AI
Friday, August 17, 2007 2:05:35 AM
Ummm, more pleasant than the bare azzures we bared
from car windows in an, ummmmm .. fun time at uni.
It's a little, economical energy saving beauty and nice that finally
the "for profit only" mentality has been moved a bit out of the way.
They have been a long time, a longer than it should
have been time, in coming .. hope this is of interest.
True Story of the EV1
There are a lot of mistakes and untruths in stories about the amazing electric EV1, the car that won the enduring love of so many former drivers in its brief 6 years of existence. The following is the true account, which you will be able to comment on for corrections or recollections, or for how your feelings were smashed when the beautiful EV1 cars were taken away and killed.
The EV1 originated from the GM Sunraycer, a solar-powered Electric car. Using a $3 million budget, a prototype all-electric battery-powered version was delivered by 1989.
* Prototype EV1 delivered to GM in 1989 for $3 million.
* Electric cars are much easier to design, having basically only one moving part. There is no clutch, gearing, oil changes, smog check, pistons, rings, valves, crankshaft, flywheel, rods, wrist pins, etc., etc.
* The only complicated part of an EV is the motor controller, basically a bunch of electronic stuff that is cheap and lasts forever.
This prototype was driven into the L.A. Auto Show in 1990 by former GM Chairman Roger B. Smith (of "Roger and Me" fame), intended to prove that GM had good intentions about reducing emissions.
The California Air Resources Board ("CARB"), under pressure from the federal Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA"), was trying to reduce car emissions "by 10%" with a deadline of 2003.
The Zero Emission Vehicle ("ZEV") provided one easy, bureaucratic method for doing so: CARB simply "mandated" that "10%" of all cars sold by 2003 must be ZEV!
For years, auto makers, their industry association (then the American Automobile Manufacturers Association, "AAMA"; later Japanese makers were allowed to join and it became the Auto Manufacturers Assn., "AMA"), with oil companies and their industry associations (Western States Petroleum, "WSP"), had been fighting any sort of increase in miles-per-gallon ("mpg") or decrease in refinery or auto emissions.
* CARB now, it seemed, had the facts required to force GM to produce the EV1, and to force other car makers to follow with other ZEV.
CARB is in a weak legal position, because interstate commerce is regulated by the federal government, not the states, and the only way CARB has power over autos would be under mandate by the EPA, which is charged with enforcing the federal Clean Air Act ("CAA").
* If the EPA chose not to enforce the CAA, then California would be off the hook, and could drop the ZEV mandate.
* In effect, California is dependent on federal policies for any leverage over auto companies.
* This proved fatal to the ZEV mandate.
Each two years, a review was held by CARB of the ZEV mandate, and auto makers' progress toward their ZEV targets. Instead of progress, auto and oil industry groups testified that the goal was unreachable, impossible, and that no one wanted an Electric car like the EV1.
In 1994, they engaged a public relations firm run by Joe Cerrell to fight the ZEV mandate. A letter writing campaign, bused-in retirees, focus groups, and other tricks were used to try to derail the ZEV mandate.
After years of acrimony, CARB and the AMA reached, in 1996, a Memorandum of Agreement ("MOA") which seemed to be an amicable solution. Unfortunately, this MOA was kept secret from the public, which was unable to review it.
As events proved, the AMA had a couple of nasty surprises in store for CARB. First, one ploy to weaken the Mandate was the idea of trading off pure ZEV production for hybrids, and giving "PZEV" (partial ZEV credit) for better gas mileage. This led to an injunction since it infringes on the federal government's sole power to regulate MPG and CAFE standards. In the aftermath, auto makers used the hiatus to dismantle their battery ZEV programs and crush the EVs. Thus, CARB should have resisted oillie pressures, and stuck to requiring ZEV production. Their conciliation proved a weakness. The second shock was revealed at the CARB 2000 ZEV review: the MOA, contrary to the ideas of CARB, did not commit the AMA to a "good faith effort" to build a market. Rather, it only committed them to put out a certain number of ZEV cars for a certain number of years. The fate of the ZEV was not spelled out in the MOA:
* CARB staff thought the ZEV program would expand, and ZEV numbers on the road would increase; while
* AMA intended, and the MOA text permitted, the ZEV to be taken back and crushed after the demonstration period ended.
This is why GM, Honda, Ford, Nissan and, for a while, Toyota were able to keep control of the ZEV and not sell to the public (their bete noir!) and were able to get away with never offering their ZEV for sale. It was only Toyota, from Mar. to Nov. 2002, which offered the last 328 Toyota RAV4-EV for sale to the general public.
* Only Toyota honorably sold a production EV on the free market, without trick or artifice, although there were only 328 to sell. The gas RAV4-EV had undergone two design changes by 2002, so any further production, beyond the 328 sold, would need a complete re-design of the RAV4-EV's 500 EV-specific parts. Toyota abruptly canceled the RAV4-EV sale, stopped taking deposits, and spent months finding the parts and car bodies to fulfill unexpectedly heavy orders. All orders were filled, but it took a while.
EV1 clean cars and loving drivers
EV1 wait anxiously for ABC news crew to publicize the danger, but it was in vain. Not even the news could save them from being destroyed. In the background, dozens of EV1 drivers do their best to try to save their beloved cars.
GM only leased the EV1 under special conditions that removed the purchase option. If you didn't sign the lease, you didn't get the car: as one Honda Honcho stated, "...they don't care whether you take it or not, they are losing money on each one...".
