The internal combustion engine will eventually come to an end, and this saying is already believed today. After all, there are more and more trams on the street now, and car companies are also actively transforming, and the 4S shops that you don't believe in putting on trams are also put on trams.
If it were 20 years ago, you said that trams can replace oil trucks, the founding uncle in the factory may frequently nod: that thing in the factory to transport goods is not bad, on the road? Rolling calf paper...
▲ Symbol of GM almost changing the world: EV1
Darlings may not be favored in every age, and garbage is also a misplaced resource. Anyway, GM almost changed the world, but since he didn't succeed, you haven't heard much about GM almost changing the world.
Tesla now accounts for 70 percent of electric vehicle sales in the U.S., and GM is only about 6 percent. And through a sad history, we can find that GM actually got up early and did a late set.
■ Universal power-up road
In the late 1980s, GM began to think about how to "electrify."
With government support, GM decided to invest $1 billion in electric vehicles. Initially, GM named the model "Santana" as the model that was trying to change the world.
Santana is definitely a good name, but Americans heard that the name "Santana" in the far east had long been preempted by the Passat B2, which was the brainchild of the change to Impact."
The simple and straightforward car name represents GM's high hopes for this electric car.
GM formed an Impact project team in California, and it was at this time that Alan Cocconi became a project consultant.
His job is to develop integrated motor drives and charging systems, in simple terms, to develop equipment and management systems that convert DC into ALTERNating Current, thereby using AC motors to drive vehicles. The system also includes a forward-looking design that uses an inverter to generate braking force, and kinetic energy recovery, which we are familiar with today, can charge the battery with the electrical energy generated in braking.
▲ AC Propulsion Tzero
In 1992, Alan Cocconi founded AC Propulsion, a company specializing in the development of ALTERNating current drivetrains, and later introduced the AC Propulsion Tzero, a pure electric sports car.
At the beginning of its business, Tesla obtained many patent technology transfers at AC Propulsion. Some people say that Tzero is the real prototype of tesla Roadster.
▲ Concept car ceiling: Dongfeng coupe (2006)
▲ AC Propulsion Tzero（1992）
I don't know what you think of Tzero's unique appearance, but in the early nineties, Impact made everyone shine at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
Thanks to the super-streamlined lines, this futuristic two-door two-seater sports car has a drag coefficient of only 0.195Cd. The most exciting thing is that the car has no engine, gearbox, complex oil circuit, and only 18.7 kWh lead-acid battery power, Tzero's AC motor can provide 102 kW (137Ps) maximum power and 150 N·m maximum torque, and the cruising range is quite a good 200 km (125 mi).
Perhaps this design style is the Cyberpunk of the 90s, and in just a dozen years this style has the potential to become a concept car ceiling and the like.
Alan Cocconi had envisioned that with the lithium-ion batteries used in laptops, the range of electric cars could be upgraded to 300 miles. Although this idea did not materialize in the 90s, the later Tesla Roadster adopted a similar approach, although Tesla used 6831 18650 cylindrical lithium batteries.
With GM's financial resources and the talent of designers, it was entirely possible that they would have created the myth of electric vehicles at that time. In fact, GM has also achieved some kind of success.
▲ Impact prototype
▲ Car that almost changed the world: THE EV1 production version
In 1996, the mass-produced version of the Impact prototype, the EV1, was officially launched.
GM has adopted a strategy similar to today's "shared travel", the new car is only rented and not sold, and perhaps the expensive EV1 is really not easy to sell. Ev1 has a maximum lease term of 3 years and is only leased to consumers in California and Arizona, with rents ranging from $299-$574.
This rent is not cheap, ah, is there really someone to rent?
Not only are there people renting, but even Hollywood star Tom Hanks is also the EV1 "owner".
GM set up an EV1 marketing group with an average age of only 25. The panel will conduct a strict "political review" of the tenant, want to rent a car? You not only have to fill out a detailed personal information questionnaire, but also receive manufacturer training.
