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GM EV1-fastlane Blog

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This is a local copy of Who Ignored the Facts About the Electric Car? - By Dave Barthmuss GM Communications - "Know the Facts" according to GM that is about the GM_EV1.


Who Ignored the Facts About the Electric Car?

By Dave Barthmuss GM Communications

The film EV Confidential: Who Killed the Electric Car? showcased the intense passion for GM's out-of-production EV1 electric vehicle. I understand why. It was great technology for its day, a great concept and a great car. GM was and is proud to have brought the electric vehicle concept as far as it did and further than any other electric vehicle project attempted by any other automaker around the globe. Sadly, despite the substantial investment of money and the enthusiastic fervor of a relatively small number of EV1 drivers - including the filmmaker - the EV1 proved far from a viable commercial success.

But the story for GM does not end with the final credits on the movie. I've been the person who has spent the last few years answering the questions of why GM discontinued the program. Although I have not seen the movie or received an advanced DVD as others have from the film's producers, I can tell you that based on what I have heard there may be some information that the movie did not tell its viewers. The good news for electric car enthusiasts is that although the EV1 program did not continue, both the technology and the GM engineers who developed it did. In fact, the technology is very much alive, has been improved and carried forward into the next generation of low-emission and zero-emission vehicles that are either on the road, in development or just coming off the production line. For example:

  • GM's two-mode hybrid system designed for transit busses have been placed in more than 35 cities across the U.S. and Canada. Perhaps many have seen these cleaner-burning diesel-electric mass transit vehicles. The buses use technology developed for the EV1, such as the regenerative braking system.
  • The Saturn Vue Green Line, which will hit showrooms later this summer, incorporates a new, more affordable gas-electric technology. The Saturn Vue Green Line will be priced at less than $23,000 and offer the highest highway fuel economy at 32 mpg of any SUV, hybrid or otherwise.
  • GM is co-developing with DaimlerChrysler and BMW Group a new two-mode hybrid system for passenger vehicles. This new two-mode hybrid technology will debut next year in a Chevrolet Tahoe full-size SUV, which will offer a 25 percent improvement in combined city and highway fuel economy when joined with other GM fuel-saving technologies. Technology born in the EV1 is incorporated into this new two-mode hybrid system.
  • GM's fourth-generation hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, which enhances the technology found in today's HydroGen3 fuel cell vehicle, (currently in demonstration fleets around the world), will be introduced later this year and will represent a leap forward toward a production ready version of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. For the longer term, GM sees hydrogen and fuel cells as the best combination of energy carrier and power source to achieve truly sustainable transportation. A fuel cell energized by hydrogen emits just pure water, produces no greenhouse gasses, and is twice as efficient as an internal combustion engine. Although hydrogen fuel cell technology was cast as a pie-in-the-sky technology by the moviemakers, GM is making great progress in fuel cell research and development and is on track to achieving its goal to validate and design a fuel cell propulsion system by 2010 that is competitive with current combustion systems on durability and performance, and that ultimately can be built at scale, affordably.

Add to all this GM's leadership in flex-fuel vehicles that run on clean-burning bio fuels such as corn-based ethanol and our new "active fuel management" system that shuts down half the engine's pistons at highway speeds to improve fuel economy, and we feel we are doing more than any other automaker to address the issues of oil dependence, fuel economy, and emissions from vehicles. And we are committed to do more.

Lastly, because the movie made some harsh criticisms of GM for discontinuing the EV1, let me set the record straight:

  • GM spent more than $1 billion developing the EV1 including significant sums on marketing and incentives to develop a mass market for it.
  • Only 800 vehicles were leased during a four-year period.
  • No other major automotive manufacturer is producing a pure electric vehicle for use on public roads and highways.
  • A waiting list of 5,000 only generated 50 people willing to follow through to a lease.
  • Because of low demand for the EV1, parts suppliers quit making replacement parts making future repair and safety of the vehicles difficult to nearly impossible.

Could GM have handled its decision to say "no" to offers to buy EV1s upon natural lease expirations better than it did? Sure. In some ways, I personally regret that we could not find a way for the EV1 lessees to keep their cars. We did what we felt was right in discontinuing a vehicle that we could no longer guarantee could be operated safely over the long term or that we would be able to repair.

In turn, GM engineers used EV1s for cold-weather testing to continue the technology transfer to hybrids and fuel cells. We also donated them to universities and museums. In fact, we donated an EV1 to the Smithsonian and are now being wrongly accused of a conspiracy with the museum because they removed the car for renovation of the National Museum of American History. I can assure you that this is nothing more than unfortunate timing.

So as right and as good as our intentions were, we understand that the moviemakers see them as wrong. We'll accept that criticism, but don't punish GM for doing a good deed. Rather, work with us and give us credit for taking a necessary first step in developing technologies that hold the potential to change the face of automobile transportation. That's what GM engineers are doing everyday.

Posted by Editor at June 23, 2006 10:41 AM


KNOW THE FACTS

GM offers more cars that get EPA-estimated 30 mpg or better on the highway-more than any other automaker*

In the first five months of 2006, GM sold nearly 500,000 vehicles that get EPA-estimated 30 mpg or better on the highway*

There are more than 2 million GM FlexFuel vehicles on the road today

By 2008, up to two million GM vehicles with V8 and V6 engines will feature Active Fuel Management, which improves fuel economy

GM earned the North/South American Gold Plant Quality Award for the fifth consecutive year

KNOW THE FACTS

GM invested more than $1 billion in the EV1 program, which included money for installing a charging infrastructure and for marketing the product.

Even with extensive publicity, award-winning advertising and customer incentives the Electric Vehicle program was not a commercially viable business.

GM leveraged advanced technology to create the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid. It will hit showrooms later this summer, incorporating a new, more affordable gas-electric technology.


Commentary by Pv

On 11/29/06, Paul Peavyhouse wrote:

Forgot link to 3/1/1998 article:

Maybe y'all have already seen this before, but this is this first time I have seen this 06/23/2006 posting on GM's blog about WKTEC: http://www.gm.com/company/onlygm/fastlane_Blog.html#EV1

Someone should copy the contents of that post to the seva web site, in case the post ever gets removed.

They continue to make some promising claims for the future; let's hold them to it!
They also continue to claim that they could only get 50 leasers out of a list of 5,000.
And they also claim to have spent over $1B on the EV1 program; why on earth would they not make more than 800 vehicles?
This 3/1/1998 article claims GM spent $400M since conception (pre-1990); Does this mean they spent >$600M from 1998 to 2006?
They also claim there are no more parts available or being manufactured.
EVBones' 1997 and 1998 S10 EVs use the same electronic parts as the EV1.
EVBones can still get the parts from GM from their inventory.
Admitedly, the quantities are very low (nearing extinction), but they are available.
As for why the manufacturers stopped making the parts...maybe GM's cutting the project might have something to do w/ that.