Motoring Memories:General Motors EV1 Electric Car, 1996-1999

OMG

Is that guy from another planet or what ??

It's nice to point out about WKTEC but maybe he should have watched it.... before writing such things

 

Isn't it interesting how even 10 yrs later, the myths and misinformation live on.

According to the DOE's test data the EV1 NimH specs were:
0-50mph: 6.3-6.5s
range at 45mph: 220mi
range at 60mph: 160mi
driving cycle range: 140mi

http://avt.inl.gov/pdf/fsev/eva/ev1_eva.pdf

Rob

 

I must be from the same other plant because I agree 100%. I saw the movie and it sucked. Very misleading. The car was useless except for communting. Who drives at 60mph? What is the range at 75mph, the traffic flow on interstates! The CARB members who voted that zero emmission regulation should have been punished. It was a stupid idea then and still is. The Tesla is a rich man's toy. If the company can make money selling toys to the rich, that's good. The electric sedan will have the same fate as the EV1. I will be first to sign up for a PHEV-20+ because that car makes sense if priced in the 30sK. Long live the PHEV; kill th EV!!!

 

I commute ~35miles on a highway zoned 55mph at most. Based on the stories I read from CA lots of people on the freeways drive less than 60mph.

Although I would prefer to eat my own vomit before buying another GM car I have to admit that based on the performance quoted here and if the build quality matched my '89 and if the EV1 were available for sale in NJ I would buy one if reasonably priced.

 

Well, I'm glad I don't live on your planet. It amazes me how anybody who is so completely ignorant of the situation can have such strong feelings.

Lovely. It sucked because you don't agree with it? You have some secret information that shows it to be misleading? The premise was wrong? While the movie could not be complete in the time constraints, I'd like to hear which parts were misleading. I hope it wasn't during the 3.5 seconds in which I starred!

Right, as long as you don't let relevance get in your way. Two things here.
1. I think you missed the point that it was the best damn commute car in the world. And we Americans drive billions of miles for commuting. So what is the downside of driving a great car that pollutes less, and is fueled at home? In other words - a car that is FAR more convenient for the task than any liquid-fueled car.
2. Bullshit. We used ours for 90% of our driving. We'd have purchased the car if we were allowed to. It was best at commuting, and did just about everything else better than our gas cars as well.

 

LOL indeed. Driving less than 60 mph on CA freeways only happens when you're stuck in rush hour traffic. The speed limit on the highways I'm on (and for most around here) is 65 mph.

On highway 85 which I take to/from work w/a limit of 65 mph, I do 67 - 75 mph. Those doing 65 mph on the highway had better keep right else there'll be a lot of angry drivers following you.

Years ago, I was in LA (also lived there for 4.5 years) and I was doing 70+ mph in a 55 mph part of highway 5 in I believe the 2nd slowest lane. People were still passing me left and right.

 

You know, I can't help but wonder what kind of country we'd have (from an oil economy standpoint) if we had cars like the EV1 AND we actually drove at the posted speed limits? Of course we'll never know because GM is busy building Cadillacrap with 500 HP engines that "turn us on" when we turn them on.... Such B.S.

I don't understand why we all have to drive 10 to 15 MPH faster than the posted limits - if you need to get to work earlier, what's wrong with starting sooner?

I'm surprised at the "badge of honor" that speeding has become.

 

Saying that WKTEK was, "Misleading ... Sucked ... etc" is conclusary. Next time try saying, something like, it was this way or that way, "Because of the following ... " ... and then say why you believe what you believe, otherwise you really aren't saying a thing. That way if you're wrong, someone can help you to understand what's right.
Think what ever you like about EV's tho you don't say whether you have any reasons. Each person who leased the EV1, LOVED them, and the thousands of us who TRIED to lease (even though I'd rather have bought it ) the EV1, because I loved it after I got to drive it, had to go through a ton of nonsense personal info gleaning that folks normally don't have to do, just to lease a car. The same GM spent less than 1/10 of the ad budget on the EV1 than they already have spent on the Volt. The same GM that said, "No one want's EV's" can't explain why they all got snapped up. The same GM can't explain why they're having so much difficutly trying to build the VOLT with a 40 mile range, when the EV1 & it's batteries had about 3X that range. The same GM denied there were thousands on a waiting list for the EV!, untill it was prooven they were liars. THAT's why GM sucks. See? that's the difference between making a conclusary statement, versus saying WHY you think what you think. So give it a try.

 

I lived in the Seattle area for 7.5 years. The speed limit there is 60 mph on most highways I drove on. People up in that area drive slow and don't understand the concept of left lane == passing lane/fast lane nor yielding when people are piling up behind you.

I-5 between the Bay Area and LA has a 70 mph speed limit (or possibly even higher, I forget).

 

"Everyone else is being an donkey" is no excuse. There's a
lane protocol, and it's much more of a challenge to most people
to figure out the best way to use it than to simply mash a
pedal and cram up right behind the car ahead and wonder why
they're not going faster. But americans no longer remember what
the real challenges are, after having it hammered into their
heads that owning a bigger SUV than the other guy fixes everything.
.
_H*

 

You're right, who spends much of any time commuting anyway

Americans currently commute ~900,000,000,000 (900B) miles per year. At our average of ~20mpg, thats 45,000,000,000 (45B) gallons of gas, and the EPA estimates an additional 2,300,000,000 (2.3B) gallons is wasted by commuters sitting in traffic. Even if EVs could only be used for commuting we'd cut ~35% off our total annual motor vehicle fuel consumption of 135,000,000,000 (135B) gallons.

Beyond that its been well proven already that there are very few people out there who actually drive more than ~60-80 miles a day on a regular basis (despite that we all seem to think we're in the few % that do). The average miles driven per year in the US is 13,500, which works out to about 37 miles per day. The average trip speed in the US is 32.2mph. The average trip distance is <12 miles. Sure their are times you need to go farther, but does it make sense that every car you own needs that capability? When we finally have PHEVs with an optional gas engine, I think you'll find a lot of people finally realizing that the gas engine is expensive and unnecessary, especially if you can trade it for more battery range, and lower maintainance.

At 75mph (vs. 60), the EV1 like most cars would probably have lost ~20-30% of its efficiency. That would have reduced its constant speed range to a mere 112 to 128 miles. Strangely enough, many Prius drivers have made an amazing discovery. It is possible to drive 60-65mph on the freeway. Personally I would not have believed this possible a year ago. When you realize you can reduce your fuel use/cost by 10% by driving 5-10 mph slower a funny thing happens.

Rob

Av miles per year:
Average Annual Miles per Driver by Age Group
Commuter miles percentage and rush hour waste:
BWC: About the Program - About Best Workplaces for Commuters
Total vehicle fuel consumption:
HIGHWAY USE OF MOTOR FUEL - 2005
Total Miles Driven:
Americans Drove More Than 3 Trillion Miles in '06 | Occupational Health & Safety
Av Trip Length:
Highway Statistics 2006 - Average Vehicle Trip Lengths - 2006 - Table NT-5
Av Trip Speed:
Highway Statistics 2006 - Number of Vehicle Trips by Time of Day - Table NT-3

 

Damn..just damn GM.

 

Thanks for the specs. If someone can/will build a car with this level of performance and sell it at a reasonable price then I'm interested in buying one.

 

I like to put this a little differently:

The same GM that claimed 100+ miles of EV range just wasn't enough to fulfill drivers' needs, while today they say that 40 miles of EV range means that most drivers will never need to use gas.

 

just saw on news gm reported a 38.7 billion dollar loss for 2007... not surprised especially when considering decisions like this