Testing of GM’s Electric Car Pushed Back

Public testing of the General Motors Corp. Impact electric car has been set back two months or more by production problems, GM and Southern California Edison confirmed Thursday.

“When you get into manufacturing a vehicle, all kinds of things go wrong at volume,” said Jean Crocker, spokeswoman for the company’s electric car effort.

“We are experiencing at this point a shortage of some parts we need to finish assembling the vehicle, before we do durability tests,” Crocker said. “The so-called parts shortage came about because this car, unlike others, has so much new to it.” She declined to identify which parts, or subsystems, were the cause of the delay.

GM is building 50 of the cars for a nationwide public testing program, in which the auto maker hopes to learn potential customer reaction to electric vehicles.

Participating electric utilities want to see how ordinary drivers use the cars, including when and how they recharge the batteries.

Crocker said GM hopes to set a delivery date by early next week to provide cars to Edison and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which will administer the volunteer test-driving in the Los Angeles area.

Edison had expected delivery about April 1.

Public reaction to electric vehicles is a major question in the controversy over electric cars, currently required in major auto makers’ California showrooms by 1998 under the state Air Resources Board’s low-emissions vehicle plan.