Thread to talk about EVs

Because none of the drivers had a choice not to turn them in (unless you wanted to run away with the thing to Canada or Mexico.... can't go into details!). The vehicles were always lease only. GM would not extend the leases and GM would not sell the cars at the end of the lease (though many of us presented GM with checks for the residual value - several millions of dollars total). All leases were called in at the end, and all working cars were crushed.

The movie "Who Killed the Electric car" that will deput at Sundance this year will tell the story.

See the trailer here: http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/
(oh... dang. Looks like they took the trailer down for now)

 

If you're really, really serious and can deal with shipping the vehicle, and have cash money RIGHT NOW, I can likely find one for you. Finding one sitting around with a for sale sign on it just ain't gonna happen though! When the Rav4's come up for sale, they're gone in about 30 seconds... usually to people who are already in the EV loop as it were.

The Ranger is the least refined vehicle of the bunch I've had. 50 miles range on lead-acid batteries. One like mine but with 3x as many miles just sold on Ebay for $15k. I expect to do at least that well.

 

Thanks for the info. I don't have the cash to do it right now (it all went into my Prius), but when we replace my fiancees car (03' focus) in a couple of years (we will need a biger car soon...) we are seriously considring an EV. The truck's range is a little bit limiting but if I keep my current job then I might give her my prius and I can drive the truck to work. SHe has 30 miles one way commute so we need at least 60-80 miles real world freeway range.

I spoke with her about the scion this weekend and she agreed that a price "up to 40" for a true EV car (even a scion) would be considered if it has performance to keep up with traffic (up to speed limit) and a range of ~100miles. (and some reasurance that battery will keep for 100k miles at least).

But after reading about who own battery patents (oil companies) and how likley they are to sue everyone (they already won against Toyota!) it's unfortunatley unlikley that an EV car can happen at the moment :-(. I'm not a conspiracy person but looking at the actions of the battery patent holder sure looks like "smart business" for big oil.

 

I'm trying my best to keep up. Any info I put up on the forum is for anybody's consumption. Sorry if it seemed like I was ignoring you! Not the case. I'm pretty busy here trying to sell two cars and buy another while researching the hell out of the new one... and trying to live my life!

Here's the HTML page that I've made for the truck so far. It has not yet been released to the wilds though!

http://www.darelldd.com/ev/ranger_sale_text.htm

Wouldn't quite be the best of all worlds in that the EV mode is still limitd to the 34mpg, and low throttle settings. Better than nothing, but nowhere near real EV performance.

 

Here is the "confidential" blurb from ACP: http://www.darelldd.com/ev/docs/scion_ev2.doc

Surely you jest... performance to keep up with traffic? An ACP vehicle would make the Prius look like a moving road-block. 0-60 would be in 6-7 seconds, and range would be well over 100 miles. These won't be "sufficient" performance. They will be stellar.

Yeah - that opens a whole new can of worms! The good news is that they don't own the Li-ion patents.

 

BTW, if anybody is wondering about my new Avatar - I just got a new T-shirt, and took it for a drive last weekend. Here's one of the larger images:

[Broken External Image]:http://www.darelldd.com/ev/images/rav4/rav_misc/petrocide07.jpg

 

I don't doubt that performance can be built to exceed any ICE car, the amount of tourque available from an electric motor is amazing and this]Yeah - that opens a whole new can of worms! The good news is that they don't own the Li-ion patents.

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Yeah, I didn't realize that this was going on. I wonder why car manufacturers don't whine more about it. Lookin at the secret compartment in the prius it sure looks like they at some stage where planninga true EV mode for the prius. Was the lawsuit the reason they didn't? If so why not whine about it more? They don't need to be friend with big oil. They don't need big oil (we the consumers do) so they could whine about it.

In the end it might not be bad. Li Ion is probably a better battery technology and I think the patents for these are more clear. In the end progress can't be stopped. I wonder what the environment impact of Li Ion battery is. I read that the Prius battery is actually not that harmful for the envirnment. I hope Li Ion can be recycled as well.

 

I I agree. I wish they could re-tool it to be 40 mph with some improved performance (yes it would require a lot more battery). That way I could be true EV in city traffic and use ICE on the freeway. Still after reading Darrell's page I realize how well the GM EV1 performed. Unfortunatley I wasn't mature enough when the EVs where sold to buy one. The RAV IV EV sure seems like a much more impressive car then the Prius! Toyota are you listening?

 

Thank you for your comments.

Then, why GM/Toyota had terminated to sell/lease the EV cars?
I can't understand the reason from your comments.

Ken@Japan

 

I think EV cars where/are very expensive to manufacture and I do think they all saw they could make a lot more money in the SUV/Truck market. I also think they where struggling with battery technology (not only patent infringements but also capacity in general as battery technology has improved a lot the last 10 years; I still wonder how well batteries age and cost to replace; it could also be hard to manufacture enough batteries for mass production; all these probles where/are solveable).
I do think it was short sighted to back out of the market, doing EVs would prove you a technology leader (you listing GM?) and today I think it would make you look good and give you a chance to get out of the slowing SUV market. Still EV's are not and will not be a huge market for the forseeable future; that said I think they would do even better in Japan and (maybe) Europe.

I'm interested in what Darell thinks.

 

?????
Did you mean to say 'aren't interested in...'?

 

In that case, I agree! Although on a huge scale, we would face similar problems as we do with vehicles powered directly by fossil fuels. Most electricity still comes from the burning of fossil fuels.