Who killed the electric car?

'Who killed the electric car?' was a documentry filmed in 2006 that devulged into the story of how the electric car never came to be. The Calfornia governement enforeced a new rules to reduced carbon emission, starting with a '0 emission' mandatory standard for car manufacturers. The automakers were forced to invent new eco-friendly cars, GM motors created a electric car, that was appealable in many aspects however it marketing team seemed to 'purposely' fail in advertising, telling its customers about its limitations. This act was then followed by car manufacturers suing the Calfornia government and then took back all their EV1 model cars from its customers.

However there was claims that there were not enough demand from the public for the electric car. Since consumers were concerned about the battery life and speed.However few American knew the electric existed and unaware an electric was able to be tried. Oil companies saw the electric cars as a major competitor and financed campaigns to kill utility efforts to build car charging stations. Mobil and other oil companies are also shown to be advertising directly against electric cars in national publications, even when electric cars seem little to do with their core business. 


From watching 'Who killed the electric?' it has given me a new perspective on how much industry and government have power over products. Products that are made to benefit the Earth can destroyed without anyone ever knowing about it.  We as consumers, designers and as people on living on the Earth should seek out eco-friendly designs and promote them not destroy them.