Weapon X Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 GM pulls plug on electric cars Last Updated Thu, 10 Apr 2003 10:11:44 DETROIT - General Motors will scrap its electric car program in light of California relaxing its zero-emission car program. The automaker says it's taking the cars off the road as leases expire because it can no longer supply parts for them. GM built more than 1,000 two-seater EV1 cars. About 375 are still in use. Dave Barthmuss of GM says the company expects to have the cars off the road by the end of 2004. MARKETPLACE: Electric Cars The automaker plans to ship the cars to museums and universities and to a research lab in New York. California announced a zero tolerance program on car emissions in 1990 requiring 10 per cent of cars to be non-polluting by 2003. That edict had car manufacturers scrambling to meet the new rules. Since then, regulators have started to cave as automakers fought the regulation in court and public hearings. FROM Jan. 6, 2003: More eco-friendly cars in near future Only two years ago, GM had proclaimed the EV1 as the "car of the future." It now says the vehicles have no future because they are limited to a range of about 160 km, require long recharge times and are too expensive to appeal to the general population. Most automakers have retreated from battery-powered cars and are looking more at gas-electric hybrids, natural-gas powered and fuel-cell cars. GM and Suzuki announced in September they would build a hybrid truck at a plant in Ingersoll, Ontario. The Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight are the two best-selling hybrid cars in North America. "To us driving battery electric vehicles, we're saying, 'Hey you're left us hanging out to dry,'" says Greg Hanssen of the Production Electric Vehicle Drivers Coalition. Hanssen says state regulators have bent to the complaints of industry. "They've gone from being regulators to just asking politely, 'Gee, industry, would you do this?'" Written by CBC News Online staff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RumPuncher Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 damn. Ignoring the problem wont make it go away. Eventually the dependency on oil will cripple north america. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imported_grim540 Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 its not as bad as it seems, the electric cars were extremely inefficent, and very costly. Hopefully they will be turning more attention to hydrogen fuel cell cars. Check out this months WIRED magazine for more info on the fuel cell movement that is underway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty_habiT Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 Originally posted by Kilo7- damn. Ignoring the problem wont make it go away. Eventually the dependency on oil will cripple north america. At which point I'll be moving to Mexico, Canada, or the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T.T Boy Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 because canada and mexico arent part of north america. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RumPuncher Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 I was wonderin who would catch that. I'm moving to Central America. You mean like Kansas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty_habiT Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 Haha, oh well, you get the point... I'll go somewhere else to live if the States fall to that point. Social studies and geography were never my strong points in school, and it's obvious. I thank you all for your tactfulness in finding and correcting my mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
When Posted April 12, 2003 Share Posted April 12, 2003 i read somewhere that in a study toyota did that they would actually end up having to give an electric rav4 to people instead of them purchasing it and give them a few thousand dollars for them to even consider driving it now that is hilarious i think the article was in car and driver but im not sure also i think that honda hybrid car would be pretty cool if it didnt have skirts on the rear fenders Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misteraven Posted April 12, 2003 Share Posted April 12, 2003 Seems like a biased article since there's not mention of Hydrogen research. I just saw a report on how GM is leading the research on zero emission Hydrogen based transportation. They've already invested $1 Billion and are working with the US Government to get more funding. Hydrogen seems to be a far better, as well as more ecologically sound alternative than electric motors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skunkjuice Posted April 12, 2003 Share Posted April 12, 2003 Is it just me, or am I the only one who thinks the timing on this is a little fishy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
When Posted April 13, 2003 Share Posted April 13, 2003 Originally posted by Misteraven Seems like a biased article since there's not mention of Hydrogen research. Hydrogen seems to be a far better, as well as more ecologically sound alternative than electric motors. well it wasnt a comparitive article it was just based on a research group toyota put together because they were planning on releasing an all electric rav4 i have the magazine with the article somewhere in my room but i cant find it at the moment hydrogen does seem to be a very good alternative and as far as my understanding goes there wouldnt have to be much modification to current gas engines to convert them to hydrogen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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