Who Resuscitated the Electric Car? (or Back to the Future)

In my last post I made a joke about how I'd rather see the GM bailout money spent; for the invention of technologies seen in Back to the Future Part II. Now GM appears to be reaching into the past to shape it's future with the production of an electric car for the masses, the Chevy Volt.

Kudos to GM for trying to position themselves as the greenest automaker around and investing in new technologies, but they've tried this before and they pulled the plug. In 1996, GM introduced the EV1, the first modern electric car from a major automaker. EV1s were only available in California and Arizona under leases as an engineering and marketing evaluation. The EV1 was discontinued in 1999 and all models were removed from the road by 2003. The reasons for the discontinuation are the subject of the great film Who Killed the Electric Car. In The film sets out numerous conspiracies about why GM discontinued the vehicle.

I'm not going to get into the conspiracies here. It's been done before (and better than I could). My guess is that GM discontinued the vehicle for the same reason that corporations do most anything, profitability. Instead, my issue is why we should believe GM will follow through in the first place.

GM has been down this road before. Had they stuck with the EV1 in 1996 we might have an electric car as a real alternative today. Their electric car line may even be profitable. GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner even admits the worst decision of his tenure at GM was "axing the EV1 electric-car program and not putting the right resources into hybrids. It didn’t affect profitability, but it did affect image."

So what about the Volt? What if the Volt is not profitable? Will GM give up on the technology again? What about governments (US, Canadian, Ontario)? Given their newly acquired stake in GM, how will they react if the Volt is not turning a profit? How should they react? Should they ensure that their investment is profitable? Should they be green friendly and insist that GM continue with the technology?

There are so many questions regarding the future of GM and the electric car. Historians will tell you that looking to the past can help you to predict the future. Take a look back and tell me if you think the future of the Volt looks promising? While I'm glad that GM is investing in new (ahem) technologies, I'm not optimistic given their track record.

(Note, all plug, road, track, and other puns were not intentional, well except the plug pun.)