Quote:
Originally Posted by Number 3
I was working at the Milford Proving Grounds years ago in a bay next to a guy working on the EV1. It was a cold February day. "How far would that go on a day like today?", I asked. "About 15 miles", he answered back.
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That's why they were only available for lease in warmer climates. Here's a couple of C&P's from Wikipedia ( I'm lazy, don't want to type it all myself
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"The EV1 was made available through limited lease-only agreements, initially to residents of the cities of Los Angeles, California and Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. EV1 lessees were officially participants in a "real-world engineering evaluation" and market study into the feasibility of producing and marketing a commuter electric vehicle in select U.S. markets undertaken by GM's Advanced Technology Vehicles group. The cars were not available for purchase, and could be serviced only at designated Saturn dealerships. Within a year of the EV1's release, leasing programs were also launched in San Francisco and Sacramento, California, along with a limited program in the state of Georgia."
Also a big part of why they bothered to spend the billion dollars on the limited "experiment" was they wanted to continue to sells cars in California.
"The decision to mass-produce an electric car came after GM received a favorable reception for its 1990 Impact electric concept car, upon which the design of the EV1 drew heavily. Inspired partly by the Impact's perceived potential for success, the California Air Resources Board subsequently passed a mandate that made the production and sale of zero-emission vehicles a requirement for the seven major automakers selling cars in the United States to continue to market their vehicles in California."
And a quote from another article:
"According to GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, his worst decision of his tenure at GM was 'axing the EV1 electric-car program and not putting the right resources into hybrids. It didn’t affect profitability, but it did affect image.' CEO Wagoner repeated this assertion during an NPR interview with Michelle Norris after the December 2008 Senate hearings on the U.S. Auto Industry bailout request."
Believe it or not I did a short contract stint (about 10 months) at a plant that Delco/Delphi leased in Indianapolis that built the EV1's battery packs. They produced the "T" shaped EV1 lead-acid battery packs and while I was there watched one of the guys building one of the first nickel-metal hydride protoype packs. I worked on the team that built GM's first hybrid prototypes using a Pontiac Grand-Am and Oldsmobile Achieva that we modified. They also built the GM electric and hybrid buses there. Right before I left we got the Achieva running and all got to take it for a short drive around the parking lot (until the fasteners backed out on the second clutch pack and we had to shut it down). The Grand-Am was more of a "show car" that we shipped all over for them to show off. So GM actually had a running hybrid prototype in the mid '90's. Also while I was there one day they brought in the Impact land speed record car (a little over 183 MPH) a took a bunch of pictures of the developement teams with it since the batteries were assembled there, handed out a bunch of press photo's with all the info on the back. I have a couple at home somewhere.