General Motors EV1
The General Motors EV1 was an electric car built in series from General Motors. It was planned in response to a 1990 statute enacted by California law to reduce emissions and launched in 1996 on the market.
Formation
The California CARB legislation of 1990 ( Clean Air Act and zero emission mandates), stipulated that by 1998 at least two percent, and by 2003, ten percent of newly registered cars should be emission-free. Therefore, GM as well as all other major automotive manufacturer was forced to drive the development and testing of electric cars. GM was able to build it on a self- developed by plant engineers test vehicle, which was presented as a prototype of " Impact" in 1990 with exceptionally large media response. The idea of the impact at a time when the California Air Resources Board ( CARB) developed the new Low Emission Vehicle program was probably the trigger why the demand for " zero emission vehicles " ZEVs was taken. GM developed from the impact of the two-seat, battery - electric-powered car " EV1 " ( Electric Vehicle 1). The EV1 was the first and only vehicle in this phase, which was developed newly and exclusively for the electric drive and finally produced in series. In the development of the concept car to the real vehicle had made concessions and some changes are made. Thus, the slit headlights and tail lights were replaced with conventional products. The highly contoured front apron with its striking twin vents gave way to a more pleasing shape. The concept of the whole vehicle in the form of drops, however, remained composed.
Technical information
Each, an electric motor drives the front wheels. The car has one of the lowest drag coefficient of a series vehicle ( 0.195 ). The battery packs are located centrally T-shaped. The EV1 had a top speed of 129 km / h ( limited), with an acceleration of 0-100 km / h in under 9 seconds. The range with fully charged batteries was a maximum of 140 miles ( 225 km ). The EV1 comes as standard with a pre-air on network connection, air conditioning, heated front and rear windows, power windows, CD radio, 2x airbags, tire pressure monitoring and a special acoustic pedestrian warning. Luminous Digital gauges, range, charge state, speed and temperature. Access and starting can optionally the key using a programmable ID code ( number lock).
With a vehicle of the first generation one owner completed a long-distance test of about 6000 kilometers (Charge Across America ).
Battery technology and charging
In EV1 the first generation lead-acid batteries were used. 26 12 volt blocks with a block capacity of 53 Ah revealed a total capacity of 16.5 kWh. The voltage of the interconnected blocks was 312 volts. The range was about 70 miles ( 113 km ). In practice, could be realized with the first generation of rechargeable batteries depending on driving style and use of electrical loads between 60 and 90 miles. The first generation featured a Coast -down button with which the engine could be used as a regenerative braking to partially recharge the traction battery.
The advanced, today's NiMH technology was invented by Masahiko Oshitani ( Yuasa Corporation) and Stanford R. Ovshinsky. The inventor and patent holder Ovshinsky founded in 1982 Ovonics Battery Company. Version 2 of the EV1 with the newly developed Ni -MH batteries had a range of 140 miles ( 225 km ). It was introduced in 1998, and came in 1999 to the market.
The charging of the traction battery is contact by induction on the insertion of a " paddle " in a slot at the front of the vehicle. The EV1 could be loaded with a stationary 6.6 kW charger in 3 hours, with the part of the vehicle 1.2 kW on-board charger in about 15 hours.
Dissemination
The EV1 was marketed by the GM brand Saturn. A total of 1117 EV1 built, of which 800 were distributed to selected customers. Among them were celebrities like Tom Hanks or Mel Gibson. Currently GM has three roadworthy EV1.
Recall
GM signed contracts with the EV1 customers, which enabled the company to recall the vehicles at the end of three years and be scrapped. The scrapping of all built EV1 was allegedly necessary because GM could not guarantee the long-term safety of the vehicles due to lack of spare parts production. The cessation of production was based on the fact that the demand is expected to be low and no profitability. The demand argument is often questioned, same applies (alone > $ 20,000 battery), despite the high production costs of the EV1 for the profitable sale. Here, the status is listed as a value argument again and again. A parallel to this is the apparent willingness of consumers to pay for off-road SUVs disabled or well-known brands such as Porsche a high price, the - purely practical point of view - is currently facing little added value.
In 2006 the documentary was released Who killed the electric car? by Chris Paine, which is the reason GMs to cease production as untrustworthy. The promotional activities for the EV1 are criticized because they were not the purpose of marketing relevant. After the release of the film that is particularly critical of the practices of GM and both nationally and internationally caused a great deal of media interest, even EV1 exhibits were removed from a supported GM Museum.
Market influences
1994 General Motors acquired a controlling interest in the company Ovonics, which controlled the battery development, including the patents and the production of large NiMH batteries. The acquisition was established with the aim to develop NiMH batteries for GM's EV1, which one secured the consent of the inventor and company founder Stanford R. Ovshinsky. However, founded "The Big Three", the three major American automakers General Motors, Ford and Chrysler in the early 1990s, the U.S. auto Battery Consortium ( USABC ). In an interview published in the 2006 documentary Who killed the electric car? Ovshinsky stated that this organization was created to prevent the development of electric vehicle technology and to influence the public against the CARB legislation. Thus, the USABC spread to Ovshinsky mistakenly think that NiMH technology was not yet ready for widespread use in motor vehicles. Critics later found that the " Big Three " vorgingen against the CARB laws and argued along with other car manufacturers and politicians that electric vehicles were not technologically and commercially viable. For this 1994 ad campaigns from the end of 1993, started. After loosening the CARB laws under pressure from the auto industry, the EV1 program was terminated by GM, although a new generation of rechargeable batteries was developed. In field trials, the Ovonics battery had increased the range of the EV1 over 150 miles ( 241 km ).
In 2001, oil company Texaco purchased General Motors their shares in Ovonics. Texaco itself was taken over by rival Chevron several months later. In the same year Ovonics reported a violation of its patents and sued Toyota's battery supplier Panasonic. Ultimately, they agreed on a licensing and restrictions on the use of large-format NiMH batteries. ChevronTexaco retained a veto over the sale or licensing of NiMH technology. The general dissemination and further thereafter focused on small-scale Konsumerzellen. The patent upper limit allowed for the cell capacity is 10 Ah, there are various legal disputes, including with Matsushita, pending. For this reason 228 piece series- 6.5 Ah NiMH batteries were used by Toyota in the first generation of the Toyota Prius. 2009 Cobasys / Chevron and Energy Conversion Devices (ECD ) by the battery manufacturer SB LiMotive, bought a joint venture of Bosch and Samsung. This sale and control of NiMH battery technology transferred back to ECD Ovonics. ECD Ovonics announced that their next NiMH batteries are significantly cheaper than lithium -ion batteries, but these are similar in specific energy and power.
Successor
After years of inaction in the field of electric cars General Motors decided under the pressure of the sharp rise in crude oil prices and its own economic difficulties in the first decade of the 21st century, again to produce an electric vehicle into production. The Chevrolet Volt came in late 2010 in North America in the sale. Since the used Voltec propulsion neither a pure electric drive is still a classic hybrid, GM avoids the term hybrid vehicle, and calls the car therefore " electric vehicle with extended range ." In Germany the almost identical Opel Ampera has been available since the 14th of January 2012.