What ever happened to EVI Electric car by General Motors and all the other Electric cars made in the past by the major automakers such as the Hypermini by Nissan and The RAV 4 Electric by Toyota?
This is a video about the EV1
This article isn't meant to pursuade you to purchase an electric car but to make you aware of the power petroleum companies have around the world.
Aren't you fed up of air pollution and all the television and radio advisories concerning smog and high levels of pollution in your area.
Well oddly enough we did have solutions awhile ago. This is going back in 1996 when General Motors started introducing the EVI Electric Cars in California - USA.
Not bad looking for a car made in 1996.
Came in a variety of colors an used by happy Californians daily on California roads and highways.
You were able to lease an EVI for three years.
When very happy and satisfied customers when back to renew or exercise purchasing their leased units the GM dealership said absolutely no and took back the vehicles from the customers.
In fact there was no buy back option available on the lease agreement.
Although there was opposition by the lease holders of the EVI Electric Cars it wasn't enough to convince GM and the EVI cars were simply returned and never to be seen again.
Ten years later the cars are gone and have disappeared.
Dismantled, crushed and recycled to make gas operated cars again.
What irony for such a wonderful invention that worked well, was economical, easy to maintain and simple to operate.
In the garage the image demonstrates the way the owners of the EVI Electric car would use an apparatus on the wall that came with the vehicle when it was leased at the GM dealership.
Simply park the vehicle in the garage after use and plug it in so it could be used the next day.
You can't get greener than that.
Nissan Hypermini - 1997
In 1997 Nissan launches the Hypermini electric car series at the Tokyo auto salon.
The city of Pasadena in California adopts the cars for their municipal employees mainly for their ease of parking and manuouverablilty and of coarse the environmentally friendly feature as an electric car and the economy it offered to the bottom line,
In August of 2006 the same experience occurs as the EVI Electric. The leases expire, the cars are returned and sent to the scrap yard to be crushed and forgotten again.
Toyota Rav 4 Electric - 2003
In 2003 Toyota decides to stop the production of the RAV 4 Electric series. This was excellence in EVI vehicle technology.
When the lease were at term in 2005 the same fate was awaiting the lease holders. Toyota attempted to retrieve the vehicles and destroy them in the same way GM and Nissan had done. But this time there was a large organization that took over the decision making for Toyota. An organization called Don't Crush was formed and pressured Toyota for three months and was finally victorious over the decision and spared the vehicles.
Press Launch on the EV1 on release day
Read the press release launch content text GM used on the EVI car release day:
On January 4 in Los Angeles, General Motors made two big announcement. First, they unveiled the automobile that will carry America into a new era of driving - EVI, the electric car. The first from the ground up, built from scratch, true electric car. And the first electric passenger vehicle ever to be brought to market by a major automaker.
GM then announced that they have selected the ideal company to launch EVI. A company with the people, philosophy, and now-how to propel the electric car on the road to success --Saturn. (We must admit, we're all pretty darn excited about the opportunity. Not to mention the compliment.)
So starting this fall, Saturn retailers in Southern California and Arizona will be the first in the country to display and market EVI.
Here are just a few remarkable EVI facts:
Accelerates from 0 to 60 in less than 9 seconds
Maximum speed of 80 mph (electronically regulated
Prototype set land-speed record for electric cars: 183 mph
137 horsepower, three-phase AC induction motor
0.19 drag coefficient -- 30% less than any production car
Driving range: 70 miles city, 90 miles highway
3-hour charge time using 220-volt, 6.6 kW charger
Regenerative brakes that help charge the batteries
World's lightest and stiffest spaceframe for any vehicle its size
if there are other related articles that could be added to this article please let me know and I will add the changes.
The true story of the EVI from GM (reference - ev1.org)
GM only leased the EV1 under special conditions that removed the purchase option. If you didn't sign the lease, you didn't get the car: as one Honda Honcho stated, "...they don't care whether you take it or not, they are losing money on each one...".
In 1997, GM released the first of two "builds" totaling about 650 1997 EV1. Originally powered by Delco (now Delphi) lead-acid batteries, they only had a 60-70 mile range and the battery packs often proved defective. After 1998, the defective Delco packs were gradually "upgraded" to Panasonic lead-acid batteries, which increased the range to 110 miles and never failed. While peppy, there was an alarming sway under heavy acceleration, the windshield seals leaked into the dashboard electronics, and the windshield tensioning led to persistent windshield blowouts. These leases had "unlimited miles", but that didn't do much good since the cheap Delco batteries kept breaking down.
On Mar. 2, 2000, GM issued a "voluntary recall" of ALL 1997 EV1, claiming that the 1997 EV1 had design flaws, one of which could lead to fires under certain conditions. This was an underbuilt Magnecharger input port, which needed an upgrade that affected all the charging electronics. After 14 months, GM re-released the "upgraded" 1997 EV1 back to their original lessees, this time under modified two-year leases that did not include unlimited mileage. All the "non-upgraded" EV1 were destroyed, and crushed. Just when the EV1 really could travel 200 miles per day with the new Panasonic batteries, this change now billed extra miles at 35 cents per mile.
