Originally Posted by
The Spectacle
See, I don't take the "it was too expensive to make" argument with much merit because GM never gave it a chance. Yes, the technology was more expensive but when is a new technology ever cheap the first time around? There's financial risk involved in being the first to market anything. In the documentary, you see that the original owners of the EV1 tried to buy out their lease and GM wouldn't let them. They absolutely did not want to mass produce the car and that's what made it so expensive for them to make. I think this is one of the biggest blunder in automotive history.
Imagine what kind of mileage GM's version of a Prius would get today had its EV program remained active.
I think at the time, since there was not high enough demand GMs economists assumed that if this were to work, they would be taking a huge hit, and what was the incentive?? Once the EV is realeased, another company could come along dissect it and remake it with a tweak as to not copy the patent. Free riders were probably one of their biggest concerns, especially in a time when demand for bigger vehicles was on the rise.