General Motors EV1

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General Motors EV1
Image:GM EV.jpg
Manufacturer:General Motors
Production Years:1997 (Gen 1)
1999 (Gen 2)
Production Quanty:800+
Predecessor:Prototype: Impact
Class:Subcompact Battery Electric 2-seat commuter vehicle
Drive wheelsFront
Motor location:Front
Traction Motor:3-phase AC Induction
Controller cooling:Liquid
Charger:Outboard AC Magnecharge
Charging connector:6.6 kW Inductive paddle - requires specialized 220 VAC charging station
Charger cooling:Air
Opportunity charging:with portable 110vac charger carried in trunk (Gen 1 only)
Charge timeGen1: 5.5-6 hours
Gen2: 6-8 hours
Battery cooling:Gen1: air blower
Gen2: Vehicle air conditioner
Pack voltage:Gen1: 312 V
Gen2: 343 V
Battery type:26 modules:
Gen1: VRLA (Valve Regulated Lead Acid), 1310 lb
Gen2: NiMH, 1147 lb
Battery capacity:Gen1: 60Ah
Gen2: 77 Ah
Battery location:"T" (between and behind seats)
Range:Gen1: 55-95 miles
Gen2: 75-130 miles
Maximum speed:80 mph (computer limited)
Mileage:? miles/100 kWh

0.179 kWh/mi charged
0.373 kWh/mi charge cycle

Transmission:single speed reduction integrated with motor and differential
Axles:Halfshafts with constant velocity joints
Similar:ACP tzero
Honda EV Plus
Seating:Bucket seats for driver and one passenger
Included:Heat pump (heater/AC), power steering, power brakes, power windows, keyless entry pad, AM/FM CD player, Antilock Brakes, Airbags and Three-Point Belts for Driver and Passenger, Aluminum Wheels, Low Rolling Resistance Tires
MSRP:$33,995 to $43,995
This article is part of the General Motors automobile series.

The EV1 was the first battery electric vehicle produced by General Motors in the United States. The experimental cars were the only vehicles in the history of the company to bear the "General Motors" badge. GM leased over 800 EV1 cars (out of about 1100 manufactured - [1]) with the proviso that after the three-year leases were up, the cars reverted to the company. They were only available in California and Arizona and could only be serviced at designated Saturn dealers. The first generation EV1s used lead-acid battery batteries in 1996 (as model year 1997) and a second generation batch with nickel metal hydride batteries in 1999. As cars came off lease, they were refurbished and upgraded to second generation. GM spent more than $1 billion developing and marketing the EV1, much of which was defrayed by the Clinton Administration's (especially Al Gore's) $1.25 Billion Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) project[2][3], but the company claimed that it could not sell the car in enough quantities to make the EV1 profitable, despite long waiting lists and customers motivated enough to market the EV1 on their own dimes. The program was stopped in 2003. [4]

When the EV1 program came to an end, the cars were put into storage at a facility in Burbank, California. GM donated a number of EV1s to colleges and universities for engineering students, and to several museums, including the Smithsonian Institution. In March 2005, the last 78 in storage were transferred to the GM Desert Proving Grounds in Mesa, Arizona, for "final disposition", crushing and recycling, despite an outcry and public protests. Over 100 people offered to purchase the electric cars, but GM refused, citing lack of availability for the cars' unique parts for repairs and potential liability claims. According to a GM spokesperson the electric-car venture was not a failure, although they were doomed when the expected breakthrough in battery technology never materialized to give the cars greater range between rechargings[5].

Some people outside of GM have speculated that the EV1 program was intended to fail from the start, to demonstrate that electric vehicles could never work. These claims cite inadequate marketing and artificially constrained supply (the factory where EV1s were manufactured was shared with other models; GM executives repeatedly denied requests to allocate more factory time to their production - which resulted in a lack of supply, which prevented them from leasing more than they had, which figure was then claimed as evidence of poor customer demand despite lack of supply and the waiting lists for new EV1s) as evidence, as well as the insistence on destroying all EV1s rather than selling them at the termination of the program - which, according to these claims, was imposed by upper management when the program threatened to prove successful anyway. Alleged motivations vary, but the most common one is kickbacks from the oil industry. These claims do not suggest any deliberate sabotage by rank-and-file GM employees involved with the program. This conspiracy theory would require direct evidence as to the true motivation of GM's upper management to prove or disprove. [6] The truth of the matter is that the EV1 was designed to comply with the crash-safety and equipment regulations in effect at the start of the project in the early 1990's. By the time the cars came to market in 1996, the designs no longer conformed to current regulations, as GM felt the cost of reengineering late in the development cycle could not be defrayed by a limited run of experimental vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) granted a temporary exemption to General Motors for the duration of the EV1 program, with the understanding that the cars be permanently removed from road use once the lease program had been phased out. Since the EV1 was never compliant with safety regulations for 1997-1999 model cars, it was never legal for sale or even high-volume leasing, hence the reason why production levels were strictly limited and why the cars could not be sold second-hand at termination. [7]

Image:GM EV1.jpg

The cars got 55 to 95 miles (90 to 150 km) per charge on lead-acid batteries and 75 to 130 miles (120 to 210 km) on a charge with nickel-metal hydride batteries. Recharging took as much as eight hours for a full charge (although you could get an 80% charge in 40 minutes [8]). The battery pack consisted of 26 12-volt lead-acid batteries holding 67.4 MJ (18.7 kWh) of energy or 26 13.2-volt nickel-metal hydride batteries which held 95.1 MJ (26.4 kWh) of energy.

A modified EV1 prototype set a land speed record for production electric vehicles going 183 mph (295 km/h) in 1994.

The price for the car used to compute lease payments was $33,995 to $43,995, which made for lease payments of $299 to over $574 per month. Price also depended on available state rebates. The cost for the electricity used to power the car was computed to be 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of the equivalent amount of gasoline.

Not all of the EV1s have been destroyed. Some can still be seen on the road, most commonly in Warren, Michigan, where GM's tech center is located [9]. In late November 2005, Saturn salespeople contacted some former EV1 owners, seeking to get these remaining EV1s traded in for 2006 Saturns. Many owners of these vehicles are most likely GM employees.

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Personal accounts & news stories

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