Reply #25: Yet they are taking their electric cars to the desert and crushing them

[Willy Lee]

despite huge loyalty from the few who were able to get their hands on them...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/200...

The automakers, saying all-electric vehicles occupy a tiny and economically worthless niche, simply stopped making, leasing or selling the cars. And the people who leased the cars and wound up adoring them, only to see them called back in at the end of the lease period, are livid. Many wanted to buy the autos, but all but one manufacturer said no.

The automakers, saying all-electric vehicles occupy a tiny and economically worthless niche, simply stopped making, leasing or selling the cars.

<snip>

Tom Gage, who was a manager in Chrysler Corp.'s regulatory strategy office for eight years, said automakers were unenthusiastic about making electric cars because it was the first time a government agency -- in this case, the state air resources board -- had told them specifically what to do. "The air board made them build a small percentage of cars for zero emissions," Gage said. The only car with no tailpipe emissions, he noted, was powered by electricity.

"The automakers saw this as a precedent they didn't want, something where regulators could tell them what to make," Gage said. "(They) fought it very hard, and one way to kill the mandate is to say it's a bad product, nobody wants to buy it, it's too expensive and its range is too short."

Makes you wonder, eh?