This Day In History: 'Who Killed The Electric Car?', 2006

Who Killed The Electric Car? - Trailer

"It ran on electricity, produced no emissions, and was among the fastest, most efficient production cars ever built. So why did General Motors crush its fleet of EV1 electric vehicles in the Arizona desert? Launched by GM in 1996 in response to California's pollution crisis and resulting Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, the EV1 electric vehicle was a revolutionary modern car."

In 1990, California, being California, passed the Zero-Emissions Vehicle mandate, requiring auto manufacturers to develop and offer electric vehicles in order to be allowed to keep selling gasoline-powered cars in the state.

As one might expect, the manufacturers were kind of torqued-off about it, and continued to push back on California to repeal the ZEV requirements. Eventually, a few thousand electric cars were produced by GM for lease-only, and later taken back and mostly destroyed, as the manufacturers claimed lack of consumer demand and the impossibilities of meeting California's standards while still turning a profit. Eventually, California relaxed its requirements and the electric vehicle programs were mostly killed off for the time being.

“The EV1 began in the 1990s as a response to a zero-emission vehicle mandate by California’s Air Resources Board… When, finally, GM and other automakers managed to get California to soften its zero-emission mandate in 2002, [GM CEO Rick] Wagoner promptly canceled the program.”

“Who Killed the Electric Car?” debuts