Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory - and I've got knowledge of a wide range of them to discuss with you - I'll be making a new one of these every week. :)

I'll post up the facts, and then you have to make your own decision on the matter. This week, I want to talk about something with great political, economic and environmental influence - the technology behind electric cars, and the idea that oil companies may be holding back the technology to make more money.

- Robert Anderson invented the first electric car in 1839

- Since then, scientists have been trying to improve on the original concept, hoping that they can reduce the world's reliance on fossil fuels

- The best batteries on the market are too heavy and take too long to charge, as well as the range being too limited for them to be of much use - the vehicles are also too expensive for the mass market.

- It looks to be several years before the average person will be able to buy an electric car

- Conspiracy theorists believe that the technology has been already invented, and that companies are supressing the electric car using their political influence

- This isn't the first time that car companies have been accused of killing the electric car. In 1974, Bradford Snell - a former US senate council member - claimed that General Motors bought the StreetCar electric railway system, only to purposely sabotage it using a variety of techniques (This is well worth a read - very interesting: http://www.lovearth.net/gmdeliberatelydestroyed.htm)

- In the film, "Who Killed the Electric Car", Chris Payne alleges that GM purposely scrapped the Saturn EP1 despite high customer demand. Representatives of GM claimed that there wasn't any money to be made from the vehicle - this makes sense; car companies have to make money to stay in business, but being on the forefront of a new industry could make them $ billions.

- Why would car companies supress innovation? Some theorists believe that the reason could be due to connections between oil companies and car manufacturers. It's possible, but far from conslusive. 

Is the development of a commercially successful electric car really this slow, or is there something else going on behind the scenes? What do you think? :)

Ohhhhhhhhh :((((((((( Wrong section :(

Battery tech is not ready. That's the issue holding it back. Not oil companies or a conspiracy between car companies. The EV1 used lead-acid batteries that are HORRIBLE if they leak. have a short lifespan, and hold very little charge. The newer electric cars like the Volt and Leaf use Lithium Ion but even those battery lives aren't good at all (Even though the Volt overcomes that by adding a generator engine to have unlimited range)

nah tehchnology isn't good eough that's all. i can't speak about companies from other countries but in germany there is a huge amount invested to find better battery technologies and the last year the technique got very much better. it's still not good enough to drive long distances but if it will advance like it did the last few years it won't take so much anymore until we get cars for a normal use.

here in some cities/villages you can load you car in car parks and this is enough to drive to work, do some shopping, load your car parking there and after work and shopping you drive back with a full car.it looks like this

no clue how they use this technology in usa or other countires but in germany and i believe i read something about some cities in uk it won't take so long anymore to have a great infrastructure for electro-cars.

we get more and more petrol stations who let you load your battery and in a few years it will be much more here. they load your car very fast to 80% (not more because this speed loading would destroy the batteries otherwise) but the batteries are still not good enough for long distances but yeah i believe in one decade we will have nice electro-cars.

i mean, companies like vw invest billions every year for this technology i don't think they would do that if they would have the technology just to troll us.

and i remeber like 20 years ago my neighbour had an electro-car but it was absolutely shit. i just have to see batteries for mobile phones and how shit they were 10 years ago compared to batteries nowadays no wonder the electro-cars in the past were bad...

fuel is very cheap in usa compared to europe so i wouldn't wonder seeing a lot of electro cars here in 10-15  years and like none in usa because of the price. we hope for good electro-cars here because fuel is abnormal expensive and too expensive for many people nowadays. if i would live in usa i wouldn't care, i believe you pay like a third for the same. just imagine you would have to pay three times more than you have to nowadays and you would pay more for electro-cars as well.

This says it all

General Motor's EV1 cost GM over $80,000 to manufacture and customers were willing to pay nearly $30,000 for one. As long as GM was willing to lose $50,000 per vehicle, and their dealers were willing to sell the cars with no profit, the EV1 could become a production vehicle.

Much like why the Chevy Volt has had abysmal sales, people are willing to pay (roughly) the same amount for an electric car as they are for a conventional vehicle but the costs associated with an electric car are far higher. While the costs are falling, it will (likely) be another 10 to 20 years before an electric car is inexpensive enough for the average consumer to consider buying one; and only a moron who doesn't understand business or economics would be heavily pushing electric cars at this point in time.

electric cars arent popular or more prevalent because they simply arent a viable option.

a $40,000 after a huge government subsidy (paid for by taxpayers) is just too expensive.

its about time for government to stop subsidizing these cars/companies. its not sustainable if they cant stand on their own feet, they have no business being in business.

once the technology is there, the cars will follow. and the market will decide when that happens, not government.

in the mean time, we need to stop government from inhibiting the growth of our energy sources. they pander to special interest and restrict and over regulate the types of energy we can invest in. can we use our own oil? No. Can we use our own wind? No, hardly. Can we use our own sun light? No, hardly. Can we use are own nuclear tech. No.

Electric cars with batteries only are old news already, hydrogen fuel cell cars are the future.
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fuelcell.shtml

Iceland is still trying to get on with a hydrogen fuel economy but it's slow going, Hawaii is up next.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/green-driving/news-and-notes/hawaii-the-testing-ground-for-hydrogen-cars/article1953437/

Batteries will still be used for regenerative braking but the cars will be powered by hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas is a much more efficient way to store and transport energy.

There are Hybrid Cars that runs on oil and electricity.

I think you answered your own question really.

Car companies have no reason to suppress electric cars.

They've just never been viable.

It's ironic, such engines MAY be viable in military vehicles due to the GIANT cost it takes to ship oil... yet we focus the money elsewhere by creating products nobody wants.