http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/03...-on-gm-impact/

Check out the CNN report from 1991 on the GM Impact, sounds a lot like what we are hearing now from GM about the Volt. I'm more optimistic about electric cars this time around. #1 Battery Tech has improved a lot in 15 years. #2 the gasoline generator make the Volt more practical and will appeal to a wider crowd. #3 gas prices are going up, big time, unlike the 90's were prices dropped to the 80¢ range in many places.

 

Sounds like you answered your own question

 

I hate greenies. They seem to make GM out on the as the bad guys for the EV1. A lot of usefull technology, research, and experience came from that car.

 

Ya, you did kinda answer yourself...

This is so far from a repeat of the EV1, it's not even funny. Plus...the EV1 was actually a really good car...but people weren't so afraid of 'hurting the environment' back then, and gas-prices weren't as high - so they didn't sell. What would you do? They cancelled it, like any other car would have been cancelled if it didn't sell....

Buuuuut - the greenies got pissed. Go figure. You give the lion his steak, and he bites your hand off.

 

There's also the fact that they killed the EV1 *years* ago and nobody cared. How long did it take to make a movie about it? Seven years? And since the EV1 was in production till the movie was released gas nearly quadroupled in price!!

The EV1 was made in tiny numbers, and nobody wanted one. They could make the EV1 *NOW* and it would sell much better, even with its now out-dated technology. Instead they are going to give us something much better, and everybody cares.

And yes, you answered your own question.

 

What is interesting if you watch the video is that GMs original plan for the EV1 is almost the same. Unfortunately for the EV1 it was about 10 years ahead of its time.

 

Not to let the "GM killed the electric car" jerks off the hook or anything, but GM really, really mismanaged the phase-out of the EV1. Not only could they have kept the program rolling on a small budget for improved public relations, but they also would have retained a lot of the high-voltage knowledge that the company is scrambling to relearn.

Toyota's nurturing of the Prius over the past decade is pretty impressive. I think this is the result of differences in culture; American businesses tend to have a go-big-or-go-home attitude, where as Japanese businesses start small in new segments and grow it over time. One of our sales reps in Japan explains this by using the analogy of a sport fisherman vs. a farmer

 

GM got a ton of positive press for introducing the EV1, it only stands to reason that they would receive negative press for canceling it. Face it, they f-ed that one up badly from a PR standpoint.

 

Are they relearning it? or are they simply re-applying it? There's a million dollar question. Toyota has near no experience with electric-only vehicles. GM has extensive experience in that field.

It's the EV1 experience that paves the way for a Volt success, imho.

 

The EV1 program was 10 years ago. A lot of people have left in that time; the ones that stuck around were shuffled off to do something else. People forget a lot of details over the course of a decade. There's a lot of relearning going on.

Toyota, however, has a lot of experience with batteries and high-voltage power electronics. Their migration to a full-electric vehicle will be less painful than GM's.

 

Well actually the EV-1 was never for sale. The cars were leased. But when the leases ran out & some of the owners wanted to buy the cars because they liked them so much, GM said no. The car was an experiment to see how viable it would be to mass produce & maintain an all electric car. And in the end GM decided it wasn't worth pursuing anymore due to comparatively cheap gas & changes in the legislation that made the cars unnecessary. As was pointed out in another thread awhile back, GM wouldn't let them buy the cars because they didn't want the expense of maintaing them. Now, in retrospect, it's obvious that the car was ahead of it's time & GM has to re-invent the wheel, but I doubt that they're not doing it from scratch. I'm sure that all the data from the EV-1 program was saved. Another thing in the movie was that they showed it wasn't just GM abandoning vehicles of this nature at that time. Other car makers, including some from Japan, were as well.

 

I'll be curious to see how many of those fancy FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicles Honda is providing to real families via lease only they will let anyone buy. I'd bet zero, but find it unlikely anyone will make a movie about it.

 

Some people are forgetting the EV-1 was a true EV whereas the Volt will be a hybrid.

 

:iono: Depends on what you mean by Hybrid...do you count driving ALL the time on electricty a hybrid? Just askin'.

I consider a hybrid anything that alternates between the wheels being driven directly by some sort of IC engine and/or electric motor(s). (just so we're clear on what's in my head)

 

There are different types of hybrids. Some have electric motors that power the wheels and have ICEs to recharge the batteries, extending the vehicle's range. Others alternate between electric motors and ICEs powering the wheels. A true EV (electric vehicle) is powered entirely by electric motors which are powered by batteries or solar, etc., however they do not have a second drive motor. The Toyota Prius is a hybrid, the GM Volt is a hybrid, the EV-1 was not a hybrid, but a true EV.