Smithsonian removes the EV1 exhibit

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Begreen @ Jun 17 2006, 12:16 AM) [snapback]272575[/snapback]</div>

I'm sure this has nothing to do with GM being one of their largest contributors. :angry: And I'm sure the release of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" is just coincidental was well.
I wonder if GM will crush the car that was in the Smithsonian?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Begreen @ Jun 16 2006, 09:16 PM) [snapback]272575[/snapback]</div>

I hear they are placing the SUV next to their new exhibit on "The falacy of global warming".

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(j24816 @ Jun 17 2006, 04:45 AM) [snapback]272614[/snapback]</div>

Hi All,

This is the automotive equivalent of replacing the "Spirit of St. Louis" exhibit with the "SST" (Super Sonic Transport) exhibit!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Begreen @ Jun 17 2006, 12:16 AM) [snapback]272575[/snapback]</div>

Seriously stupid move on the part of GM and the Smithsonian. And no, I don't buy that it's sudden disappearance only 10 days before the premiere of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" has nothing to do with it.

This kind of scandal press will only generate more interest in the movie. It will have the exact opposite effect than it's quiet and sudden removal intended. Now that people can't even see one at the museum, more people will go to see the movie to see one. I know I will.

The movie itself may create interest some in going to see the EV1 display in person among those who are unaware it's now been removed. It would be really cool if they movie producers could add a short update segment at the end of the film to report the removal of the EV1 from display. If they did this, they would avert potential museum goers from paying for admission and then not being able to see what they were looking for.

 

Naa, they tell you where the car is going, into "Storage" with the other antquies
Its one of those signs clear out the old technologies and replace with the new stuff

A museum spokeswoman says the museum simply needed the space to display another vehicle, a high-tech SUV.


Looks like a Saturn, doesn't it?

The Smithsonian has no plans to bring the electric car back on view. It will remain in a Suitland storage facility.

 

It is astonishing what a short time it was on display. The car represents so many automotive "firsts" that it'll be hard to find a more impressive modern automobile to fill the void. Add to the fact that it was a purely American endeavor, and you've got to wonder how it can be brushed aside so easily.

Designed in the late 80's it is still the world's most aerodynamic vehicle ever in "production." It is also the world's most efficent full-featured automobile ever to be in "production." The world's first production aluminum-framed vehicle... yadda, yadda. And it is the reason that GM holds about 60 key BEV patents. GM came out of the gate first, got it done, and took it all back. And now we can't even see this important bit of history at the biggest museum in the country? Makes no sense. We should probably remove the Wright Bro's plane as well just so nobody gets the silly notion that man can fly.

I actually don't hold much stock in this being a perfectly-timed move on GM's part to remove the car right before the movie is released. But then I've been wrong before.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Jun 17 2006, 12:14 PM) [snapback]272760[/snapback]</div>

GM may have pressured the Smithsonian, but I seriously doubt it. I do know that GM took the EV1 out of the exhibit in Epcot a few years back just after they took all the cars back.

If there's enough interest, the Smithsonian will display the car again. And for those concerned that people will pay their money and be disappointed that the EV1 isn't there ... isn't the Smithsonian still free?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Jun 17 2006, 12:14 PM) [snapback]272760[/snapback]</div>

Congressional pressure on the Smithsonian, which I am certain has nothing to due with campaign contributions, has become standard operating procedure when the exhibit does not toe he party line.

One specific case was when the magazine did an article on vegetarians and the cow industry got all bent out of shape. "...editors were subjected to the full wrath of the powerful meat lobby once the issue was released....", backed up by congressional friends.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_...238/ai_19684392



Another case where politics entered the picture was the ever popular issue of global warming,

"After grilling Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small yesterday about the changes to a photography exhibit on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ..."

"...Instead of appearing as planned under the museum's spacious main-floor rotunda, the photographs were shunted downstairs to a basement hallway venue between a loading dock and a freight elevator...."

"Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)...denied that he had exerted any influence on the Smithsonian on this issue..."

http://www.artistsnetwork.org/news11/news514.html


Swapping a EV exhibit for a SUV exhibit, and GM has no role?? Could be, but I doubt it...and the tracks are probably well covered.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(j24816 @ Jun 17 2006, 05:34 PM) [snapback]272842[/snapback]</div>

If the SUV had even the tiniest bit of tie-in with GM, I may have felt a wee bit different. I believe the SUV in squestion is a VW product? I have trouble buying it. Not as hard for me to believe that GM had a small part in having the EV1 removed - and the Super SUV just happened to be handy to fill the spot.

