Dead end: fans of a battery-powered, emissions-free sedan mourn its passing.(THE OBJECT AT HAND)(General Motors EV1)

THE RELATIVELY BRIEF HISTORY of the automobile echoes with romantic stories of lost causes, undeserved failures, great ideas unheeded, righteous hopes dashed, prophets before their time and heroes overwhelmed. Innovative also-rans litter the landscape of the chrome-bright past, felled by forces too formidable or a market too fickle. The 1948 Tucker, a surprisingly advanced car, is one spinout on the boulevard of broken axles. The Cord was a much-admired failure, as were the Kaiser, with its popout safety windshield, the beautiful Raymond Loewy-designed Studebaker Starliner and the sporty 1950s Nash-Healy. Though all these worthies signaled new directions and influenced the …