In the case of the EV1 the conspiracy wasn't to get you to keep buying gas, it was to get you to keep paying for repairs. Tesla squared this circle by abusing copyright, patent, and trademark law to ban third-party repair so they could make the repair experience worse[0] and upsell you on new vehicles.

The thing about swivel-eyed loons[1] is that they can be right for the wrong reasons. You can reasonably suspect a conspiracy exists without necessarily knowing who the conspirators are.

[0] e.g. by locking out more intricate repairs that require more labor training cost but are way cheaper to do, thus shifting more repair costs onto the owner of the vehicle

[1] in the sense Cory Doctorow uses the term