"Who Killed the Electric Car?"

With the recent release of the documentary titled, "Who Killed the Electric Car?", BBC World News has this article. The documentary talks of the end of the General Motors EV1. GM didn't sell them; they only leased them. And when the leases were up (and, apparently, sometimes before) they collected them and destroyed them. The documentary filmmaker blames car makers and oil firms, primarily, with the death of the electric car. The car makers, on the other hand, blamed lack of demand.

The article also mentions the Ford Think, an electric car released briefly in the U.K. in 2001. Apparently due to lack of demand, Ford sold the Think to a Scandinavian company.

What's interesting to me based on what I have heard (but not yet seen) about the documentary is that GM wouldn't allow the leasees of the EV1 to buy the cars. Instead, they destroyed them. Also, based on the performance of the EV1 (top speed of 80mph, 0-60mph in 8 seconds, a range of over a hundred miles), I'd think that the demand would be there now. Call me what you will, but perhaps this type of thinking is one of the reasons that GM may drop behind Toyota as the world's largest automaker (link the same as from this previous post).