GM’s Wagoner Admits EV1 Debacle

Written by Japhet

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.

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Posted on 29 June 2006

Tags: ev1, gm, gristmill, Jumpstart, profitability, rick wagoner

About the Author

After a lifetime on the East Coast and getting stuck in the Midwestern suburbs of Chicago and northern Michigan I'm finally on the West Coast in the always cool and never hot city of San Francisco. Japhet worked for various outdoor organizations before becoming a member of Howard Dean's webteam (a lowly online organizer) in Burlington, Vermont. Afterwards, he continued his election work with America Coming Together in Madison, Wisconsin where he helped increase voter turnout to the highest in state history. Now, coming back to this environmental and corporate ethics roots, Japhet is excited to put his skills to use for Rainforest Action Network.

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1 Comment For This Post I'd Love to Hear Yours!

Ian says:

July 9, 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.