Remember the electric car?
Who killed the electric car is a documentary about the life and controversial discontinuation of GM's EV1, the first modern production electric vehicle out of Detroit, introduced in 1996. The vehicles were made available in California and Arizona with a limited lease-only agreement. It was a success and lessees of the EV1 liked them so much they began making offers to GM to purchase the electric cars. But one by one, GM collected all the EV1s and destroyed them. By 2003, all were removed from the road, brought to a private facility and crushed.
As GM's EV1 gained its initial popularity, the California Air Resources Board took the initiative to pass a zero emissions vehicle mandate in California which required that some of the cars coming out of Detroit had to be vehicles with no exhaust.
GM could have met the challenge, as they already had a batch of EV1s on the road. Instead, GM teamed up with the federal government (Bush) and sued the California Board
During the hearing, automobile manufacturers were given all the time they wanted to make their case against the mandate.
Advocates for the mandate, on the other hand, were given 3 minutes.
The mandate was dropped.
GM's EV1 vanished.
Now GM itself may vanish.
But is it the fault of the current economy?
Or did they kill themselves?