No sense in grasping for WHY it happened. This entire EV1 horror story is too convoluted to get a handle on any of it, really. The EV1 was to be the car of the future (this is what GM called it). I remember when my lease recall notice came, and I lamented about how the car of the future was very soon to be the car of the forgotten past. GM made a big deal of saying it was donating these great cars to many museums (in fact GM told us that the leases could not be extended to us lease holders BECAUSE they'd already promised so many to museums - see, they had their hands tied really. :sigh And now the biggest museum in the world is moving their car to storage after just a few short months. It really, really sucks. I'm just glad that my compatriot Phil Karn got to actually see his car on display at the Smithsonian before it was removed (amazingly, he was visiting, saw the car almost by accident, and then realized it was HIS VIN).

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Begreen @ Jun 17 2006, 07:52 PM) [snapback]272895[/snapback]</div>

Yup. I love this part:

Interesting that they don't even use GM's inflated number of $1 billion that they love to splash around.

 

I really cannot believe they did this. I can't believe that GM did what they did to the EV1 program. It seems as if someone is trying to make the EV1 dissapear from our minds, and for what? Even the S-10 EVs were recalled and killed off. As a GM fan and enthusiast I just cannot comprehend it.

At least I've got my EV1 brochure and "owners" manual.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(AndrewGS @ Jun 18 2006, 12:01 AM) [snapback]272930[/snapback]</div>

I'd hold on to that , should be worth $$$ in 10yrs to a auto literiture collector..

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusguy04 @ Jun 17 2006, 09:09 PM) [snapback]272932[/snapback]</div>

You wouldn't believe the crap I've got! Wine stoppers, key chains, sweaters, shirts, posters, coffee mugs, water bottles, mints... and yes, even a pristine owner's manual. I'm gonna build me a shrine one day.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(AndrewGS @ Jun 17 2006, 09:01 PM) [snapback]272930[/snapback]</div>

You nailed it. Hard to describe it in any other way. People often ask me, "why?" And all I can come up with is that they look like idiots to be saying how bad and unwanted the cars are if there are drivers out there driving them every day and *gasp* loving them.

The S-10 (basically a truck body on the EV1 drive-train) didn't get quite the same treatment. There are still a few left in the wilds. Somehow (and we can't really figure out how) a few of the S-10's got *sold* somewhere along the line, and they're still privately owned and driven. I see two of them in town somewhat regularly. They're about the only "production" cars that can still use the large paddle inductive chargers that used to be everywhere.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Jun 17 2006, 08:08 PM) [snapback]272906[/snapback]</div>

If one of the premier scientific organizations and museums in the United States has become little more than a marketing tool and political football, I think it is important for people to understand.

For what its worth, my opinion is that the EV1 was ahead of its time, and this is one business decision I don't fault GM for making.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(AndrewGS @ Jun 18 2006, 12:01 AM) [snapback]272930[/snapback]</div>

Hello, GM fan, wake up and smell the exhaust. I can believe anything about the stupidity and cupidity of GM management.

Examples: GM's subtle (documented) post WW2 campaign to eliminate electric trolleys and replace them with GM buses.

GM's response to the introduction of the G2 Prius, by stripping down a Prius and laughing in a press conference at the number of parts and complexity of the hybrid. In GM's experience complexity=unreliability (Certainly true if the parts are GM's)

GM's announcement that they would ignore hybrids and concentrate on developing the hydrogen car. (Like we're all supposed to wait till hydrogen stations spring up all over the world.

After hearing his recommendations on manufacturing quality products, GM sent Edwards Demming packing, and off to Japan, where he acquired sainthood and planted the seeds of GM's undoing.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_...24/ai_n15402592




<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(j24816 @ Jun 18 2006, 02:26 AM) [snapback]272964[/snapback]</div>

The decision to develop it or the decision to kill it? (Apparently they were for it before they were against it.)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(genalex @ Jun 18 2006, 02:48 AM) [snapback]272974[/snapback]</div>

I think the Smithsonian should crush the EV1 and put that back on display... after all Smithsonian's role is documenting history... and that's GM's history... :lol: :lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(AndrewGS @ Jun 18 2006, 12:01 AM) [snapback]272930[/snapback]</div>

I personally got over that problem a LONG time ago.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(genalex @ Jun 18 2006, 03:48 AM) [snapback]272974[/snapback]</div>

I don't think GM was ever "for" the electric vehicles in the first place. They were under a mandate from California. Their "error" was to actually make a viable electric vehicle that there was a real demand for.

 

I still have my EV1 brochure as well. If it had been offered on the east coast, I would have had one for sure. I wonder what they did with all of them. I was fortunate enough to sit in one when we were vacationing in Palm Springs. The Saturn dealer had one on the lot. It's amazing how similar the interior is to the Prius. Especially the instrument panel.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(AnOldHouse @ Jun 18 2006, 07:42 AM) [snapback]273020[/snapback]</div>

It is a confusing bit of complication... but GM made the EV1 prototype (Impact) before there was a mandate. The mandate was created because GM proved that an EV could be viable. They created their own worst enemy. Irony, anybody?

Couldn't have been put better. GM certainly found a permanent fix for that error though, didn't they?