Last night I joined some friends to watch Sony Pictures’ “Who Killed the Electric Car?“ The documentary tracks General Motors’ EV1, an electricity-powered vehicle (hence EV, which has stuck as a general term), from birth in the hands of creative tinkerers in the mid-90’s ’til “death” at the hands of… well, nearly everyone involved according to the filmmakers. One is left with the strong taste of punctuative tech advancement, and environmental aid, squelched.
But why? Unfortunately, the film presents a muddied message. GM, and other car companies who joined the electric bandwagon, claim lack of demand; enthusiasts cry cover-up, pointing to EV-1 waiting lists out-jockeyed by oil company ties, bad PR for the core car business, and federal regulation aimed at subsidizing the gas guzzlers. There’s even blame placed on the California Air Resources Board, who undermined the pivotal 1990 Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate, an initial catalyst for the electric car movement, in favor of alternatives.
None of these answers are fully satisfactory root cause explanations. Irrespective of demand, there is something telling about the automakers’ electric car disposal tactics, which included pulling every last vehicle off the road and destroying them. An unusual market move for sure, and indicative of a “problem product.” In this case, I suspect, it was a product that spelled (someday) core business cannibalization and a new, less rosy, business model moving forward. Auto manufacturers rely, after all, on a recurring revenue stream of buyers, folks who wear out or trade in their cars and buy anew. Electric cars, which require as a result of fewer wearable parts much less maintenance than your standard combustion engine powered vehicle, likely bring with them a longer ownership period and perhaps a circumvention altogether of the auto manufacturer in replacements - plug in the latest battery, the single biggest cost of an EV, and you’ve got a near-new machine.
Interestingly, perhaps in recognition of the above, upstart Think, out of Norway, aims to manufacture electric cars with a sales model geared to sell the car itself, but lease the battery, and sell services (such as WiFi) that utilize the car as platform. A definitively new model. And other startups, notably Tesla Motors which has graced major news publications of late, are planning their own EV launches. Even GM has re-entered the fray with its Chevy Volt, purportedly set for production in 2010. Thus, the phoenix rises.
I can’t help but think automakers did a fine job of delaying business model upheaval. In the process, though, they’ve risked losing a jump on competitors, startup and otherwise. Still, I’d expect a second wave of entrants. Is it unrealistic to believe an innovator such as Bug Labs might enable open source, modular EV production? I don’t think so. In fact, it turns out that filmmaker Chris Paine is planning his documentary’s sequel, titled, “Who Saved the Electric Car?” I hope the answer is scrappy entrepreneurs and forward-thinking investors. I’d bet on it.
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Photo credit: GM Killed The Electric Car, originally uploaded by vaXzine
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