Electric Vehicles ... Past Or Future...?

[rodram]

I watched at TV documentary this week about how GM successfully erradicated every one of the EV1 (plug-in electric vehicles) that they built and had leased out. Eradicate... as in cancel the lease, send the repo man to repossess the vehicle, and then crush and shred the vehicle. Now except for a few disabled EV1 vehicles in automobile museums, there are no more GM plug-in electric cars on the road today. Why..? there is no real clear answer....

 

The next day I read in the newspaper that Nissan has pre-sold 13,000 electric cars to be assembled in the US and sold into the US market later in 2010.

 

and I say to myself ..... WTF???? .... WTF???

 

... I am not a die-hard GREEN guy... but I get upset when good technology is abused!

[Zembonez]

As long as oil companies hold stock in automakers and our government, there will be vehicles that burn gasoline produced. I'm not talking conspiracy here. They are ALL intertwined and in bed with each other financially.

 

It's not rocket science.

[cwalcz]

Yea I saw that thing about the EV1's a while ago too...they never really explained why

[truckofwinandawesome]

I watched at TV documentary this week about how GM successfully erradicated every one of the EV1 (plug-in electric vehicles) that they built and had leased out. Eradicate... as in cancel the lease, send the repo man to repossess the vehicle, and then crush and shred the vehicle. Now except for a few disabled EV1 vehicles in automobile museums, there are no more GM plug-in electric cars on the road today. Why..? there is no real clear answer....

 

The next day I read in the newspaper that Nissan has pre-sold 13,000 electric cars to be assembled in the US and sold into the US market later in 2010.

 

and I say to myself ..... WTF???? .... WTF???

 

... I am not a die-hard GREEN guy... but I get upset when good technology is abused!

 

there's a few EV1s that were given to some Universities with no Controllers, but these Universities were crafty, and Made Replacement Controllers and they WORK!

[C. Charles Hahn]

I watched at TV documentary this week about how GM successfully erradicated every one of the EV1 (plug-in electric vehicles) that they built and had leased out. Eradicate... as in cancel the lease, send the repo man to repossess the vehicle, and then crush and shred the vehicle. Now except for a few disabled EV1 vehicles in automobile museums, there are no more GM plug-in electric cars on the road today. Why..? there is no real clear answer....

 

The next day I read in the newspaper that Nissan has pre-sold 13,000 electric cars to be assembled in the US and sold into the US market later in 2010.

 

and I say to myself ..... WTF???? .... WTF???

 

... I am not a die-hard GREEN guy... but I get upset when good technology is abused!

 

there's a few EV1s that were given to some Universities with no Controllers, but these Universities were crafty, and Made Replacement Controllers and they WORK!

 

 

That's correct; and those vehicles have to be kept under lock and key because from what I've heard if GM finds out they're being driven anywhere in public they'll sue to repossess and crush those EV1s as well.

 

The real problem with the EV1s is that while they worked -- extremely well at that -- they were cost prohibitive and the battery technology was nowhere near as well developed as they needed to be for wide range use.

 

The Chevrolet Volt program is much more marketable and well developed.

[rodram]

... battery technology... that was another issue with the EV1's

 

.. the original Delco batteries in the first generation EV1 (first two years) did not live up to any expectations but GM purchased other battery technology that resolved the issue..... now that GM does not make these EV1s or the batteries anymore they sold the new battery technology to........ CHEVRON ... who, I guess has buried it somewhere.

[jro909]

automakers have had the technology to make electric cars for 35 years atleast but the price to make vs the profit isent worth trying to gamble...let alone those junk batterys have to go some where like a lake near you...i'm not a fan of electric vehicles because you have to use an un-enviromental means to generate the energy for your fullsize r/c car....i'm more for the alternative clean replacement for fossil fuels which probably won't happen til the end of my generation....hell by driving a fullsize truck you are pretty much commited to your carbon foot print lol

[unit731]

Sad that GM did not keep these on the roads as the customers did like them.

 

But missing in that one sided documentary was that these cars were basically hand made and GM lost money on all of them.

 

And later, the insurance legal advice was that safety was going to be an issue as they aged.

 

All combined for GM to recall or bring back all of them. GM lost money on each and every one.

 

But that does not diminish the reality that GM did not follow through with that technology. Another management poor judgement. One more nail in GM's coffin.

[mkelly]

Funny how peoples memories fade and they only remember the sunny stuff.

 

 

The EV1 was not a practical car.

 

It had a range of only ~100 miles.

It required a special charging station so you cold only charge in a few spots.

Battery costs were ~20k for replacement.

 

 

The car was essentially useless for 90% of America.

 

If you can only afford 1 vehicle are you going to spend 35k on a car that you can only use m-f to work and cant use on the weekend?

[Nick The Great]

Funny how peoples memories fade and they only remember the sunny stuff.

 

 

The EV1 was not a practical car.

 

It had a range of only ~100 miles.

It required a special charging station so you cold only charge in a few spots.

Battery costs were ~20k for replacement.

 

 

The car was essentially useless for 90% of America.

 

If you can only afford 1 vehicle are you going to spend 35k on a car that you can only use m-f to work and cant use on the weekend?

 

Add a lawnmower engine to the EV1 and you have the Volt.

 

It may be different in other parts of the country, but here, the only place you could charge a Volt is at home. My job, grocery store, and corner gas station don't the 240V outlet for it.

 

EV1 was the begining of the end for the old GM. They killed the golden goose when they killed EV1. They had everything going their way in eco vehicles lightyears ahead of the others, including Toyota. We know how that story ended.

 

I was pretty young in the time of the EV1, but it sure seems like they were pretty damn close to having something revolutionary. It would be beneficial for GM to be a head of the curve, rather than playing catch-up.

[mkelly]

Add a lawnmower engine to the EV1 and you have the Volt.

 

It may be different in other parts of the country, but here, the only place you could charge a Volt is at home. My job, grocery store, and corner gas station don't the 240V outlet for it.

 

 

But adding the gas engine changes things considerably.

 

 

Now you have a car that can be used by everyone in america. If you need to go over the 40 mile electric range then you can just add gas and treat it like a normal car!

 

In addition you can charge the thing off of any 110 outlet. You wont need a special charging station.

 

 

 

Personally I dont think the volt is the answer, but it is the first commercially viable electric car on the market.

[jro909]

the idea of an electric car is great, but not great for america....we are far too large with economic differences from consumer to consumer, we just need a cleaner replacement for dinosaur fuel, plain and simple..microwave cars will not stop the nearing fuel crisis no matter how you cut it...if we say were the size of sweden, which if i remeber right is petroleum free and uses brown's gas for day to day vehicle operation then the electric car would easily fit into the puzzle

[mkelly]

 

 

the idea of an electric car is great, but not great for america....we are far too large with economic differences from consumer to consumer, we just need a cleaner replacement for dinosaur fuel, plain and simple..microwave cars will not stop the nearing fuel crisis no matter how you cut it...if we say were the size of sweden, which if i remeber right is petroleum free and uses brown's gas for day to day vehicle operation then the electric car would easily fit into the puzzle

Nobody uses brown's gas for any vehicle operation. Whenever browns gas is used in conjunction with an internal combustion engine it is a scam.......