 |
|
|
| |
Vigil for a Dead Idea? - EV1 Owners Suffer for Naught
|
4388 Reads
|
|
|
|
| |
 Once again, Detroit tried to re-think the American car, and botched the job. This isn't news, but (IMHO) the devotion of a handful of volt-heads is.
The General Motors EV-1 hit the streets with a hushed whine about 8-1/2 years ago. Damned by weak batteries, a 60-80-mile range and lukewarm audience acceptance for the $35,000 lease price, the car is no longer even on life support, despite the way die-hard fans keep rhythmically massaging its chest.
More than a year after GM recalled all the lease-only cars, a handful of EV-1 devotees has been standing vigil 24/7 in Burbank at the GM training center for two weeks now. They're trying to persuade the firm to save not just this slippery-looking electric car but also the commitment to electric vehicles in the future ...
|
|
Meanwhile, Ford Motor Co. withdrew plans to scrap its electric Ranger trucks after only a weeklong campaign by pissed-off owners in Sacramento. (Do they know something GM doesn't?)
An AP story in the Daily News notes of the vigil: GM said there wasn't enough support from the motoring public to make the EV1 program work, saying the automotive future lies in electric-gasoline hybrids and in fuel-cell cars powered from hydrogen.
"God love these people, but it's time to move on to other technology," GM spokesman Dave Barthmuss said.
"GM is not just crushing a car, but a symbol of what's possible," Reeves said. "I would offer $50,000 for one of these cars. I would re-mortgage my house for one of them. They're that good." Well, they're not really that good.
I got to ride in one on launch day eight years ago, assigned by the Times to take a 20-some-odd mile jaunt from the dealership in Ventura to the new owner's home in nether Camarillo.
The EV1 was (and is, I suppose) a damn nice car - if you look solely at ride, comfort, fit and finish. It's got solid bones and wicked-fast power off the line.
The guy - a flight attendant - had spent the afternoon giving test-drives around the dealer lot, and was happy to show it off to a genuine newspaper reporter.
But elation on his inaugural drive home turned to bitter regret as the juice began to run down and the car c-r-a-w-l-e-d up the Conejo Grade at 35 mph, and then limped into his garage on its last few milliamps at about 2 mph.
He plugged it in, trying to chatter on enthusiastically for me about his love of the EV1 design and the idea, but I could tell he was gonna tear the GM rep a new one by phone as soon as I left.
What's particularly sad about the current vigil in Burbank is that GM has been crushing EV1s since recalling them in 2003 and shows no sign of returning to electrical solutions.
Bottom line, I have to agree with GM - unless some genius comes up with a dramatic improvement on current battery technology (and the personal electronics industry has been grasping for one for decades) juice just won't work.
Hybrid tech saves gas, but isn't dramatically better than what we have - it still puts crap into the atmosphere and uses non-renewable fuels. Hydrogen may be the wave of the future, provided someone can quell everyone else's Hindenburg nightmares.
But for now, we could use better public transit and more people on bikes.
Meanwhile, can the rest of us gas-burners start using the EV spaces in all the parking lots?
(Spotted at Autoblog)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Posted by: mack_reed on Monday, February 28, 2005 - 06:15 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
