The Car GM Wishes It Never Made

from the let's-just-make-it-disappear dept

Every once in a while driving around Silicon Valley you get to see an electric car (not one of those increasingly popular hybrids, but the full blown 100% electric model, which you can recharge in the Fry's parking lot). It seems however, that GM, makers of the EV1, are working hard to make sure no one knows they ever existed. They're telling those who have leased the cars that they will not be renewing the leases, and that they want the cars back in order to destroy them as soon as the leases are up. GM is claiming that the whole program was a failure. However, the conspiracy theory, of course, is that they designed it as a failure - not wanting electric cars to succeed and to disrupt their current way of doing things. The fact that they won't even let current owners keep their cars (which they all seem to love) adds weight to that theory. Current owners are protesting the decision and trying to get GM to change their mind. Some are even talking about refusing to give the cars back (a bunch sent in checks to pay for extended leases - but the checks were all returned). It seems ridiculous for GM to refuse to sell the cars to current owners when they're just planning to destroy them anyway.