Word: gm
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...largest auto market--with 1 of every 7 cars sold in the U.S.--it has the clout. Six years from now, under California rules, 10% of new cars offered for sale--about 100,000 a year--must be exhaust-free. But even with the deadline so close, only GM and Honda Motor Co., have been bold enough to target consumers with their electric cars. Other automakers have focused on government and commercial fleets...
...GM got raves from auto writers and customers alike for the EV1's elegant engineering, its spaceship smoothness, and its intoxicating acceleration--0 to 60 m.p.h. in 8.5 sec. "My customers are fascinated," says Michael Monti, who parks his car in front of his Tempe, Ariz., restaurant. Beverly Hills realtor Constance Chestnut drives clients around in her EV1 because "it's hot and sexy." Hawthorne Savings Bank attracted $1.5 million in deposits from customers after it advertised its newly installed electric-car chargers. EV1 drivers have even founded a club and a Website. "This is no martyr mobile for environmentalists...
Business wise, however, the EV1 is idling. Only 288 cars have been leased in the five cities where GM has made them available--Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, Phoenix and Tucson. Battery life and price are nagging issues. EVs can typically run 50 to 80 miles before recharging, which takes about two hours. Although manufacturers receive a federal tax credit and a subsidy of $5,000 a car from Southern California's air-quality agency, GM charges $399 a month for a lease and Honda $455--luxury-car prices. GM had projected sales nearly 10 times as high. ICE-agers...
Moreover, after assigning the sales job to its Saturn division, famous for customer satisfaction, GM offered such a stingy profit margin to dealers that they lose money on the business. The lackluster marketing has prompted dark mutterings about GM's motives. Is the company discouraging consumers so as to convince regulators that quotas should be abandoned? Why isn't the EV1 available in more states? Why is the car offered only for lease, with no purchase option? GM executives protest that if they'd set out to prove electric cars a failure, they would never have spent six years...
Despite the obstacles, GM officials claim to be satisfied with their racy roadster's first year. Even gasoline-powered sports cars have a narrow market, they point out, and the EV1 is only the first in a line of GM electrics that will presumably include more practical four-seaters. GM also notes that the VCR took 34 years from introduction to significant market penetration; the microwave oven, 30 years; the PC, 15 years...