What Changed The Corporate Perception Of Electric Vehicles?
Over the past five years, and especially in the last few years, the momentum of electric vehicles has appeared to be unassailable, with almost every manufacturer (with the notable exception of Tesla) seeing record sales and momentum for their EV products.
A big driver of this, as is often the case for transitions in the automotive market, is corporate fleets, and consultancy firms such as ourselves strongly advocate for the electrification of company cars in order to help reduce their carbon footprint and improve sustainability.
Rather interestingly, one of the biggest catalysts for this driving force is a perceived failure that will celebrate its 30th anniversary next year, but proved doubters wrong and inspired a wave of evangelists that continues to grow to this day.
The Greatest Failure In Automotive History?
According to General Motors, the EV1 electric coupe was a flop; it was a concept car with ideas above its station, ruined by a combination of relatively limited battery technology and an ill-conceived government mandate to make zero-emission cars in the 1990s.
In GM’s version of history, they tried to make the car work, but it would never have been profitable or successful outside of a particularly small market niche, so they cancelled the project and recalled all of the cars.
The problem with that perception is that it did not quite fit reality; the limited number of people who could get access to the EV1 absolutely adored it despite its paltry range of roughly 75 miles on the road (although it was certified for 140).
More importantly, the people who leased it found that it worked around their commute, particularly once the lead-acid batteries of the Gen I car were replaced with more advanced nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, which both charged more quickly and had a better range.
Regardless, GM wrote off the entire endeavour as a failure and crushed all but two EV1 models and sold its stake in battery company Ovonics to oil company Texaco.
This not only ended the production of the EV1, but forced the end of production of the original EV version of the Toyota RAV4, another early EV which proved surprisingly popular amongst corporate early adopters, including at executive levels.
It did not help that in the wake of the announcement of the EV1’s recall, GM also announced the launch of the Hummer H2, a giant SUV with a fuel economy of less than ten miles per gallon.
What Changed?
The result of the entire dispute surrounding the GM EV1 was that it proved that dedicated car design, aerodynamics and research could make EVs a viable prospect even with the limited battery technology available at the time, and created a small but rapidly growing market in the process.
The popularity of the Toyota Prius hybrid, the rise of lithium-ion batteries as a high-capacity replacement for the NiMH technology and the successful rebranding of EVs as high-status luxury cars thanks to companies such as Tesla helped to elevate their perception in the fleet market.
At this stage, if a company car is being used as an executive incentive, an EV will not only demonstrate an investment in an individual but also an investment in sustainability and ethics.