GM Aims to Dominate EV Market

[tonybelding]

From Car & Driver Magazine. . . .

The media are making all kinds of noise lately to the effect that electric cars are coming, that they’re going to help us kick our imported-oil habit, and that you’ll be able to drive them for pennies a day.

A company that can develop a non-petroleum-fueled car palatable to the masses stands to make a pretty good buck. That’s why GM will shell out some undisclosed number of billions on electric vehicle development during the next five or so years.

It’s a tall order, but GM is already well on the way to pulling it off. Whether the buyers will be there, however, is a question GM is still struggling to answer.

A study commissioned by Gulf & Western predicts that we’ll have something like 34 million EVs - about one quarter of the national fleet - on the road by the year 2000. GM ... has publicly committed itself to mass-producing electric cars by the mid-to-late 1980s – probably 100,000 per year or more.

All you need to do is change the dates, and it could have been written yesterday.

 

[mt2]

That's funny, Tony. What was the original date of the article?

 

[doug]

Yeah what's the date of the article? I'm gonna guess some time during the 70's oil crisis.

 

[tonybelding]

It was from 1980, I don't know which month.

 

[Iz]

That's a good one! If in fact GM had "stayed the course" with EV1 and continued applying advanced technologies this would have been a factual piece of history.

 

[doug]

That's a good one! If in fact GM had "stayed the course" with EV1 and continued applying advanced technologies this would have been a factual piece of history.

Except of course the dates would still be all wrong. EV-1 didn't happen till the 90's.

 

[graham]

EV-1 didn't happen till the 90's.

True, from a production point of view. But they debuted the prototype (as the Impact) in the late 80s I think. It just took quite a while to bring it to production as the EV1.

 

[doug]

True, from a production point of view. But they debuted the prototype (as the Impact) in the late 80s I think. It just took quite a while to bring it to production as the EV1.

I think production is what we're talking about, isn't it? The Impact was introduced in 1990, which technically still is the '80s. But the article said, "GM ... has publicly committed itself to mass-producing electric cars by the mid-to-late 1980s – probably 100,000 per year or more." First gen EV-1 was a 1997 model year, and during the whole program it never reached mass production. So even if you relaxed "mass-producing" to simply "producing", you'd still have to add 10 years to the time line.

 

[malcolm]

My how things change. The Volt is currently slated to have a 360 mile gas-assisted range and there is talk of a cheaper 20 mile battery-only option as well as the 40 mile version.

If only they had had the vision to push automotive battery development through the 80s and 90s - but back then, they had no need.

 

[doug]

Video in a similar vein:

Retro Futurism: Ford Says Electric Cars "Commercially Feasible" By 1977