Sunday, September 21, 2008
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Who Killed the Electric Car? is a documentary that explores the EV1 electric car created by General Motors in the early 90s. The clip we watched in class about this film angered me very much. Why would perfectly well-working cars be destroyed? The EV1 car was introduced in the 1990s and was made available to lease in Southern California. It worked great and everyone who used it was very satisfied. Soon after its production, all of the EV1 cars were taken and destroyed. The film makers tracked down camps where these cars were being destroyed. The people who worked at the different car lots where the cars were destroyed were very vague about why the cars were destroyed in the first place. Capitalists believe that useful things are not necessarily produced if they do not produce capital. Though this holds true for those interested in earning money, what about the people of the world concerned with saving fossil fuels and being smart about their spendings? What a waste it is to destroy these electric cars! Capitalism makes production all about the profit and not about the quality. Apparently General Motors was concerned about the oil and car industries decrease if the electric car was manufactured and produced. General Motors also argued that there was not a high demand for the electric car, though the film shows that GM never responded to EV1 drivers' offers to pay the 1.9 million release value for the car. It seems unfair that large businesses have so much impact and control over simple things such as why we drive the cars we drive.
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3 comments:
I totally agree with you. It seems GM created these cars just to prove how inefficient and ineffective the electric car would be. While they may have sunk quite a bit of money into the project, it looks like it was mainly to toss the ideas of electric based cars as opposed to fossil fuel burning behemoths off the table. It did seem to do that quite well too.
I think the film explored some of the reasons that the auto and oil industries worked to kill off the electric car. In my research, Wally Rippel is shown explaining that the oil companies were afraid of losing out on trillions in potential profit from their transportation fuel monopoly over the coming decades, while the auto companies were afraid of losses over the next six months of EV production. Others explained the killing differently. However, the ideal of profit making is the main reason for this tragedy. Of course, this disaster was very good example of political economy by capitalism. The oil companies do not lose their fuel industry which make (M.C.M') surplus- profit to their business. GM spokesman, Dave Barthmuss argued it was lack of consumer interest due to the maximum range of 80–100 miles per charge, and the relatively high price. However, we can assume that the cost for the new product like electric cars that never produce before is very high price. The competition by these two different fields of company to gain more profit will make people feeling concern about their 'buy power'. So, what are the benefits of these conditions for people as consumers? I think that this free- market just benefit to the oil manufactures only.
I definitely agree with you that this film was very upsetting. However, like you said, the goal of business under capitalism in this M-C-M’ economy is to make a profit. Many organizations are devoted to saving fossil fuels and conserving the environment, but the problem is that the companies that produce tangible goods are generally more focused on profit. I know that it seems odd that GM recalled the EV1, but it is likely that it simply wasn’t the right time to release the vehicle. I know that within the last week one of the major car companies unveiled a new electric vehicle that will hopefully be released soon. Companies have to wait until the market is ready for their product. Now seems a better time than ever to release an electric vehicle, especially considering that hurricane Ike has made it all but impossible to fill up a car with gas.
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