Answer To An Oft-Asked Question (Who killed the EV1?)

[Big Dave]

Who killed the EV-1?

It was suicide. Or maybe more accurately, a birth defect.

The batteries couldn't do the job.

At Witz' End: My night with range anxiety

There's a lot of effort here to do an electric car where some very smart cookies have failed. But no matter how good a car you build, you will be betrayed by lame batteries.

[SVOboy]

Not enough people ever owned the car to poison the market on EVs, I think.

[Ryland]

Someone killed the electric car? you mean the handful of EV1's that GM made, or the thousands of EV's that are still out there? one commen comment that I get from people about my EV, an EV that was part of the largest production of EV's in the last 100 years in the US is "I thought GM crushed all the electric cars" nope, sorry, they made around 1,100 of the EV1, check out EV album, I think they said they list 14,000 vehicles on there, neither of mine are on there so I can only assume that with all the other people out there with electric vehicles as well that only a fraction of the electric cars out there are listed, and they are dead because a few are gone?

[Big Dave]

...and the range of your EV is what?

[Frank Lee]

and how much range is needed?

[Big Dave]

More than forty miles.

A heater is mandatory.

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

Who killed the EV-1?

It was suicide. Or maybe more accurately, a birth defect.

Caused by abuse before, during and after pregnancy. I remember GM showing off new models of the EV1: new batteries, a hybrid version, etc. Everything that would make the car even more popular. Everything Toyota, Honda and others were able to offer when GM suddenly pulled out in a panic.

[Electric Frenzy]

I don't understand why everything has to start in CA and eventually roll out to the rest of the country IF it takes off. I know I'd instantly buy 2 apteras they day they go on public sale if I didn't have to jump through so many hoops to get one.

[mcmahon.craig]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

Who killed the EV-1?

It was suicide. Or maybe more accurately, a birth defect.

The batteries couldn't do the job.

So the EV1 was killed by the Ovonic NiMH batteries that, on the *experimental* Gen 2 mule, overheated and still *didn't* manage to strand some engineer after he got lost? A problem no one ever knew about because the *production* cars never had this problem?

This is like saying that recorded music would never work because Edison's wax cylinder wore out too fast. I'm not buying it.

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

But no matter how good a car you build, you will be betrayed by lame batteries.

Funny, I have 3 EV's - all are alive and well.

One of them is 32 years old.

One of them has driver AND passenger airbags and daytime running lights and passes all current standards.

Two of them are running on USED batteries.

NONE of them gets less than the equivelent of 130 MPG.

ALL of them run off renewable energy.

What's not to love?


Issues of range have FAR more to do with our culture than with technology. Suburbs, cars, and gasoline have a terrible co-dependent relationship.

If we had been driving electric vehicles all these years and somebody came out with gasoline cars, people would complain about how loud they are, how smelly and dirty and dangerous they are. They would never catch on!



PS: If batteries suck so much, how come everyone loves their hybrids?