Truth is "we the people" do not believe your lies GM.

I never had the opportunity to buy an EV1 but I like many other Americans would love the opportunity to buy an electric vehicle. We all know that the technology has been available, but the BIG 3 has been to busy striking up deals with the oil indistry to really care about the American consumer or our planet for that matter.

So, now you want us to bail you out. I apologize for our apathy to you problems big 3 . But you have been royally screwing the American people for ages! This is our way of saying screw you too! It seems that auto industry does not want to come to any agreement to save their future, not the CEO's or the employees. Yes, I said it! Sorry, it is just hard for me to relate to any employee making $77.00 dollars an hour. Don't get me wrong, I hate for anyone to loose thier job. But come on! OATMEAL IS BETTER THAN NO MEAL ( a phrase commonly used in the auto industry, sales to be exact)! The United Auto Workers Union needs to go back to work for the interest of their members in order to try to save the jobs of their members. If that means taking a pay cut, then so be it. Toyota pays thier employees $44.00 an hour. No wonder the big 3 can't make a profit. Then, you add to that that no one wants to buy their product due to the auto industry not producing anything that makes a person feel as if they are doing their part to save this planet and the fact that the Big 3's auto's are not cheaper to drive. Electric vehicles have lower maintenance fees because they don't require oil changes. How about the feeling of driving the most innovative car on the road? We as Americans are not use to and don't like being held back. That is what makes this country great. We are suppose to be the best, the first. That is what we are taught from day one. But why have we not been living up to our own standards, to line with gold the Big 3's pockets and bank accounts? I say no more! I pledge to never buy another car from any dealer, foreign or domestic unless it lives up to the American standard to be the best! Give us today's technology NOW! Its the least you could do Big 3!

I say NAY to the Big Automotive Bailout and a big YEA to fixing your own problems Big 3!

[ edit] Program cancellation

In late 2003, GM officially canceled the EV1 program.^ [d-155435]^^ [13]^ GM stated that it could not sell enough of the cars to make the EV1 profitable. However according to GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, the worst decision of his tenure at GM was "axing the EV1 electric-car program and not putting the right resources into hybrids. It didn't affect profitability, but it did affect image." ^[d-155436] According to the March 13, 2007, issue of Newsweek , "GM R&D chief Larry Burns . . . now wishes GM hadn't killed the plug-in hybrid EV1 prototype his engineers had on the road a decade ago: 'If we could turn back the hands of time,' says Burns, 'we could have had the Chevy Volt 10 years earlier.'" ^[15]

[ edit] Reaction

The Wall Street Journal has stated "The EV1 was a failure, as were other electric vehicles launched in the 1990s to placate California clean-air regulators." ^[16] GM believes that the electric car venture was not a failure, and that the EV1 was doomed when the expected breakthrough in battery technology did not take place. ^[17] In fact, the NiMH battery packs (or Ovonic Battery) that were expected to dramatically improve range came with their own set of problems; GM had to use a less-efficient charging algorithm (lengthening charge times) and waste power on air conditioning to prevent the battery packs from overheating. ^[18] In addition, the elimination of the environmental mandate that led to the car's creation was, as previously mentioned, a huge factor in the program's cancellation. ^{[+ citation needed+]}
The view of the EV1 as failure is a controversial one in itself. When viewed as an attempt to produce a commercially viable EV product, it was not a success. If one considers the vehicle from GM's perspective, as a technological showpiece-a production electric car that actually could replace a gasoline powered vehicle-the program's outcome is less clear. The EV1 was produced for the consumer market, and many lessees found driving an EV1 to be a favorable experience. On that basis, EV1 would qualify as the most successful electric car ever built., ^{[+ citation needed+]}
Some analysts have suggested that it is inappropriate to compare the EV1 with existing gasoline powered commuter cars as the EV1 is, in effect, a completely new product and had no equivalent vehicles to be judged against. It has recently been theorized by the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? that the EV1 program was eliminated because it threatened the oil industry. GM responded to the film's claims,laying out several reasons why the EV1 was not commercially viable at the time. ^[19]