Why Carmakers Really, REALLY Dislike EVs
By Earl Cox
Some call it 'disruptive technology' that threatens the status quo, but someday soon it may save our bacon
October 02, 2004
For years advocates of electric cars have argued over why auto makers have been less than enthusiastic, to put it mildly, about battery electric cars. It's a debate Californian Earl Cox simply couldn't resist adding his two cents worth. While EV World doesn't necessarily endorse every point of his perspective, it does make for stimulating reading.
After watching the EV1 debacle over the past 14 years from both inside and outside the industry, a simple fact has become very clear to me.
Internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle manufacturers REALLY BADLY don't want electric cars.
Once this assumption is made, everything falls into place:
Why don't they want electric cars?
Look at history:
* The telephone was not pushed by Western Union (former telegraph mega-company)
* The digital camera revolution was not lead by Kodak or Fuji
* The move from sail to steam ships was not driven by the sailing masters of the sea.
Look at corporate structure:
* An ICE-based car company is made up of many divisions: Body, Chassis, power-trains (transmissions), power-plants (ICE), Service, Sales, electronics, etc. The most powerful ones are power-trains and power-plants.
Now put yourself into a position of any authority in this industry:
I dare you to walk into the board room and suggest a car that has no use for power-trains or power-plants and significantly reduces the need for service. Now try to find a friend in the room
Once you realize that the BEV must be stopped, you must figure out how. If you are a major multi-billion dollar company, you'll spare little expense.
* You'll hire a bunch of lawyers to fight any legislation
* You'll hire PR companies to spin anything your way
* You'll hire a small R&D company to make the best EV possible just to show the world that it is a very bad idea.
* You'll try to place shills in all influential organizations
* You'll delay as long as possible by promising and actually conducting research into alternatives (and coerce the federal government to foot a lot of the bill)
Now suppose, as all campaigns do, a few problems surface:
Suppose your R&D company screws up and makes an EV that really looks great?
evworld.com
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