Ahem,

The current GM hybrids are:

• Silverado
• Saturn VUE Green

Anything else is PowerPoint engineering.

Bob Wilson

 

I'm with you on this one. It's funny that they get so critizied for how that program ended, but we seem to forget they at least built an EV and put it on the road. Where's the EV from Honda or Toyota? What about all the car companies who don't even have hybrid cars planned? They all seem to get a free pass.

A while back I researched the Chevy Tahoe against it's competition just for grins. Based on published MPG reports, it gets better mileage that all it's equivalents - Honda, Toyota, all of them. So GM's a bit behind. Where's Mitsubishi's hybrid? Or Hyundai? BMW? Mercedes? Acura? Infiniti? Audi? VW? Jaguar? Chrystler? Mazda? GM is not the great evil we make it out to be.

 

Do I have your permission to pull this quote back up in November or December when the Tahoe / Yukon 2-Modes launch?

 

Just for grins, I gotta ask these questions.......

Q1: Who on this site has actually ever owned an EV-1?

Q2: Who on this site has actually ever leased an EV-1?

Q3: Who on this site has actually ever driven an EV-1 for more than 2 consecutive days?

As for crushing the cars in the middle of the night......before the keys to the 1st EV-1 were placed in the customer's hand, it was made CLEAR that after a specific period of time, the car would need to be returned to the company FOR DISPOSAL.

Peace,

Martin

 

I believe the point that I was making was that the Volt is less earth friendly than the EV1.

Sure the Volt looks cool, but make no mistake, it is not as earth friendly an offering as GM already had in limited production.

Since the EV1 uses no petroleum products, it is a threat to Big Oil. You can poo poo this argument as much as you want, but Big Oil swings a big bat in our gov't. They have major influence (remember our prez and VP are both Big Oil) and they DO NOT WANT an electric car to succeed.

Hydrogen fuel cel cars are more desirable to Big Oil since the most likely source of H2 in the future will be OIL.

Since there were only 800 EV1's ever made, it is unlikely anyone here has leased one. Just because the leasers agreed to turn the car in after the lease period, it doesn't make what GM did right. They killed a great program by suing California to roll back it's zero emissions program. This is the reason that GM is struggling and will continue to struggle. Poor vision.

BTW. The other car companies also had electric vehicles, but GM has the most extensive program and the vehicle drivers ABSOLUTELY loved the EV1. I have seen several on the road and parked in the special spaces at the PHX airport. They were nice vehicles for daily commuters.

 

Actually, Toyota had an EV program. They sold a few hundred RAV-EVs, a derivative of the popular RAV4. Unlike GM, however, when the program ended, Toyota gave the RAV-EV leasers the option to buy the vehicle. So there are still a few RAV-EVs on the road to this day. None of them ended up being confiscated and turned into cube-hulks and buried secretly.

Karma is a unforgiving mistress, which is why I think that Toyota is the King of Hybrids and why even when GM comes up with innovations, nobody trusts or believes them.

 

an eloquent way to sum it up.

 

Heck, I forgave GM....I would buy a Volt in a heartbeat, or even the plugin VUE if I could right now....IF they beat Toyota to the punch (but I think Phoenix motorcars will beat all of them to the punch for my hard earned dollars). It could have been GM right now that shines, but...oh well.

This is why the EV1 demise is viewed by many with such disdain for GM (and the movie made it worst), and it will stay that way, rightly or wrongly. In most poeple's mind, the association is GM and EV1. In my mind, it's both GM and big oil with the demise of EV1.

Personally, I think GM is going in the right direction to rectify that, while Big Oil continue to make things worst for themselves.

 

So the solution is 2 vehicles for everyone?

My wife get's the EV1 and I get the Tacama, sorry that doesn't work she needs more space than I do inside and I need a truck. The EV1 won't get many ICE vehicles off the road. Both the Element and the Tacoma could be configured as plug-in hybrids and my fuel consumption could be less than with an EV1 and ICE vehicle.

The 2 vehicle household will end up being a 3 or 4 vehicle household. More vehicles is the wrong direction.

 

Wad, I agree with you. You and your wife's circumstances do prevent you from using the strategy that I proposed.

However, over 50% of all households would be perfectly suited to having one ICE vehicle and one Electric vehicle. Think of all the retirees that would be very happy with this strategy. Also most families with 2 kids or less would also be able to manage with this strategy. And big city dwellers would really benefit.

I dont feel it is fair to criticize me for having ill will toward GM regarding their killing of the EV1. It was too great a leap forward in technology to kill off. Mankind was the loser when that program was crushed by GM and Big Oil.