ^

I think we can stop now?

 

Well I for one am glad people on this forum have continued to mention it, otherwise I might have never known exactly what kind of company GM truly is.

 

But we like :deadhorse: it's fun

 

GM deserves it (and more). There is absolutely no reason why GM shouldn't have a 50 mpg hybrid car on the market - Today - that is comparable to the Toyota Prius. The only explanation is bad management at GM. GM better shape up fast or they'll quickly become the number 3 car maker in the USA (if they're lucky). Yes, it still annoys me that I had to buy a car built in Japan (instead of the USA) to get high fuel efficiency. Even worse, I'll likely nos become a 'loyal' Toyota customer for many years (instead of GM) and not even bother looking at GM's hybrids - if they ever hit the market. Ok - rant over

 

GM (Generally Mediocre) IMO suffers from at least poor management, poor design, and poor customer service. Lots of blame to spread around. This horse isn't quite dead so I will continue to beat it.

 

It's been awhile since i saw the movie but who was it that bought the patent for the battery so no one else could have it?

 

For everyone's perusal.

 

Cobasys holds the NiMH battery patent(s). They used to be GM Ovonics, GM sold their interest to Texaco, Texaco was then bought by Chevron, now Cobasys is a subsidiary of Chevron-Texaco.

 

While I understand how it may appear that way - it is not the case. GM killed the electric car because it fought to eliminate the mandate that created them. All of them. After the mandate was gutted, GM could get away with then killing the EV1. But that only happened AFTER they gave birth to the EV, then killed the EV in general.

This was not of much humor to those of us who suffered through it. I've never seen anybody more closely comb over a car for damage than what was happening at lease end. Scratches in the front air dam (which is just a few inches above the ground, and would easily hit parking stops!) would be charged for. Many people were getting bills for $1400+.... for cars that were then crushed.

Not true. Not even close to true. GM stopped leasing the cars YEARS before the mandate was crushed. Toyota stopped on the day the changes became official.

 

I knew about the taking back the EV1 from folks who were begging to keep them (and offering to pay good money for them). I knew about the crushing. Those two facts alone make GM evil. But I never knew about the charging for damage - the reasons to never, ever buy GM just keep on coming, don't they?

 

You took the words right out of my mouth. Seems their evil truly knows no bounds. My goodness, what else has this company done? This is only what has been exposed to the public!

 

Did you ever see the movie "Roger and Me" ? It was Michael Moore's first film. He was compelled to make it after watching how GM transferred all the work from a AC Delco plant (that his father worked at) to Mexico so that GM would make more profit. The movie basically documents how it destroyed the economy of Flint MI where the plant was located. It was definately a slanted view of the subject (like other Michael Moore films) but it does raise questions about what obligations large companies have toward the communities they do business in.

BTW, true evil is what Kenneth Lay and friends did at Enron. They told their employees to invest their retirement money in the company, while at the same time they were dumping their holdings because they knew the company was going down the tubes. I would like to think there is a special hotter than normal section of hell for Ken Lay and friends.

 

More sad reading (see attached).

Yeah, I'm buying a GM car REAL soon.

More CARB crap here: http://www.ev1.org/msg/16.htm

EV1.org, what GM and the media don't want you to know. It's all there. This stuff cannot be made up, can it?

and evnut.com (darell's site) has all the documents and timetables, etc. Read it and weep. It shouldn't be this way...How can anyone support GM after researching this stuff?

 

Obligations ? Public companies are obligated only to their share-holders and the bottom lines rules. Blame "we the share-holders" who have pension funds or whatever.

Yep, Lay and his buddies were evil, like many in the business world robbing "widows and orphans". But, in context, there's an even hotter section for those who kill, maim and torture for personal gain or pleasure. The oil business is full of such stories.