gm killed the ev1 and trollies?

truckerzero

truckerzero

100 W
Joined
Apr 9, 2008
Messages
286
Location
fenton ,mo (st louis suberb) USA
every one knows GM killed the ev1 but i just watched "the history detectives" on pbs (public broadcasting station) and they dug up a lot of documents on GMC and how they were giving brand new cars to city board members to vote on getting rid of clean electric trollie cars so they could be replaced by GMC's diesel buses in different cities and they even had a document that had a "hit list " of different citys GMC was targeting
but on the good side they also said that some of those old trolly routs are now light rail electric train routs so maby there is light at the end of the tunnel
by the way the history detectives is a show that digs up info on peoples stuff to give them the history on it and in this episode i think the guy had a old trolly car or one of the first of those GMC buses not sure which just caught it half way through
just goes to show you what companys will do for a buck.
p.s. i dont mean to slam gm so bad and they are my favorite car company(i own one) but they sure have done some cheesy things in the past
 
Stuff like that, that is true, sure breeds a bunch of urban legend conspiracy theories that arent. But the bottom line is, if americans can get our hands on a car, we do, and if we can afford a huge car we buy it. Look at all the suv's sold since the seventies. Out west here, we realllllly loathed the 55 speed limit. Right now with gas at $3.89 absolutlely nobody is slowing down yet, and that goes for 4 door trucks, suburbans and RV's. All we ever need is a nudge to do the wrong thing for the planet.
 
same here if i drive 55 and the speed limit is 60 i get ran over thats why for a ev i like the ebike idea since i can drive on the sholder
as far as conspiracy theorys who knows
i like to see lots of documents backed up by i witnness testamony frome people of a high social standing then i start to have to wonder if there is something more to the story than meets the eye
 
There were several compelling arguments in addition to "History Dectectives" regarding GM plus oil interests in killing off trolleys at least in St Loo and LA. Back then it wasnt seen so much as conspiracy as '"smart, Big business competing and winning with superior products", namely the bus! We dont know much as humans, and are easily fooled! Sorry, thats the way it is! Stay vigilant and do your best! Unfortunately, pessimists are usually the best predictors of the future!
I apologise for the rant!
otherDoc
There! I had my morning coffee and I feel much less negative!!!!!!
 
The trolleys were replaced more by cars, than busses. It needed no conspiracy to make us want a car. I'm not saying it didn't happen, just that they needn't have bothered, as it turned out. One of the interesting things about history is to try to actually think like they did then. Looking at it from now, it would seem everybody was an idiot. But actually they did the smart thing at the time.
 
maby true but if you watch who killed the electric car i think the right thing for gm to do would have just sell the ev1 to the owners as salvage and they could still regester it and gm would not have to make parts for it and maby it would have been the nice thing to do
 
I totally agree with that. I think they may have been scared shitless of buying everybody new batteries over and over. But that cost would have been small compared to the cost of the bad pr they are stuck with now. The other day I was reading an article on the development of the volt, and GM's marketing guys just couldn't get it that us wanting a big suv at 2005 gas price did not mean we would want one at 2011 gas price. History does love to repeat itself.
 
Everyone knows that the people at GM are such perfectionists that they couldn't stand to let the ev1 loose until it was absolutely perfect. Just like everything else they make.
 
http://www.saintjohn.nbcc.nb.ca/~heritage/streetcars/StartOfElectrification.htm

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=clnk&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2F72.14.205.104%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcache%3ABBOKoLN91NQJ%3Awww.saintjohn.nbcc.nb.ca%2F~Heritage%2Fstreetcars%2FStartOfElectrification.htm%2Bhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.saintjohn.nbcc.nb.ca%2F~heritage%2Fstreetcars%2FStartOfElectrification.htm%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26cd%3D1%26client%3Dopera&ei=oVBLSLP7JIzqgQLp85yoDA&usg=AFQjCNF8na_F6usUVin9uT07jvr0SDWIZA&sig2=p-PR4uhJCXSidBmYFKle3g
 
truckerzero said:
maby true but if you watch who killed the electric car i think the right thing for gm to do would have just sell the ev1 to the owners as salvage and they could still regester it and gm would not have to make parts for it and maby it would have been the nice thing to do
Click to expand...

I'm impressed that you knew this. Did the movie explain this?
I was a "vigilier", camped at the GM training center in Burbank along with three Chevrolet S-10 Electric trucks to use as banner holders on the street in front of the facility where the last group of the EV1's were stored.
GM was presented an offer to buy these remaining EV1's at the lease residual, but did not reply. GM did not want to hear that there was a comprehensive support infrastructure based in Phx, to provide parts and replacement batteries for the 80 surviving NiMH EV1's, and we required virtually no help from GM to sustain them. http://www.evbones.com (my company) salvaged all of the batteries taken out of the EV1 cars and S10 electric trucks from the GM proving grounds. Along with a considerable inventory of spare electronics. It did not require GM to maintain inventory of parts to support the EV1.

Then, when the news crews began to build on Mar 18 (I think) after a month of 24 hour vigil effort by many people, GM promptly sent in the transporters to haul the cars to the proving grounds in Mesa.

It was clear to all of us that GM's mouthpiece (Dave Barthmus) was not being truthful when he stated GM's reason for not selling the vehicles as salvage or otherwise was due to a lack of replacement parts. Hauling off the cars to the crusher was actually an emotional kneejerk reaction by Rick Wagoner.

My how times have changed. Only an idiot would buy a big GM gas guzzler now, especially with $5 gallon looming on the horizon.

If you're interested, I placed a large archive of images taken at the end days of the GM vigil below. Including the arrest of Alexandra and Colette that made it into the WKtEC movie.

http://www.amug.org/~jthomas/vigil/DSCN0125.JPG
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What would be really interesting is to find the police officers that enforced the cordon to allow GM to move the cars and ask them if they feel like traitors to their country for allowing them to be moved and thus crushed.
 
jeff yes that was in the movie "who killed the electric car" ill make a new thread and links to watch the whole movie
 
Good to see ya back, trucker... you high & dry out there?

:?:
 
just havent been on the computer as much i tend to go through phases on how much i use it
 
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