How General Motors Killed the First Modern Electric Car

38 thoughts on “How General Motors Killed the First Modern Electric Car”

1. I'd love to see a heist movie set on the 90s / early 2000s about a bunch of average joes EV enthusiasts trying to steal all EV-1 they can get from GM before get destroyed. The leader should be a soccer mom.

2. All companies who tried to kill this should be bankrupt and be boycotted by public.

3. then came elon musk and he gave no Fs to what oil industry wanted

4. 13:30 if government force is required to achieve a thing, that thing isn’t worth doing. Mandates are unamerican.

5. now GM is going bankrupt cos someone else did the job

6. Capitalism drives innovation

7. And that's why I don't feel sorry for Legacy Automotive companies.
   They could have transitioned to electric vehicles a long time ago, but never would have unless they were forced because they are in bed with the oil companies, and not interested in true innovation. Lazy.

8. I'd say that most people are and were still afraid that if they/we need to/want to do long distance driving are confined to a half hour charge and where there are charging station and then even waiting for others recharge when the station are busy…

   HOWEVER yes I feel the EV was a mist opportunity and can see/agree that EV1 was designed to fail… And that most people do travel short distances so it could be enough to just charge them over night…

   I personally worry about thsoe living in apartments aswell, they could also be living near more frequent public transtport too…?

   Sometimes too if we try to do things before society is fully ready to change as a whole it usually fails too… I feel the EV1 was the catalyst needed for the future change..

   Thanks for the video!

9. As recently as 2005 there were still 77 EV-1's at a Burbank, CA lot that had yet to be destroyed. I remember the local news reporting on a vigil that some of the people that drove them were holding at the lot so GM wouldn't crush them and I'm pretty sure actor Ed Begley, Jr. of ER fame was there too as the most famous owner of one those cars.

10. 13:10 Really , the name of the guy is almost "Mr Car Jr"

11. Ever since the EV-1 fiasco, I wowed to never own another GM product again. I have kept my promise. It's amazing that Innovation can only be allowed if it feeds unlimited greed, OR stifled if it interferes with unlimited greed. This is humanities fatal flaw and why we will never have nice things.

12. The US dollar is the world's dominant currency and is widely used in international transactions, including the global oil trade. Many OPEC countries, which are major oil producers, have agreed to sell their oil exclusively for dollars. This has resulted in a high demand for dollars, which in turn helps to maintain the value of the currency. When the demand for dollars increases, its value also increases, and vice versa. By selling their oil for dollars, OPEC countries are helping to support the value of the US currency, making it a more attractive choice for international transactions.

    This relationship between the US dollar and the global oil trade could be a potential reason for companies such as General Motors to be encouraged to repurchase and bury any of their electric vehicles (EVs). By doing so, they may be helping to maintain the value of the US dollar, which is tied to the demand for oil. This could be seen as a way for companies to support the US currency and ensure its stability in the international market.

13. ich würde mir niemals ein USA Auto kaufen das annähernd wie Microsoft oder Google ABC GROUP funktioniert denn dieses Auto ist umzingelt von Sicherheitswarnungen und wegen Spionage anderer funktioniert es gleich einmal nicht oder sagt mir das mein Passwort falsch ist oder hat einen Fehler und lässt mich deswegen nicht mein Passwort zu oder wenn man das Passwort sichtbar macht, schaltet es auf eine Größe wo man nur mehr mit Lupe lesen kann oder mein Handy, wenn wer anruft, schaltet Bildschirm auf Schwarz, jetzt stellen sie sich vor, sie haben in der Konsole ein Tablet und dieses ist Schlüssel und der Zentrale Zugang also Türen Heizung, wenn das Ding genauso wie Windows10/11 funktioniert, Gratuliere, so etwas Spinnendes wie Windows 10 habe ich noch nicht erlebt und man denkt das man es so halbwegs im Griff hat und ungefragt drängt er dich ins nächste Chaosmodell da ich auf seine Einladung zu Windows 11 zu Wechsel nicht reagiert habe hat er mir das erzwungene Passwort das ich nicht gewollt habe mit einen Fehler behaftet das nichts mehr gegangen ist, Stillstand da er sich nicht mehr aufdrehen hat lassen da er erkannt hatte das Windows ab Änderung von 7 auf 8 nur mehr am Holzweg unterwegs war und ich soll mir eine Stylische Schüssel genau mit diesem Fehlern kaufen?

