RAV4 EV revisited

Last night I was watching a YouTube video about an EV-1 that had been donated to a University and was now being shown at an EV exhibition, what I found so weird is that GM destructively DISABLED these donted vehicles before its delivery to schools and then made them promise that it was NEVER to be used as an EV again! How WARPED is that?

I guess the EV-1 is begiining to grow on me now, although back then it didn't make any sense with gas at a buck-a-gallon and a 60-80 mile range. I love the contours of the vehicle, very sleek, and the employees involved with the project were very enthusiastic about it.

Oh well, I'm just glad I got our 2008 Prius.

 

There was one on display for a while at the Smithsonian that had not been "Destructively disabled", it only had the batteries removed because the Smithsonian would not accept it in an "altered" state. Sadly, it was removed from display about 2 years ago and was replaced by "Stanley", the the autonomous VW Tourag (sp?) that won the DARPA challenge years ago. I'm sure that it is still moth-balled in the vast storage warehouses of the Smithsonian just like the ark of the covenant. :hurt:

 

"I'm sure that it is still moth-balled in the vast storage warehouses of the Smithsonian just like the ark of the covenant. "

Is that what the new Indiana Jones 4 is about, finding the last intact EV-1 in captivity?

 

If I had a buck for every low mile rav4-ev I've bid on thru ebay since 2003, I'd have a nice part of the payment done ... even tho battery replacement / reconditioning will be an issue.

 

Here's another piece for the archive, the official DOE test sheet:
avt.inl.gov/pdf/fsev/eva/toyrav98.pdf (sorry can't link right now)

Rob

 

Whoa. What happend to my reply? Tried twice now!

Are the links the problem? Crazy.

Anyway... here is the relevant info from my site.

Let's try: evnut dot com/rav.htm

And: evnut dot com/ev1.htm

 

Ah! I guess that explains that entire wiki page paste above! Ever since the PC issues became serious, I just stayed away... didn't know what was going on!

 

Since getting our 08 Prius, I've become fascinated with the Hybrid setup and Electrics, so I bought "The car that could" and "Who killed the Electric Car" from Amazon. Wow, what a story! The book and the DVD compliment one another. I still cannot fathom WHY the EV1 HAD to be destroyed! What ever happened to the GM-Toyota NUMMI collaboration? It seems to be a long-range, deep-enough pockets quandry that has plagued GM since the 80's. Apparently the new Volt will be smooth and flowing, not angular Camaro-ish like the concept. It would be so neat to see a second gen EV1 (EV2?) with a Hybrid setup.

 

I've seen the movie but, haven't read the book. The movie is highly biased against GM for destroying the EV1s. GM had to rent the cars because not many people would buy them at 50K. They were loosing millions on the EV1 program. What should a company do with a product that looses money and has no chance of ever making money--get rid of it. That's what they did. The market did not generate the demand for the electric car at that time; the CARB regulation requiring 10% of cars sold in CA to have zero emission required the car manufacturers to make EV cars. The car companies got together and had the regulation canceled. The EVs of the nineties disappeared. In the next 10-20 years there will be a gigantic change in the auto market place caused by the rising fuel prices and the US car companies are going to miss the boat. There are 3 new EVs being sold--Tesla, Smart and Think--all being built outside the US.

 

i have seen the movie to and maybe you can recall that people wanted to pay good money for these cars and even except the fact that GM wil no longer service warranty them..
so there was no need to get rid of them!

 

I thought that was what GM said about hybrids when the Prius came out. Correct me if I am wrong here.

 

Emphasis mine.

Where the above argument is flawed is that we are talking about cars that were already on the road, being driven by people who were willing to pay additional money to keep them and to sign away any right to warranty or service, and which were worth nothing to GM. In fact, GM spent additional money to recall and crush them, when it could have reduced its losses by letting the leasees keep the cars.

This was clearly not a case of GM cutting its losses. This was GM taking extraordinary action, at great additional cost, to get electric cars out of the public sight.

 

How much is GM spending on Hydrogen and Flex Fuel? And hybrids with small battery packs?

 

I also check eBay to see the Rav4 EV's, how much they go for, etc. I wish they still made them, they seem to be the best of all worlds. Ugh!

 

GM and the other American car companies are in bed with the oil companies--if you believe that, then what they do makes sense.

The irony, of course, is the current explosion in oil prices hurts the car companies and helps the oil companies. This is more evidence that oil prices right now are caused by overspeculation--not caused by the oil companies--though they benefit.

 

To say the auto makers are "in bed" with the oil companies suggests some kind of conspiracy. The truth is much more mundane: The auto makers own big chunks of stock in the oil companies and the oil companies own big chunks of stock in the auto makers, and they have interlocking boards of directors.

They are not "in bed with" each other. They ARE each other. The auto makers and the oil companies are, for all practical purposes, the SAME companies. You cannot "conspire" with yourself!

But the rising cost of oil will drive a return to EVs. The American auto makers may choose to ignore the writing on the wall and go out of business. But gasoline is on its last legs. Even our lovely Priuses will be obsolete soon.