The car that could

by Michael Shnayerson

More than six years ago, General Motors vowed publicly to mass-produce the world's first modern electric vehicle. As risky in its own right was GM's decision to let a writer record the program's progress from inside the gates of its Tech Center in Warren, Michigan, exactly as he saw it, however it might turn out. The result is a remarkably intimate portrait in the tradition of Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine, a story of the people who found new answers to the. Technological challenges that have confronted electric vehicles since the turn of the century. When Michael Shnayerson began visiting the program in mid-1992, those challenges remained unsolved - perhaps insoluble. Then, four months later, amid huge and growing losses, GM's chairman and his team were pushed aside in the most dramatic boardroom revolt in U.S. history. The EV program was reduced to a symbolic effort. Yet, as chairman Jack Smith began managing a. Near-miraculous comeback for the world's largest corporation,