Reinventing the Car
Designing a Safety Car
The 1948 Tucker had more safety features than ordinary mass-produced cars. Cars in the 1940s had safety glass but little else to protect motorists in a collision. Mass-produced cars had no seat belts, and dashboards were made of bare steel. The collapsible steering column was only a patent drawing. A padded dashboard became standard equipment on the 1948 Tucker and 1949 Chrysler, but other automakers did not adopt safety devices until the 1950s.
A mother poses behind the wheel of the Tucker while her daughter crouches in the "safety crash chamber."
Undercapitalized, Preston Tucker desperately sought financial backers. He pursued venture capital, offered stock, sold dealerships, and presold accessories. The last two acts caught the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The government launched an investigation and obtained criminal indictments against Tucker and six other company executives . The seven eventually were found innocent, but disgraced in the press, the company already had failed.
EV1 electric car, 1997
In 1990, California required automakers to sell some emission-free cars within eight years to help ease smog conditions. General Motors manufactured and leased hundreds of EV1 electric cars to consumers between 1996 and 2004. The EV1 was the first modern electric car designed for the mass market. Its advanced power management system made it practical, powerful, energy efficient, and appealing to consumers. But GM canceled the EV1 program, citing high production costs and a small potential market.
Click here to see more objects related to the EV1 and its Development Team.
Smog, Electric Cars, and Green Car Culture
Southern California’s sunny climate and robust economy attracted millions of residents, bringing cars and smog. In Los Angeles, a layer of warm desert air over cool ocean air often trapped smog (hydrocarbons reacting with sunlight) inside the city’s ring of mountains. Automakers converted vehicles to run on battery power and leased them in preparation in preparation for California’s mandate to sell emission-free cars. General Motors’s designed-from-scratch EV1 combined fresh styling and good performance. Lessees liked its drive qualities, comforts, and appearance.
Electric car advocates protested automakers’ decision to suppress a promising, environmentally friendly technology. New demand for electric cars, and the market success of hybrid cars, prompted automakers to manufacture and sell battery electric cars by 2008. California motorists led the nation in adopting electric cars, with more than 100,000 battery and plug-in hybrid models on the road by 2014.
Do Cars Need to Change?
Many people tried to reinvent the car because they thought it was unsafe, inefficient, too large, too dependent on fossil fuels, or harmful to the environment. Concerned inventors, business people, and consumers wanted sustainable cars. Radical changes sometimes reached the market and attracted some consumers.
More often, automakers resisted change. They updated existing designs and technologies to satisfy the majority of consumers, who wanted the proven benefits of conventional cars: power, convenience, comfort, and economy. Detroit’s leading automakers continued to use established technologies and energy systems—because they worked well and were profitable.