Death of the Electric Car

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The 2006 documentary about Who Killed the Electric Car shows the determination of several California citizens whose willpower was to keep the electric car alive and running. The first existence of the electric car under General Motors (GM) dates back to 1996 when they launched the EV1 electric vehicle. And although several consumers took to this new form of transportation, a car that was powered by an electric motor in place of the basic gasoline engine, GM decided to take back its newest technology and removed all existing EV1’s from off of the streets. With several upset consumers who were concerned as to both what GM and the government were up to and how they could get their cars back. Overall, the fact behind why the electric car became such a superior commodity and then vanished was the question being asked. The electric vehicle was destroyed during 2004 and 2005 because a car of this statue was far ahead of its time and greater parts of consumers were not about “going green.” Today the electric car has begun to revive itself because of the existence of global warming, and the efficiency of the electric car is rising. In other words, the electric car has been brought back to life, and many automobile manufacturers are gaining interest.

When General Motors manufactured the first electric car known as the EV1 they did not fully have in mind it’s affect on the buyers. Although there were consumers who were concerned at the time with bettering the environment around them, majority of them were not. The idea of an electric car seemed barbaric and without the buyers, the seller begins to fail. A consumer by the name of Charles Murray (2007), and author of the article I Killed the Electric Car talks about his guiltiness as a consum...

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...spects of society, while at the same time social forces do much to stimulate and shape these technologies” (p. 304). Therefore, society in general could be to blame for why the battery electric vehicle was destroyed and revived. In the beginning, the electric vehicle was before it’s times and consumers were not onboard, but today it is gaining more momentum because of the affects of global warming and the efficiency of an electric vehicle benefits the environment, consumer, and society as a whole.

Works Cited

Deal III, W. F. (2010). Going Green with Electric Vehicles. Technology & Engineering Teacher, 70(3), 5-11.

Horn, M. (2010). Roadmap to the Electric Car Company. Futurist, 44(2), 40-45.

Murray, C. J. (2007). I Killed the Electric Car. Design News, 62(1), 14.

Volti, R. (2010). Society and Technological Change 6th Edition. New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

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