We’ve plenty of carmakers and brands over the years. Unfortunately, lots of them were the ones that challenged norms, pursued new ideas, and pushed the boundaries of what cars can be. But that hasn’t always paid off.
Plenty of carmakers lost their way before their chance to shine came around. With the right product or branding at the wrong time, it’s hard not to look at brands like Eagle, for example, without wondering how they could have done at the height of crossover fever.
The same is going to be true for when electric vehicles finally break into the mainstream as well. Some of the automakers that might have been able to pull off the transition to electric power simply didn’t make it to where they needed to be when the time came. I can think of a few that would have been more than well-positioned to pull off the swap and keep going.
For some of them, like Saturn, it’s about branding. Electric Saturns would have helped a brand that made its name selling a unique product in an innovative way finally find itself again. GM’s EV1 was basically a Saturn, whose dealers were the only ones allowed to service the early electric car.
For others, it’s about packaging. The company behind the NSU Prinz could have crushed it with a small electric city car with the motor in the back. And that’s just two of countless others.
So what brands do you think could have made electrification work had they made it to today? Let us know in the comments below!