Who Killed The Electric Car

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Out of the many different kind of cars on the road today, one car stands out above the rest. With its sleek design, the General Motors EV 1 was unstoppable. This car runs entirely without gas or oil. It runs only on electric power which makes it very eco-friendly. This car was the answer to the smog problem in California and would soon be able to help stop global warming and more of our planets environmental issues. So, why are there none of these cars on the road today? Who killed the electric car? The killers were the consumers, car companies, and the federal government. Consumers were part of the reason for the fall of the electric car. Although the people that did own the EV 1 loved the vehicle, and almost refused to later return them, there were only 800 owners. When Dan Neil asked the public about the EV 1, most people had never seen vehicle and was completely unaware of the mandate to take them back. Another reason that the consumers killed the electric car was because people did not want to deal with the change from just going to a gas station to charging it daily and worrying about losing energy throughout the day. The EV 1 was also fairly pricey so many people were not interested. Another killer of the electric car was the car companies. General Motors only made a certain amount because of the Zero Emissions Mandate (ZEM) was born. It required 2% of new vehicles sold in California to be emission-free by 1998, 10% by 2003. General Motors knew that this mandate would not last long, and they were more interested in selling gasoline cars. When the mandate ended, General Motors leased all the cars back. Instead of allowing the public to still own the electric cars that were left, they destroyed all the cars by crushing them. The last killer of the electric car was the federal government. If anyone, they should be supporters of the

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