Electricnick, The EV Revolution

You just can’t escape the mountain of bad news surrounding GM.  You would have to be a hermit.  How does that effect the future of the electric vehicle, EV market?  A lot.

The gist, the Environmental Law Society and the Harvard Environmental Law Review had a screening of the film, according to the Harvard Law Record.  They concluded how everyone loved the EV1 but somehow, the impersonal corporate giants at GM realized the “Revolution” they had started and began to lock horns with the Californian effort to mandate the production of zero-emissions vehicles.  Even though the batteries were painted as the culprits, the automaker tried to distract attention with hydrogen fuel cells, oil companies and the government, all were guilty except batteries.  After all, they were sufficient enough to carry the EV farther than most consumers needed daily.

Political And Oil Ties. The federal government, with President George W. Bush and his former oil executives worked feverishly to nullify California’s zero-emissions initiative.  Auto makers understood EVs would not bring them the after sales repair, service and maintenance enjoyed with gas cars and the had less motivation to innovate in that department.  The less than stellar quality of these gas guzzlers didn’t seem to improve over the decades as foreign companies took advantage of the market opening.

Back To The Same Question.  Should they be bailed out or not?   The Center for Automotive Research predicted that a 50% reduction in domestic vehicle production would result in a wave of insolvencies, reorganizations and production freezes, freezing all domestic production.  As many as 2.5 million jobs would be lost in 2009, $125 billion in personal income erased, and close to $50 billion in tax revenues lost.

Harvard’s conclusion, GM’s failed management puts the company where it can plausibly ransom the government for aids.  It would have dire consequences to ignore them with their enormous economic might.  It seems the well-being of the economy must be protected while taking measures to ensure these too-big-to-fail firms will be more solvent and never find ourselves in this situation again.  One thing, our laissez faire attitude has had a big hand in our current situation and with no checks and balances, even an entire nation as mighty as ours can be humbled.

If money needs to be spend to make these big companies solvent, we wonder if many Americans won’t resent them and continue to buy foreign?  How much PR will it take to get people to see GM, Ford and Chrysler as quality companies again?  Will the Volt be enough to save face for a company that has done little in the past to make fuel efficient cars?  Is it too little, too late?  Many questions that will be answered in time.  Darned if you do, darned if you don’t.