In its first year on the market, GM produced just over 200 EV1s, and only 1,117 in its entire career. Rent-only, strictly audited, and ultra-low production have built a familiar hunger marketing model, attracting a large number of celebrity car rentals, in addition to to the above-mentioned Tom Hanks, and the famous actor Mel Gibson.
Hunger marketing + celebrity effect, making EV1 a "net celebrity".
■ Emission reduction ordinance is the mother of electric power
If there is no "threat" of the law, why do car companies casually transform into pure electric vehicles. No matter in any era context, such a transformation is a stable loss and unprofitable business, unless the law can support car companies to the future. Not to mention how bright the future is, at least a planned future.
In 1989, THE CARB (California Air Resources Commission) enacted the Zero Emissions from Automobiles Act, which plans to account for 2 percent of California's auto market in 1998 and 10 percent by 2003.
Why reach this goal? Because in the same year, a quarter of los angeles residents aged 15-25 suffered from lung disease. And can car companies achieve this goal? That can only be said that industry is people-oriented, the law is mandatory, if you can't do it, you will bear the responsibility.
In 2001, after George W. Bush took office as president, major car companies continued to exert pressure, and California's regulations finally loosened. The new decree no longer requires absolute zero emissions, but reduces emissions.
Fearing that their energy monopoly would be undermined, oil companies have made small moves, with Mobil and other oil companies even advertising electric vehicles directly in publications, even if they are not related to their core business.
Thanks to the change of laws and regulations and the efforts of the oil industry, hybrid vehicles began to have more markets, and the General Purpose EV1 did not end up.
■ "Humen Sales Car"
The model that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build will bring at most $5 million in annual revenue to GM. The EV1, which costs $20,000 in batteries alone, is clearly hopelessly profitable.
As mentioned earlier, after Bush Jr. took office, the policy was loosened, and it was time for GM to bury the EV1.
In 2003, GM announced that it would stop production of ev1 and recycle existing vehicles and destroy them centrally. "Owners", the ownership of the vehicle belongs to me, I want to destroy it, stimulate it.
GM's "funeral plan" has caused dissatisfaction among a large number of renters and potential renters, and there are still more than 4,000 "prospective car owners" waiting to drive. They wrote letters to GM, and some of the tenants even said:
the EV1 is more than a car, it’s a path to national salvation！ (The EV1 is not just a car, it's a way to save the country!) ）
Protesters found 78 EV1s that were about to be destroyed at a scrapped plant in California, and they watched the cars day and night for weeks, even offering a $1.9 million buyout, but stubbornly said... It's not a question of money. Then, GM blasted the cars to the point of slag.
Most of the EV1s were sent to the shredder, and only a few dozen cars were donated by GM to museums and research institutions for preservation and exhibition.
On July 24, 2003, AV1's avid supporters hosted a dignified funeral at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The showbiz celebrities drove their EV1, made one last drive here, and then the cars were destroyed.
If you don't sell it, don't sell it, don't rent it, you destroy a chicken feather... Whether this is a decent funeral or an angry brain twitch, let future generations comment on it.
In 2006, filmmaker Chris Paine made a documentary called Who killed the electric car. The film explains the birth, launch, and demise of EV1, and explores how GM, the U.S. government, and the oil industry killed EV1, and Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson all spoke in the documentary.
■ written at the end
Rick Wagoner, former president and CEO of GM, has publicly stated that ending EV1 was his worst decision, which cost GM a great opportunity to lead its opponents for 15 years. This opponent, that is, Tesla.
If GM sticks to this money-burning road, can you say that the company must not be as good as Tesla? Look at what GM played in the 90s, making pure electricity, playing Cyberpunk, engaging in shared travel, asking for free Internet celebrities to endorse, making hunger marketing, and advanced things have let GM do it.
History cannot be repeated, and the story of that year remains in that year, just as the bright moon has illuminated you and the ancients.