GM’s Wagoner Admits EV1 Debacle
Gristmill carries a story around a story in Motor Trend this week in which General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner is asked which decision he most regrets.
“Axing the EV1 electric-car program and not putting the right resources into hybrids. It didn’t affect profitabilty but it did affect image.”
Wow. That’s quite a statment. Grist goes on to say:
Gee, if only someone had warned Wagoner that fuel efficiency was going to be an important factor for consumers in the future. If only someone had asked — begged, even — to preserve the EV1. Certainly Wagoner wouldn’t have ignored a public outcry like that!
Well, incase folks didn’t know, RAN’s own Jumstart Ford campaign was busy doing exactly that (not sure if Grist was being facetious here or not..always hard to tell!).
What is upsetting about Wagoner’s quote is that he presents the importance of hybrids as an “image” decision, not something that will put us back on the road to energy independence. Ford’s new aggressive ad campaign around their hybrid SUV “The Escape” seems to fall in line with this image conscious company less worried about doing the right thing and more with doing what will get critics off their back.
Lately, Ford has been moving towards the flex-fuels options (ethanol) and backing away from hybrid expansion.
One Response to “GM’s Wagoner Admits EV1 Debacle”
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July 9th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
About damn time, there is a movie coming out later this year, a documentary actually that talks about the decision the kill the (EV) and what people were willing to do to save it. Check out http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/electric.html for more.