Why was the Electric Car Suppressed by the Auto Industry and the Government?

Our earth’s natural resources and environment has been significantly damaged by our nation’s dependency on fuel. Americans have become too reliant on our big trucks and foreign oil. Despite the 1973 oil embargo, the United States has still increased its import of foreign oil. Thankfully, there is hope in sight and that hope lies in the electric car.

Many years ago, electric cars were actually preferred by most individuals over cars with traditional engines. Unfortunately, what gave way to this preference was a decrease in price of traditional cars and an increase in the availability of oil, along with the mass production of traditional automobiles heralded by big car companies. There were hundreds of millions of cars built in the twentieth century, and virtually all of them have combustion engines. Scientists have positively confirmed that human activity is responsible for the planet’s warming and a large part is due to our cars averaging 19 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions for every mile driven. Interestingly enough, around the 1980s the giant automaker General Motors started to garner attention for its focus on alternative energies in light of this rather ominous threat. During this time, there was further pressure for auto companies to design and manufacture “clean” products. One example of this can be seen when the state of California had passed its “Zero Emissions Mandate,” which required there to be a certain percentage of cars manufactured that emitted significantly less pollutants. And in the 1990s GM assigned Saturn to market the EV1, the first electric car produced with mass production in mind.

The marketing efforts of the EV1 concentrated on a threefold consumer question: how far? how fast? how much? From beginning the car attracted what seemed to be major interest In fact, there quickly arose a long waiting for purchase. Shockingly, GM did not put these cars up for purchase and were only willing to lease them. Nevertheless, the drivers were euphoric about the EV1 as it produced zero CO2 emissions and was fast and an exhilarating drive. Obviously, these drivers actually preferred electric over combustion, despite the car only averaging 60 miles per charge. Thus, the clean, quick and sleek electric car was more desirable than its “nuclear time bomb” counterpart. So, what happened to this unheard of, oil-less wonder?

General Motors claimed that there was no substantial interest despite having poured large sums of money into campaign ads, and that the waiting list was not a viable source for proving actual demand. Eventually, the hype died down when GM removed all leased EV1s from the streets and turned them into destroyed cubes. In defense of these reprehensible actions, the auto industry argued that electric cars, because they were charged with electricity produced by coal, were more damaging for the environment. On top of this, the oil industry supported arguments against this emerging technology, and President Bush pushed for the inefficient fuel cell and hydrogen technologies to be the wave of the future.

It is very alarming that the environmentally friendly electric car was purposefully suppressed by the automotive industry, the oil industry, and government. However, what is even more disturbing is that the consumer did our part to support such actions by passively watching the electric car slip decline in popularity and usage. The EV1 is an efficient and beautiful vehicle which also happens to be beneficial to the environment.

Any driver would have enjoyed taking this revolutionary car out for a drive. Let’s take this technology back, refine it for usability and mass production. There is still enough time for us to take back this technology and mass produce the electric car.

Author Bio: Jacqueline Cao: Consultant Ford Dealership Irving Ford Dealership Dallas Ford Dealership Irving

Category: Advice
Keywords: electric cars, electric autos, electric car