They may come back! take a look at Zap! I am looking at the Smart Cars now available in the US and Daimler Chrysler is trying to release an electric version or hybrid. either way Zap has decent electric vehicles and parts.
look...at http://www.zapworld.com

 

You have to wonder if GM has at least held a meeting to discuss bringing back the EV1. Didn't Wagoner say he thought it was a mistake to discontinue it? I mean, you've got the engineering done. You'll have to update it a bit for new batteries, but compared to designing from scratch, it would seem a quick route to "green" their image, leap ahead of the Japanese, and appear to be genuinely interested in pursuing consumers. You'd think the P.R. boost would be worth whatever it cost.

The design was futuristic-enough back then that it wouldn't look out of place on today's roads.

I wonder if they still have the body panel molds.

 

GM could always put the EV1's propulsion system into an Ion or a Malibu. That would be pretty cool.

 

It's not well known, but GM also had a plug-in hybrid version of the EV1 on the roads. It had a smaller (ie cheaper and lighter) battery, but also a very small gasoline engine as a range extender.

So they already have the plans for and some experience of plug-in hybrids. The engineers that worked on that should still be lurking somewhere in the GM system - perhaps they have been revived to surprise us all?

 

Well I finally saw the movie today. Thought it would eventually make it to Boulder but apparently not. Had to drive to a rundown theatre on the south side of Denver metro. Who killed the advertising budget and distribution? Had to drive 90 miles round trip but got a few errands done along the way. Managed to squeeze out 32.8 mpg on the Tacoma even with some 75mph travel and the wife demanding A/C. I'm confident that a good long trip at 65 can yield 35+.

There was one suspect that wasn't address by the movie but was brought up by the young woman that was originally part of the EV1 project.

Would GM have continued with the EV project if CARB had not passed the original mandate of 10% by 2003. So often government agencies think that just passing some regulation means they get the result they desire. GM hasn't ever taken kindly to government telling the auto industry what to do unless they see an advantage. Expecting GM to lead the way with mandates was a bad strategy, GM was working on the EV1 long before California got pushy.

The movie did a good job of highlighting how impractical the fuel cell cars may be, but there are similar shortcomings with 100% EVs. My guess is that an EV1 if available would be an additional vehicle for most of those that get one. Plug-in hybrids seemed to be the solution given at the end of the movie, and IMO that would provide the vehicle that could replace my current vehicle. Make it a hybrid diesel plug-in Tacoma please. Resources aren't saved if there are tens of millions of EVs that require an additional garage space. I wondered what vehicle normally takes up the other space in Peter Horton's suspiciously large empty garage, certainly something more spacious than the EV1.

Glad to see the elderly battery inventing couple seems to be doing well, I wish I used enough electricity to take advantage of their solar panels, but with an average monthly electric charge of less than $40 the math hasn't worked yet.

I give it a thumbs up.

 

That's too funny Steve, what time were you there?
I saw the exact same movie at that theater on July 22, at 7:30pm.
Were you there?

I brought my 54 MPG City / 42 MPG Hwy Ford Escape HEV.
I drove 126 miles to see the movie, but averaged 43 MPG.

When I have talked to Ford engineering, they were told by the feds to make the Ford Escape Hybrid good, but not too good. They all know it was ( is) capable of 50 MPG but were asked to dial it down a bit. Wonder why? The movie helps it make more sense.

I didn't EVER see an EV1 commercial, and lived in Calif some of the time.
I didn't EVER see an EV1 on the road, but did see some public charging stations where yes, you could re-charge for free off the city's dime. They are still there ( as of Jan, 2006 ) just collecting dust now I guess.

I found it interesting that the first 2 years of EV1 had lead-acid batteries.
( Die-Hards, I think )
The next ( 3 years? ) had NiMH developed by a private company.
( the older folks in the movie )
Soon GM bought-out the small company.
Soon after that, the Oil Tycoons bought the battery rights from GM.
Interesting. No?

I found it facinating that not only GM, but Toyota intentionally destroyed 100's of brand-new EV's. Treated them like they were radio-active, and had them destroyed in secrecy.

I can see them ( cities and manufacturers ) not wanting to put up and maintain the public re-charging stations. But for Pete's Sake! Why take them, no PRY them out of the hands of people perfectly content charging them in their garage?

Good movie, eveyone should go see it.
EV's don't run for free by any means, and they DO create pollution ( from the power plant ) but just like hybrids, would be a HUGE advantage by not wasting fuel when stopped, or in slow & go conditions.

