Electric Car Links and Photos

Thank you Chris Paine for your movie "Who Killed the Electric Car?" (available at Netflix and Blockbuster or buy it at Amazon.com - see the movie preview link below). Paine's movie has increased public awareness of the potential of electric cars by featuring GM's EV-1 and Toyota's RAV4-EV. They were shown to be wildly popular and loved by the thousand or so families chosen to test them in the late 1990s and early 2000s. When their lease contracts were not renewed, they disappeared. Pleas for sales with "junk titles" were denied, raising questions why GM especially shredded every vehicle. A few hundred RAV4-EVs were eventually sold to some of the people who leased them.

A major issue has been the suppression of the large format nickel metal hydride battery, its patent sold by GM and until recently controlled by Chevron Oil Company's Cobasys unit. In July, 2009 the patent was sold to a joint venture between Samsung and Robert Bosch to make batteries for transportation applications. Lithium phosphate batteries are a promising alternative because of their significantly higher power density and favorable safety characteristics.

Eight years after Toyota stopped making the RAV4-EV, a mass produced electric car is on the horizon again. Here's the new Nissan LEAF 100% electric car on display early one morning in San Jose, California in December, 2009. On-site reps said the 100 mile range car will be available starting in late 2010. While exact prices weren't specified, they hinted that $30,000 for the car and $150/month for the lithium ion battery lease would be in the ballpark. Since the average American drives 40 miles a day, a car with this range would work as a second car for most families.

Tesla Roadster electric car shown to the Apple Car Club, Apple Computer headquarters, Cupertino, California in July, 2008. Production of the $109,000 Silicon Valley sports car started in March, 2008. It's powered by a power pack of 6831 lithium ion batteries, similar to those found in laptop computers.

Tesla's new "Model S" in their Menlo Park, California showroom in May, 2009 ($50,000 - $58,000 with tax credit). Daimler now has a 10% ownership and will benefit Tesla with its "expertise in engineering, production and supply chains, while Daimler benefits from Tesla's electric powertrain technology." (San Jose Mercury-News 5/20/09).

Here's the final assembly area for the Telsa Roadster at 300 El Camino Real in Menlo Park, California... viewpoint is open to the public.

Below is the AFS Trinity, on display at "Plug-In 2008" at the San Jose, California Convention Center. See impressive videos (linked below) of its performance using technology ready for manufacture now.

After the California Air Resources Board killed its visionary "Zero Emission Mandate" in 2003, GM recalled and shredded its promising 150 mile range EV1, and sold its viable EV-95 NiMH battery developed by Stanford and Iris Ovshinsky to Texaco (absorbed by Chevron 6 days later) for a reported $100 million where it was promptly put in the deep-freeze. Toyota used that battery in the RAV4-EV and was successfully sued for NiMH patent infringement to stop production of the car.

Since electric cars have few moving parts, they are usually very reliable and last a long time.The plug-in hybrid has the advantage of having gasoline as a backup fuel. It appears that Toyota was able to license a low capacity battery from Chevron for use in its very popular Prius hybrid, but has been prohibited from manufacturing (and even talking about) the larger EV-95 battery needed for a plug-in hybrid capable of 40 miles (average U.S. daily drive) coming from electricity only. The Lithium Ion battery continues to improve and has commodity status.... price and performance competition from many manufactures. If production electric cars and plug-in hybrids were sold for $25-35,000 and were styled like other cars in that price range, they'd be quite popular with their significantly lower operating costs and high-performance motors.

One of our clients here in Northern California drove up with her 100+ miles per charge Toyota RAV4-EV (shown below), still with its original NiMH batteries. She loves this car! It's obvious why Chevron is threatened by the electric car, but she said she understands why the car companies and their dealers might feel the same. Since she bought it in 2002, the only service it has needed is a set of new tires! I recently saw another RAV4-EV in the Los Altos Trader Joe's parking lot and its owner said she charges it with rooftop solar panels on her house. Again, no maintence issues except new tires!

Watch lots of "RAV4-EV" videos on YouTube.com. If it was widely known that it is possible to build it today at reasonable cost, wouldn't most people demand a responsive car that dramatically reduces the amount of gasoline they'd have to buy, with fewer repair bills, emitting less pollution that causes breathing problems and global warming and then have lots of extra money left over to do something else with? By keeping the cars you currently have as long as possible, let the car companies know you're waiting for it.

The only electric car GM will talk about is its so-far vaporware Chevy Volt, a far cry from the fast and responsive EV1 with nickel metal hydride batteries it made about 10 years ago in response to California's mandate. The EV1 would go zero to 60 mph in 7.4 seconds, had a top speed of 140 mph and a range of 150 miles! One can only imagine how much better our economy and jobs picture would be if 10 years ago GM had put its priorities into developing and marketing this technology rather than sending it to the shredder!

Couple that with a $1/gallon "patriot tax" on gasoline right after 9/11 and we'd be a lot closer to ending our dependence on Middle East oil, keeping our money moving around in the U.S. economy instead. How many U.S. military lives, and how many U.S. Taxpayer dollars would have been spent in the Middle East if not a drop of oil was ever found there?

Here's an Amazon.com review of the "Who Killed the Electric Car" movie

5.0 out of 5 stars This should be seen by every adult., December 19, 2009
By Boydjoe "boydjoe" (Nashville, TN United States)

Don't watch this documentary if your blood pressure tends to skyrocket when you encounter something that makes even an experienced and hardened realist cringe at the corporate gluttony which is revealed here. Every adult U. S. citizen as well as all high school students should be exposed to the conduct demonstrated here which has actually set our country back both in our economic health and in our national security. Here we have what WAS a major corporation on the brink of a new technology which could have benefitted both the corporation and the citizens of this country, and they threw it all away due to its own ill conceived corporate greed and the greedy pressure of its big oil allies. We see in this video a description of what the anti-trust laws were designed to prevent, and yet nothing was done by our government to stop what happened. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Out here in the San Francisco Bay Area we see very few GM cars; I'd say 9 of 10 are foreign brands. I'd love to see the entire Apple Computer Car Club, and some top Apple managers, run GM. They'd bring a huge infusion of innovation as well as a total change of mindset and image. Not long ago, the music player of choice was the Sony Walkman. Then along came the iPod. GM, make us cars that are so cool we don't yet realize we'll want them. But we will when we see them, and will buy lots of them!