Just because he believes now that the EV1 wouldn't have hurt profitability doesn't mean that it was clear to him then that it wouldn't. Businessmen are no great shakes at predicting the future and thinking outside the box.

And I wonder how much he actually believes even now that it wouldn't have hurt profitability, and how much of it is him trying to make it out as a forgivable dumb mistake, so as not to reinforce the idea -- dangerous to the status of traditional businessmen -- that the profit motive leads to socially sub-optimal decisions.

has said many times, explicitly, that the electric car was a huge investment that didn't even come close to paying off (though of course many people question whether GM ever wanted it to work). So it's a little odd for him to be saying this now.

www.grist.org