EVangel

Electric Vehicle Makers are Riding on Sunlight

Excellent article, overall.

I must say, however, that only one of six automakers sold its electric vehicles (EVs) before 2002, and four never offered any for sale to individual consumers. The Ford Ranger EV, a converted gas vehicle, sold poorly at $40,000 a pop (the gas Ranger was priced at half that.) In 2002, Toyota sold all 300-odd RAV4 EVs offered in half the expected time.

Nissan never even offered its lithium-battery Altra EV for closed-end individual leasing.

GM's Rick Wagoner: Unintentional Comedian

Roger Smith introduced the GM "Impact" electric vehicle concept at the 1990 LA Auto Show, promising to mass-produce what later became the EV1. That impressed me.
Exactly ten years later, I rented and drove an EV1; that really impressed me. By then, Smith was long gone, and within two years, GM was suing to avoid mass-producing the EV1.
I don't know whether GM's gas vehicles (or loans) are better or worse than other OEMs. GM built an excellent, fast and well-appointed electric vehicle (EV,) then refused to sell it to the demonstrated (niche) market for zero emission vehicles. I fought that decision right through the final crushing of a thousand EV1s.
The Volt plug-in hybrid will sell, but a reborn EV1 (with lithium batteries) would do 0-60 mph in six seconds, 200 miles per 3-hour charge and millions in sales.