Monday 23rd January 2006

“Who Killed the Electric Car?,” a documentary about the aborted attempt by the auto industry to create an electric vehicle, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie posited that there was a conspiracy between oil companies, automakers and the government to kill the electric car. The film focused on the efforts in the 1990s of several automakers, including General Motors (GM), to develop an eco-friendly, gas-free vehicle. In 1996, GM, then the world’s biggest automaker, debuted its first electric car, dubbed the EV1. It was available in just two states,Arizona and California, and for lease-only. During its years in production, from 1996 to 1999, a total of around 2,500 EV1s were made. In late 2003, GM announced it was pulling the plug on the EV1 program and wouldn’t renew any leases. The company cited the high cost of producing and maintaining the vehicles as a reason for the EV1’s demise. However, as The Los Angeles Times noted in 2009: “The EV1 began in the 1990s as a response to a zero-emission vehicle mandate by California’s Air Resources Board… When, finally, GM and other automakers managed to get California to soften its zero-emission mandate in 2002, [GM CEO Rick] Wagoner promptly canceled the program.”