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Fuel Cell Folly
Introduction
In the late 1990s articles about electric cars began to appear with more frequency in the media – heralded as a major societal transition from polluting internal combustion engines to "clean, emission free vehicles." In 1997 small numbers of these "electric vehicles" (EVs) were shipped to test customers. Owner groups were formed, web sites were developed and a new exciting world of fundamental change in transportation began to be extolled in magazines and newspapers.
GM shipped the EV1 in 1997. Ford bought the rights to the "Th!nk" electric car, developed by a company in Norway, and began shipping versions of that vehicle. Ford also developed a truck, the Ford Ranger EV. Honda shipped the EV Plus and Toyota the RAV4 EV. From 1997 through 2000, the EV was proposed as the solution to foreign oil dependence and environmental problems. In that four year period, GM doubled the mileage range of the EV1 with a new battery system.
By 2002, it was all over. Ford stopped selling Th!nk and sold the rights to a Swiss company. GM withdrew the EV1 and began recalling the cars, all of which had been leased to customers. Honda and Toyota stopped marketing their cars, and their Web sites disappeared. The life cycle of the Electric Vehicle, marketed as a wonder, was less than a decade. Its growth and demise overlapped the dotcom phenomena and the disappointments were similar. More than 100,000 vehicles were to be zero emissions by this point in time. The actual numbers – approximately 3000.
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