AND THAT IS ONLY 3.5CM OR ONE QUARTER OF IT .. tic tic tic
http://www.ev1.org/
from car windows in an, ummmmm .. fun time at uni.
It's a little, economical energy saving beauty and nice that finally
the "for profit only" mentality has been moved a bit out of the way.
They have been a long time, a longer than it should
have been time, in coming .. hope this is of interest.
True Story of the EV1
There are a lot of mistakes and untruths in stories about the amazing electric EV1, the car that won the enduring love of so many former drivers in its brief 6 years of existence. The following is the true account, which you will be able to comment on for corrections or recollections, or for how your feelings were smashed when the beautiful EV1 cars were taken away and killed.
The EV1 originated from the GM Sunraycer, a solar-powered Electric car. Using a $3 million budget, a prototype all-electric battery-powered version was delivered by 1989.
* Prototype EV1 delivered to GM in 1989 for $3 million.
* Electric cars are much easier to design, having basically only one moving part. There is no clutch, gearing, oil changes, smog check, pistons, rings, valves, crankshaft, flywheel, rods, wrist pins, etc., etc.
* The only complicated part of an EV is the motor controller, basically a bunch of electronic stuff that is cheap and lasts forever.
This prototype was driven into the L.A. Auto Show in 1990 by former GM Chairman Roger B. Smith (of "Roger and Me" fame), intended to prove that GM had good intentions about reducing emissions.
The California Air Resources Board ("CARB"), under pressure from the federal Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA"), was trying to reduce car emissions "by 10%" with a deadline of 2003.
The Zero Emission Vehicle ("ZEV") provided one easy, bureaucratic method for doing so: CARB simply "mandated" that "10%" of all cars sold by 2003 must be ZEV!
For years, auto makers, their industry association (then the American Automobile Manufacturers Association, "AAMA"; later Japanese makers were allowed to join and it became the Auto Manufacturers Assn., "AMA"), with oil companies and their industry associations (Western States Petroleum, "WSP"), had been fighting any sort of increase in miles-per-gallon ("mpg") or decrease in refinery or auto emissions.
* CARB now, it seemed, had the facts required to force GM to produce the EV1, and to force other car makers to follow with other ZEV.
CARB is in a weak legal position, because interstate commerce is regulated by the federal government, not the states, and the only way CARB has power over autos would be under mandate by the EPA, which is charged with enforcing the federal Clean Air Act ("CAA").
* If the EPA chose not to enforce the CAA, then California would be off the hook, and could drop the ZEV mandate.
* In effect, California is dependent on federal policies for any leverage over auto companies.
* This proved fatal to the ZEV mandate.
Each two years, a review was held by CARB of the ZEV mandate, and auto makers' progress toward their ZEV targets. Instead of progress, auto and oil industry groups testified that the goal was unreachable, impossible, and that no one wanted an Electric car like the EV1.
In 1994, they engaged a public relations firm run by Joe Cerrell to fight the ZEV mandate. A letter writing campaign, bused-in retirees, focus groups, and other tricks were used to try to derail the ZEV mandate.
After years of acrimony, CARB and the AMA reached, in 1996, a Memorandum of Agreement ("MOA") which seemed to be an amicable solution. Unfortunately, this MOA was kept secret from the public, which was unable to review it.
As events proved, the AMA had a couple of nasty surprises in store for CARB. First, one ploy to weaken the Mandate was the idea of trading off pure ZEV production for hybrids, and giving "PZEV" (partial ZEV credit) for better gas mileage. This led to an injunction since it infringes on the federal government's sole power to regulate MPG and CAFE standards. In the aftermath, auto makers used the hiatus to dismantle their battery ZEV programs and crush the EVs. Thus, CARB should have resisted oillie pressures, and stuck to requiring ZEV production. Their conciliation proved a weakness. The second shock was revealed at the CARB 2000 ZEV review: the MOA, contrary to the ideas of CARB, did not commit the AMA to a "good faith effort" to build a market. Rather, it only committed them to put out a certain number of ZEV cars for a certain number of years. The fate of the ZEV was not spelled out in the MOA:
* CARB staff thought the ZEV program would expand, and ZEV numbers on the road would increase; while
* AMA intended, and the MOA text permitted, the ZEV to be taken back and crushed after the demonstration period ended.
This is why GM, Honda, Ford, Nissan and, for a while, Toyota were able to keep control of the ZEV and not sell to the public (their bete noir!) and were able to get away with never offering their ZEV for sale. It was only Toyota, from Mar. to Nov. 2002, which offered the last 328 Toyota RAV4-EV for sale to the general public.
* Only Toyota honorably sold a production EV on the free market, without trick or artifice, although there were only 328 to sell. The gas RAV4-EV had undergone two design changes by 2002, so any further production, beyond the 328 sold, would need a complete re-design of the RAV4-EV's 500 EV-specific parts. Toyota abruptly canceled the RAV4-EV sale, stopped taking deposits, and spent months finding the parts and car bodies to fulfill unexpectedly heavy orders. All orders were filled, but it took a while.
EV1 clean cars and loving drivers
EV1 wait anxiously for ABC news crew to publicize the danger, but it was in vain. Not even the news could save them from being destroyed. In the background, dozens of EV1 drivers do their best to try to save their beloved cars.
GM only leased the EV1 under special conditions that removed the purchase option. If you didn't sign the lease, you didn't get the car: as one Honda Honcho stated, "...they don't care whether you take it or not, they are losing money on each one...".
AND THAT IS ONLY 3.5CM OR ONE QUARTER OF IT .. tic tic tic
http://www.ev1.org/
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