All of these 1997 EV1 found lessees; none was unclaimed. Those EV1 drivers who lost their "non-upgraded" EV1 were put at the top of the list for getting a 1999 Nickel Metal Hydride ("NiMH", EPA-certified 140-mile-range) model, when and if they were ever released.
GM hinted that they were unable to produce the EV1 with NiMH batteries, which is the reason they released it originally in 1997 with lead-acid batteries. The Impact prototype was crammed with lead-acid batteries in a battery "T" shaped tunnel, which was difficult to ventilate. Putting NiMH batteries into this tunnel was a design disaster. What was needed was a redesign, putting the NiMH batteries under the EV (as Honda and Toyota had done). Unwilling to change from the original design, GM just added a cooling system that used up a lot of energy.
Putting the lie to the claim that NiMH was not usable, Toyota designed and released a ZEV version of its then-new 1996-99 RAV4 which used NiMH batteries, and Honda released a version of its CRX called the Honda EV Plus which also used NiMH batteries. By starting with existing gasoline-powered vehicles, design and production costs were minimized; also, a simpler permanent magnet brushless motor was used, and, most importantly, the NiMH batteries were deployed in a tray under the floorboard. This aided cooling, and also, it turned out, was beneficial for the weights-and-balance and strength analyses. No such EV ever turned over, and the battery pack provided a natural "crush zone" in collisions.
These Japanese EVs were the first production EVs with range over 120 miles on a charge, thanks to the more powerful, longer-lasting, and more reliable NiMH batteries. Toyota, recognizing the importance of batteries, had formed an alliance with Matsushita (Panasonic) called "PEVE", which developed the EV-95 NiMH battery, the most-researched, most-powerful, most-tested, and the only successful battery that lasts longer than the life of the vehicle, perhaps over 200,000 miles. CARB recognized this in a 2000 position paper resulting from the Battery Technology Assessment Workshop that put an upper cap on NiMH costs at $350/kWh, or at most $12,000 for a typical 30 kWh 770 lb. NiMH battery pack. This amortizes out to no more than 6 cents per mile, less if the 90 lbs. of Nickel metal is recovered when the batteries are scrapped.
This might have been intended as a mild slap in the face of GM, which had gotten them into this trouble in the first place. Essentially, Honda and Toyota were faithfully trying to fulfill the letter of the ZEV mandate, which might have embarrassed GM if it were capable of embarrassment.
To add insult to injury for GM, the Honda and Toyota offerings were issued for $499/month, less money than the $599 lease cost of the EV1, which had less powerful, defective batteries. GM was forced to lower its lease cost.
The 1999 EV1 was delayed, GM stated, by a cooling issue. The original EV1 was designed for lead-acid batteries, which were more heat-resistant than the much more powerful Nickel Metal Hydrid batteries used in the 1990 Impact.
Finally, in Dec., 1999, under pressure from CARB's Jan. 1, 2000 deadline, GM released about 200 1999 EV1 with NiMH batteries. They proved to have a 160 mile range, and never failed. In addition, GM solved some of the flaws in the 1997 version, removing the sway, new seals, etc.
As one EV1 driver happily exclaimed, "...Its a sensation...Huge congratulations ... A revolution in ... range..."
All the 465 1999 NiMH EV1 which were made available found happy lessees. None ever went unwanted, none ever had problems. All were mourned when they were abruptly crushed by GM.
No more were ever built after 1998. GM had dismantled the EV1 supplier and manufacturing plant in 1998, it was reported by GM insiders; the only question was who would be allowed to lease the already-built EV1. Over the next 18 months, the remaining 200-odd 1999 EV1 were released, a few at a time, to selected lessees, mostly high-profile celebrities and politicians.
There was never a time when an EV1 could not find a willing lessee.
In 1999, ex-Governor Davis appointed Alan Lloyd, a fuel cell advocate and enemy of Battery EVs ("BEV"), to the position of Chair of CARB. CARB gradually weakened and then withdrew the BEV component of the ZEV mandate (it was existing EVs that were killed: the ZEV mandate itself is nominally still in force, but currently "inoperative" so far as actually doing anything).
With the 2000 seizure of power by oil politicians and the ascension of Andy Card, GM's chief lobbyist against ZEV Mandate, federal EPA policies were modified and CARB's ability to affect AAM policy and production diminished. At meetings, AAM execs just stood with arms folded, refuseniks.
In March and April 2003, CARB Chair Alan Lloyd presided over postponing the ZEV mandate to 2018, "back-ending" compliance and relying upon Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars which would be much more expensive and would require extensive research over 15 years.
No one can explain why Lloyd considered BEV "too expensive" but why the proposed 15 years of research into a new infrastructure and technology, less promising than Compressed Natural Gas, would be "practical".
The batteries exist, the cars existed: the failure was CARB.
Not bad looking for a car made in 1996.
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