Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!
sunybcs!rutgers!psuvax1!psuvm!k02
From: K...@psuvm.psu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.autos,sci.energy
Subject: Results of Advocating Electric Cars
Message-ID: <90132.2...@psuvm.psu.edu>
Date: 13 May 90 00:16:44 GMT
Organization: Penn State University
Lines: 42
Xref: gmdzi rec.autos:3872 sci.energy:1681
Posted: Sun May 13 01:16:44 1990

On March 22 I posted a copy of the letter I sent to Roger Smith asking
him to produce the Impact electric car.

I am writing to let you know of the results of that letter.

I recently received a nice Impact brochure from GM which has some color
photos and the specifications. Along with the brochure came a thank you
letter and a copy of GM NEWS which contained the information about the
annoucement to build the Impact.

Surprisingly, the thank you letter states that the Impact will not be
ready "... for consumer use or testing for some time." The letter also
says that " ... although our initial market survey showed a very high
percentage of people were willing to buy the Impact, the interest
dropped considerably when they learned the electric car would cost
them $1500 to $3000 more per year than a gasoline car to operate."
Pretty honest for a company not noted for that virtue.

This week's edition of BusinessWeek has a good article about the electric
car situation. Most telling in that article is the revelation that Ford
spends about $500 million to research a single gasoline-powered car and
only about $20 million for its entire electric car program. There are
obviously still problems to be solved before electric cars replace
gasoline-powered ones. However, our nation's car companys have the 
resources to solve these problems today. They just need the will.

The person who sent me the Impact information is

             Susan K. Mallino
             Public Relations
             GM Technical Center
             30200 Mound Rd.
             Warren, MI 48090-9010


Please inundate this person with letters of support for Impact.

Thanks,
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