Why don’t auto makers spend more resources on researching and mass producing the pollution-free electric cars

NO why would Car makers waste their money on such things

Actually we did. We ( I work for an auto co.) we were mandated to by the state of California to sell electric cars. Guess what, laws don’t sell cars people do. The auto companies lost millions on those cars. GM had the EVI, Ford had an electric Ranger truck.
The battery technology is just not there. On a single
charge, range was about 90 miles. And that is with 100
lbs. of batteries. And 100 lbs of batteries is a lot
of pollution to get rid of. Acid, lead, nickel etc.
Eventually the state of California gave in to the lack of demand. And Hybrids were accepted to meet the law.
Which still have plenty of batteries by the way.
You are trading one form of pollution for another.

The more auto makers spend on research and development, the less profit, on the bottom line. I know this sounds really dumb, but that is why America is losing so much of the market share every year, in the auto industry. Japan spends many times what America does on R and D, and they make a superior Auto. Americas formula makes no sense. Until they change there business strategy, they will continue to lose the race to make and sell the best product.

The cost of producing and electric car that can compare with what we drive now would be too expensive to buy.The technology for a cheap electric car is a few more years off.

Government refuses to support the infrastructure necessary. Also auto makers are subsidized heavily into making piston engines, so why should they change?

The GM EV1 is a great example. It was a notoriously cheap car to make despite what GM said. When the new Ni-Mh battery packs were available, they doubled the range of the car and were cheaper, lighter and more eco-friendly than the lead-acids. GM pulled all the EV1s before the lithium batteries were available, claiming “costs”. The Lithium battery EV1 would have been direct competition with their own successful low-end cavalier.

It was pulled and the EV1 was abandoned due to marketing concerns.

IT IS SIMPLE. THEY ARE IN WITH THE OIL COMPANIES AND IF THEY MADE ENERGY EFFICIENT CARS THEN THEY WOULD NOT BE SEALING AS MANY CARS AND THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD LOOSE MONEY. THERE HAS BEEN SEVERAL DIFFERENT ENGINES AND OTHER PARTS MADE TO EXTEND GAS MILEAGE AND THE CAR COMPANIES AND OIL COMPANIES HAVE BOUGHT THE PATENTS OR HAS BOUGHT THE PLANS FROM THE PEOPLE THAT MADE THEM. FOR EXAMPLE THERE WAS A MAN THAT BOUGHT A NEW CAR AND HE WAS A SALESMAN THAT TRAVELED ALL OVER THE UNITED STATES. HE FILLED UP THE CAR AND MADE A ROUND TRIP TO THE WEST COAST AND BACK TO THE MID-WEST AND ONLY USED FIVE GALLON OF GAS. HE WENT BACK TO THE COMPANY WHERE HE BOUGHT THE CAR AND HAD THEM CHECK IT OVER. THEY FOUND OUT THAT THE CARBURETOR WAS A PROTOTYPE THAT HAD BEEN MISTAKENLY PUT ON THE CAR. HE TOOK DOWN THE SERIAL NUMBER AND TOLD THEM THAT HE WOULD BE CHECKING TO MAKE SURE THAT IT WAS STILL ON HIS CAR WHEN HE CAME BACK. HE USED THAT CAR FOR AS LONG AS IT HELD TOGETHER AND THEN WHEN HE BOUGHT THE SAME MODEL HE HAD THE CARBURETOR CHANGET TO THAT CAR AND HE DID THAT FOR AS LONG AS HE HAD A CAR. THERE HAS BEEN OTHER THINGS THAT WORKED TOO, BUT THEY WERE SOON BOUGHT UP BY THE CAR COMPANIES. IF THE PEOPLE WOULD STAND UP THE BIG BUSINESS MANY THINGS WOULD CHANGE. IT IS UP TO US TO PUT THE PRESSURE ON THE CAR COMPANIES TO MAKE THE CHANGES. IF WE WERE TO STOP BYING THE GAS GUSSLERS AND ONLY BY THE HYBRIDS THEY NIGHT GET THE MESSAGE. NBM

Umm… they did make electric cars.

No one bought them.

The so-called “zero-emissions” vehicle is a marketing gimmick. A large percentage of electricity needed to charge the batteries still come from fossil fuel power plants.