think or thwim

In the early 1990s California passed a law requiring car makers to sell zero emission vehicles if they wanted to sell any gas powered cars there. They required 2% of sales to be ZEVs by 1998 and 10% by 2003. The car manufacturers complied. For instance, between 1997 and 1999 GM produced 1100 electric cars called the EV1. They leased them all and had a waiting list.

However, the manufacturers also fought back. They sued the State of California, and in 2003 California lifted the ZEV requirement. GM promptly canceled the EV1 program, rounded up all the EV1s, and crushed them.

This 2006 documentary examines the forces that led to the demise of the EV1 and other electric vehicles after California backed down.

From Wikipedia:

The price for the EV1 used to compute lease payments was US$33,995 to US$43,995, which made for lease payments of US$299 to over US$574 per month. One industry official said that each EV1 cost the company about US$80,000, including research, development and other associated costs. The vehicle’s lease prices also depended on available state rebates. At the time of purchase, the cost for the electricity used to power the car was computed to be one-third to half the cost of the equivalent amount of gasoline, and since that time, increases in gas prices may have made electricity relatively even less expensive.

An EV1 is still on display at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Interestingly, this vehicle is the one previously leased by film director Chris Paine, director of the aforementioned Who Killed the Electric Car?.

Big oil and car makers may have colluded to kill the electric car, but I think fender skirts over the rear tires killed the EV1. They are cool on a 67 Cadillac, but nothing says “I’m a dork, please don’t breed with me” like fender skirts on a compact car.