During the last century, automakers had a habit of putting all kinds of crazy engines in their cars in an attempt to get more sales, and they usually they tend to ended in failure. EVs were no different and were actually advertised as far back as the 80s or late 70s, but faced yet another uphill battle. I don’t think they ever expected the technology to actually be feasible, let alone get government and public support.
I remember owning their Transformer tablet back when Honeycomb first launched.