Did the EV1 have regenerative brakes? That was never mentioned.

It may take some effort to seek out this movie... but GO SEE IT!
-John

 

I went to the 2:00pm showing. I was surprised to not see a single hybrid in the parking lot.

I forgot to mention that at 3 times during the movie when there was footage of George Bush there were a few people that started yelling rudely. I don't like Bush but give us a break.

 

I can't wait to see this movie, it's comming out here on August 4th. I'm helping plan an event around the premier with the local Electric Auto Association. We will probably have at least 5 electrics there that night.

I wish I had been a bit older when the EV1's were available (turned 16 in 2000), I'd have tried to get one. I never got to ride in one, but know I'd take one in a heart beat if I could get one now. I did however get to ride in a S-10 electric, which had the same drivetrain as the EV1, though I heard toned down a bit. It accelerated very nicely, had ice cold air (and I mean COLD), and handled well too despite the weight. I converted a 92 Saturn with an almost blown engine to electric last summer.

The EV1 as drivers put it was a "rocket ride." 0-60 was advertised as 9 seconds, but independent tests by owners put it closer to 7 seconds. Top speed was 80mph, which was limited by motor gearing/rpm's in it's only gear. A prototype EV1 in 1994 (I think that was the year) set a land speed record of 183mph. I've seen the video of this and it's wierd, you just hear the car breaking through the wind and moving by in a flash. Electrics are deffinitely more than capable of high performance. For example the AC Propulsion Tzero does 0-60 in 4 seconds, John Wayland's "White Zombie" will do 0-60 in 3.5 seconds and run a low 12 second quarter mile to boot:
http://www.plasmaboyracing.com/whitezombie.php
So EV's do not have to be slow.

And yes the EV1 had regenerative braking. Beyond that it had brake by wire for it's rear brakes. GM had to get a special waiver from the federal government in order to be able to do this. For 1996 it was a very advanced car. The first generation had a Delco lead acid battery pack, which didn't fair so well overall. After those they switched to a Panasonic lead acid battery pack for a Generation 1.5 version. These not only had more range, but better cycle life as well. I think some of the original cars were converted to the Panasonic packs. The second Generation EV1's got a little interior make over, a more efficient drivetrain, plus slightly lighter Nickel Metal Hydride batteries made by Onovics. These cars had an EPA rated range of about 140 miles, most people saw 100+ miles real world range.

While I haven't personally seen the situation for public charging in California, I've investigated it extensively here, and there's a good bit of it remaining. While true it's mostly collecting dust and spider webs. With my conversion I've lucked out becaue most of the charging sites have Avcon connectors (which are just glorified 240volt outlets with an expensive special connector, but I can charge off of them) in addition to the large paddle charges the EV1's used. In California the RAV4 EV's were actually sold, and the lease's are now offered to be extended or bought out due to the don't cruch groups efforts. They use a small paddle inductive charger (something Toyota and GM agree'd on to standardize before pulling the plug on the whole thing). If you check out www.evchargernews.com there are listings of free public charging and where it's at and they have a list for I was there reports where people can report when they used the charging and if there is a problem with any of the equipment. Aside from the occasional damage due to vandalism the charging equipment is pretty reliable. I'm yet to find an inductive paddle charger that doesn't seem opperational, and only one conductive Avcon connector which couldn't be fixed by cleaning the contact tips really well.

OK, my rant's over, go see the movie. I know I'm anxiously waiting to see it.

 

I drove an EV1 back when my company was leasing one. I took it home one weekend and put about 150 miles on it.

It was VERY FAST off the line, because of the instant and available torque of the electric engine. One of the owners who drove it here was always telling us about how he "raced" people off red lights !! He never lost !!!

It was a very nice little car. I loved it, and I still love the concept of EVs. We wanted BADLY to keep ours, but GM recalled the leases and we had to give it up.

We had it for about 10 months, and we used it in our "trip reduction program" and as a company delivery vehicle.

It's a shame and a travesty what happened to that car and the BILLIONS of tax-payer-subsidized dollars that were wasted. A real failure of vision.....

PS.....Something else that came to mind is this - we did not think there was any "rush" to our EV1 lease. We fully expected at the end of the lease to be able to purchase the car. We thought the EV1 was here to stay, and there was no clue it was a temporary thing until it was too late.

 

Anyone have any listings of when this is making its way to the north? All of the dates listed on the site are for the US. I saw something somewhere about it opening in Toronto on July 14th, but haven't heard of it getting any closer, or available on a larger scale...