husky14620
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Expando1 said:Yah the death of the electric car really pissed me off and I was so disappointed at the same time. The only reason GM made it was because California passed a statute requiring them to do so, then they lobbied hard and got it revoked. As soon as it was revoked all the cars were recalled and destroyed at a scrapyard in Arizona. The thing that upset me was that they didn't make any attempt to advertise the car...i mean, come on, when was the last time you watched TV or opened a newpaper without being overwhelmed by car adverts.
For the time the cars were on the streets they had an amazing reliability record with one owner reporting only a failed blinker. Electric cars simply do not have that many moving parts and are not subject to the stress, impact, and torque forces as are combustion engines. The fall out from the success of the electric car was potentially huge including collapse of big oil and collapse of the autoparts industry. I understand why GM killed the electric car, I'm just disappointed anyway.
Actually, dispite the leasees suing GM in an attempt to keep the cars, GM took them all back and shipped most of them to Honeoye Falls, NY, their fuel cell research center. As recently as last fall, there were still dozens of them being driven regularly on the highways around Rochester, NY.
I myself drive a Part Zero Emission Ultra Low Emission Vehicle certified Honda Civic Hybrid. Most of the time I get 90% of EPA city, and 110-120% of EPA highway. With the incredible hot spell recently, I have turned off all the economy modes to keep the A/C running full blast, and still got 36 mpg. I was forced to by my hybrid from Honda, not because GM doesn't have the technology, but because GM has chosen to ignore the technology for 30 years. One of their suppliers built a demonstration hybrid in 1980, using off the shelf parts. Its function and operation were almost identical to the system used in my Civic. True, the 1980 version used lead-acid batteries, and weighed twice what a comparable car would have. But it worked and worked reliably. Furthermore, GM had been building diesel-electric hybrids since the 1940's, without the batteries, but with regenerative braking and all electric drive. These hybrids weren't built into cars, or trucks, but into every ElectroMotive Division of GM locomotive delivered to American railroads since the diesel locomotive was introduced. And Alco, GE, Fairbanks-Morse, and all the other locomotive manufacturers use similar technology to E.M.D./GM.
Yet even now, GM isn't building true hybrids. The Chevy Silverado pick-up hybrid doesn't use the electric motor(s) to provide any propulsion, only to allow the gasoline engine to shut off at stop lights and restart "instantly" upon releasing the brake. Oh, and to provide a 120 Volt A.C. outlet in the back of the truck. The new Saturn Vue will be a similar system. Only the Tahoe sport ute will be a true hybrid, if it ever ships.
And Ford bought its hybrid system from Toyota, and pays royalties to them on every Escape hybrid built. Once upon a time America was the leader in engineering, education, production, innovation: Now we even have to license Japanese patents to have our products built in Korea or China.
Husky