Interesting Movie Documentary

[mviale]

We ordered "who killed the electric car" from netflix - very thought provoking movie.  It blames several factors, but GM kills me that they developed the EV technology 2-3 years ahead of the competition but deemed it unprofitable and failed to see the marketshare opportunity.  Meanwhile, they invested in the Hummer and we know the rest of the story.  Apparently these EVs run forever, so GM saw a slow down in repeat purchases and low maintenance fees as the EV doesnt have an internal combustion engine and runs very clean. 

some other tidbits:
* this entreprenuer in detroit developed a battery that doesnt need a charge for 250 miles
* They make EVs that go 0-60 in 4 seconds
* Darn thing costs $100k, but could cost a quarter of this if it is ran thru a Detroit automated plant.

[Murffieus]

That's good example of why the parade has past them by----no vision-----obviously they thought $20 oil would be around forever. Meanwhile Toyota at least had semi-vision with the success of its hybrids!

IMO within 20 years----the combustion engine will have gone the way of the Buffalo!

[mviale]

Murf - it drives me crazy to see these classic  American brands die.  It was a huge gamble to put all of their eggs in one basket.  The saturn division could have run with it as a test & GM could have sustained the losses.  It makes me want to buy a toyota as they seem to care more about the environment and the american worker.

CA could have forced the car makers to have 10% clean air vehicles by 2003, but our damn clean air people sold out to big oil.  Apparently the Hydrogen thing is a joke and only a pipe dream that will carry us along while the Oil companies continue to profit off of Oil.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Murf - it drives me crazy to see these classic  American brands die.  It was a huge gamble to put all of their eggs in one basket.  The saturn division could have run with it as a test & GM could have sustained the losses.  It makes me want to buy a toyota as they seem to care more about the environment and the american worker.

CA could have forced the car makers to have 10% clean air vehicles by 2003, but our damn clean air people sold out to big oil.  Apparently the Hydrogen thing is a joke and only a pipe dream that will carry us along while the Oil companies continue to profit off of Oil.

Do you think it's bad for American companies to profit?