Confronting Economic and Social Realities, 1980–1999 185
DOCUMENT 140: Roger Smith on Industry and the
Environment (1990)Research engineers at General Motors and other car and electronics companies have been working to develop
a viable electric car for years. Public reception of a prototype GM electric car displayed at the January 1990
Automobile Show in Los Angeles encouraged Roger Smith, GM’s president from 1981 to 1990, to commit GM
to producing a commercial electric car. The immediate impact of his commitment was more substantial than
he might have expected, not only affecting GM, but also helping prompt the California Air Resources Board
to issue stringent vehicle emissions standards [see Document 141A]. While the GM electric vehicle, eventually
named the EV-1, was being developed, other automobile manufacturers and oil companies were lobbying to
weaken the California regulations mandating Zero Emission Vehicles (which also had been adopted by other
states, including several in New England). By the time the EV-1 got on the road in 1996, the change in the
California emissions standards [see Document 141B] had virtually eliminated a guaranteed market for the car,^12
which was very expensive and had a limited battery capacity. Furthermore, GM’s corporate culture proved
inimical to Roger’s vision of a future-oriented car company.
In 1997, Toyota put on the market an electric car, the Prius, with an on-board gasoline engine to charge its
battery. By June of 2010, Toyota had sold 1.8 million Priuses, more than half of them in the United States.
In the 2011 model year, the Prius was joined by at least ten other electric hybrids, including the GM Volt.
Although there is ongoing interest in developing alternatives to the standard gasoline engine, whenever the
price of gas is low, as it has been since 2012, the market for fuel efficient and clean energy vehicles dips and the
incentives for car makers to produce them evaporate.[E]nvironmental consciousness has moved
from a fringe phenomenon... into the main-
stream value system of people everywhere in the
developed world.
... [T]his, of course, is of keen interest to us
in the auto industry because it focuses attention
directly on us and our products. And it bears
directly on our two tasks—being successful in the
marketplace and fulfilling society’s expectations.
And really, the two are interrelated—because we
can’t be successful in the marketplace unless.
We fulfill society’s expectations, and we
won’t have the resources to benefit society unless
we’re successful in the marketplace. What it all
comes down to is, we have to market products
that consumers want and that are environmen-
tally sound....
The first half of the title of my remarks is
“Industry and the Environment.” What’s the
relationship between the two? Let me be very
explicit about this: our job is to provide goods
and services, which, along with their intrinsic
purpose, do everything possible to promote
cleaner air, water, and earth. You know, it’s
a little ironic that we’ve been accused of not
understanding the environmental implications
of what we do. The truth is that no one under-
stands the importance of the environment better
than we. Our factories and our products are
intimately related to the planet and all its vast
resources; they depend on it in order to keep
running. We’ve got to keep that in mind, if
we’re to preserve the jobs and livelihoods of our
people, the health of our businesses—and ulti-
mately, the benefits that customers derive from
our products. And we do keep it in mind. Lots
of companies have a long history of environ-
mental consciousness and involvement—and
General Motors is proud to be among them. As
far back as 1955, we were conducting research
on the atmosphere. Back in 1959, before there
was an EPA, we discovered that crankcase emis-
sions contribute to air pollution, and we pro-
posed control measures that are in use on most
vehicles today. I’m pleased to tell you—une-
quivocally—that over the years, GM has done
more for automotive emissions control—we’ve
come up with more patents, more publications,