14. Haha – karma is a bitch 😂🖕
    Go Tesla

15. Electric cars are cool for fun…but hours to recharge…sucks..I like to fill my V8 takes no more than 15 mis

16. The electric car is not environmentally friendly as long as there is at least one coal-fired power plant, but it is people-friendly.

17. this video only supports how corrupt America really is, unbelievable to think that big oil single-handedly killed the ev market all the way back in 2001

18. Uncanny resemblance of the EV 1 and the Model 3

19. More range than the Honda E.. unbelievable

20. GM just keeps fumbling the bag

21. Big oil companies killed off the first EVs.

22. I saw one of these at a swap meet with my dad, didn't know it was electric.

23. I love your music sooo much it's a little peace in the world of chaos

24. I greatly appreciate EVs and their undeniable benefits but at the same time I'm afraid of the industry taking a really nasty turn in the name of profits. No more user repairability, no more user control, basic features being behind pay-walls and subscription services, loss of creativity and freedom of expression. Everything that makes cars fun and has built up a community behind them for decades will be eradicated in the name of profits from the lowest common denominator. The same reason you see nothing but bloated lifeless crossover SUVs dominating the roads today. It just feels as time goes on it becomes more and more sad to be alive as everything you care about dies at your feet and there is nothing you can do to save them.

25. Excellent recap of the sad story of EV1. Also watch the documenty: '' Who Killed the Electric Car?
    That goes more in depth about this twisted history.

26. Track 5 unreleased is on here!

27. It wasn’t GM but the rethugs.

28. As someone with 5 kids who takes trips to Colorado, into the mountains, twice a year, I DESPISE the trend toward EVs, and the redirected resources that should be directed towards not being enslaved to never leaving your own locale thanks to crippling recharge times and ranges.
    This crap doesn't fly in Texas, or anywhere you'll need to cover distance with cargo.
    EVs usher in the death of freedom of movement.

29. Electric cars will not become a reality until the source of the electricity comes from something besides fossil fuels, and we know wind and solar power are pipe dreams. Also we know that lithium does not grow on trees so we have to find a practical substitute for that and it can't come from our enemies. The only alternative to fossil is nuclear but we're too stupid to adopt that, and at present we have no alternative to lithium so we're stuck with the internal combustion engine which has kept us rolling for more than a century.

30. It just occurred to me a lot of people watching this now might not have even been aware this story was made into a movie in 2006: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed_the_Electric_Car%3F

31. YT is shadow banning this video – look at this video view numbers – from a channel that has 4M subscribers

32. and the argument about pollution from EVs turned out to be true……especially the mining of conalt and cadnium….

33. mind you….the narrator never mentioned about one key thing about EV's……the expense…

34. That's nothing; many, many fleets of cars have actually been bought back just to destroy them. They do that because they don't want to support them. GM, not even known for reliability, didn't even let anybody buy these. They knew first hand how expensive it was going to be to keep them running. And it wasn't worth the lawsuits. Dollars and cents. Simple as that. And they were right to do what they did. Just last year, the average price of an EV was 67,000 dollars. Not chump change. And it would take 20 years for it to even start saving on it's own carbon footprint since new. That's why EV's aren't going anywhere. Batteries can run up to 20,000 dollars to replace. They don't save the air like you are led to believe. The batteries and motors take very intensive processing to manufacture. Much, much more than a gasoline engine and gasoline, it's not even close. And worse, the electricity will almost all come from fossil fuels. Which makes it dirtier than a gasoline car from the outset. You know folks, our own submarines and naval ships only have to be fueled once every 30 years. And we won't even consider that for anything else? How often have you heard about a nuclear accident aboard a ship in the last 20 years? Not once? How insane is that?

35. There is still very little interest in EV's in California apart from Governor Gavin Newsom. And those that have bought them, almost never buy another. Retention rate is about 20% and many say it's more like 1.5%. That's not near enough to ban regular cars, yet they did it anyway. It's a joke that isn't funny, right? The Government of California has very little regard for what their people want. Some would say none at all.

36. GM also was responsible for killing many US city street car companies, by first buying them and then taking them all out of commission, all to promote the use of automobiles. On the other hand, the present EV's take 23 years to become more environmentally friendly over a petrol car due to tremendous pollution in the production process and energy production. In a few years however it will all pay off and batteries will then not need to be charged, they will just use a sacrificial electrode, making the 'recharge' just a mechanical process taking less than a minute. That will also improve the range to above 5000km, reduce the weight to hundreds of kilograms less, and will not be such a huge fire hazard. Right now though, stop the lies and just tell it like it is.

37. Competition breeds innovation right? Right?

38. The question is "Why" was the EV1 killed.

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