So you (GM) cancel a car which has a waiting list of people who are prepared to pay your lease rate (without ever having ownership) yet claim that people wouldn't buy it ?
I was on a waiting list for the Smart when they were first introduced for over a year and I couldn't get one. I suppose no-body wants one and they should cancel that program too. Then I was on a waiting list for the 2009 Jetta Tdi for nearly a year and the only reason we finally got one was because of the economic crisis allowed production to catch up to demand. I suppose VW should cancel that model too. Last year, we drove it from MI to Key West FL and back for $280 worth of fuel. Try that in your SUV.
No-one is expecting to change your mind, but for those of us who differ in our opinion, allow us to have choices too. I still think that the Volt could not make it because it tries to do too much. We need a Leaf with 1/4 the HP, half the battery and have it shed about 1/3 of its weight. Then it would be a lot cheaper too. Not everything has to move like a dragster.
From the Wikipedia site you mentioned:
In late 2003, General Motors, then led by CEO
Rick Wagoner, officially canceled the EV1 program.
[5][29] GM stated that it could not sell enough of the cars to make the EV1 profitable.
[30] In addition, the cost of maintaining a parts supply and service infrastructure for the 15-year minimum required by the state of California meant that existing leases would not be renewed, and all the cars would have to be returned to GM's possession.
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In light of falling car sales later in the decade, as the world oil and financial crises began to take hold, opinions of the EV1 program began to change. In 2006, former GM Chairman and CEO
Rick Wagoner stated that his worst decision during his tenure at GM was "axing the EV1 electric-car program and not putting the right resources into
hybrids.
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The documentary
Who Killed The Electric Car? presents evidence that GM stuck with plans to cancel and scrap the car, despite apparent public interest. The film includes footage of GM employees on the EV1 team discussing a waiting list of people interested in leasing or purchasing EV1s. In 2003, a reporter for the
Los Angeles Times attempted to lease an EV1 from GM, but was told that he "was welcome to join their waiting list, along with undisclosed others, for an indefinite period of time, but [his] chances of getting a car were slim."
[33] Critics of GM and proponents of electric vehicles claim that GM feared the emergence of electrical vehicle technology because the cars might cut into their profitable spare parts market, as electric cars have far fewer moving parts than combustion vehicles. Critics further charged that when CARB, in response to the EV1, mandated that electric vehicles makeup a certain percentage of all automakers' sales, GM came to fear that the EV1 might encourage unwanted regulation in other states. GM battled against CARB regulations, going as far as to sue CARB in federal court.
[15]
I forgot about this.
General Motors EV1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
They where only for lease, but if you wanted to buy one, according to the link, you could for $34,000.
After the EV1, they came out with the Second Generation from 1999 to 2003 with better batteries, but sales where so bad that it was canceled.
Seems like the Volt is just repeating history, except with tax payer money being spent to repeat the previous failure.
Eddie
