I remember seeing them at dealerships and on the road. The range was just awful of course and most people weren’t interested. Only the rich wanting virtue signaling had them. Then they crushed them all. Yeah that’s good for the environment. Lol
"The days of internal combustion engines, are definitely, numbered." Turns out the oil industry wouldn't let us have it that easily. However now with Tesla and more and more concepts popping up I think we can finally start developing better and better technology. Sadly that took almost 20 years.
The oil indurstry? Why should we get upset at the oil industry, because they have a superior product? Even still to this day gasoline and especially diesel contains much more energy given a volume. One can also refill that energy in mere minutes, and take it with them wherever they go. My F150 with its 36 gallon tank can go 700-900 miles before needing to be filled up, and filling up takes a few minutes tops. Batteries are still grossly expensive (far more than even a full engine replacement) and start to go bad around 5-8 years, whereas some engines are still working great 20+ years later. Im not ragging on electric, in fact I owned the Chevy Volt for a few years, but it is delusional to think the "big bad evil oil companies" are what are stopping electric cars, verses them simply being impractical and expensive.
the real problem is oil. Oil represents the closest thing we have to free energy. Without it, we would not have 2 billion cars on the roads. More and more vehicles will become EV as the oil prices go up due to availability. Its difficult to compete with a expensive (say tesla) vehicle with a cheap affordable alternative like a gas car, esp with the improvements they have managed with euro6 etc.
@@TommyboyGTP Well, any individual who commutes the average distance would benefit from cheap electricity and pain free ownership. We got rid of our gas burners for a mitsubishi electric and wouldnt consider anything else. We made the last repayment early this year and very rarely even pay for electricity. Thankfully we have a solar building that's a part of our local university with access to a free fast charger. No emissions and no cost to the consumer. Win-win.
Hashna Fennec this is super high range for a car like this, most evs have this today, I’m not even joking some have 70 miles range whilst the ev1 has 80 miles
BAD!! This car had so much promise it was ridiculous, especially considering its performance for the time was beyond exceptional they were basically the Tesla up today back then, but even more ahead of their time
Back then there were no Lithium-Ion-Batteries yet and that explains, why the concept wasn't promesing for GM. The EV1 with todays batteries would have a Tesla like range or even more than that.
Electrics finally made it to the market. Not just Tesla, but more affordable ones as well. The Nissan Leaf, Zap car etc. and not to mention all the enthusiasts that convert their own cars to pure battery electric.
@@Simon-wn2id I don't remember EV1 having half the problems that Volt, Ampera or Bolt have experienced. I certainly don't remember any of them catching fire. Personally, I think EV1 was a better engineered car, and it's range wasn't too far behind some of today's models. Mini E, and Renault Zoe, for instance. If GM had held it's nerve and kept up production and development of EV1, they would be king of the hill today, and Elon Musk would be nowhere.
@@unknownentity742 Should have been over by the 80s really. yeah the battery technology wasn't there you might say but it would have been if they'd been developing batteries consistently ever since they were invented.
it's over now, if usa and europe car manufacture not quicky change their engine to ev from now. they will losing by china electric vehicle company right now BYD ( china ev brand) are supplying the US with their electric bus
The reason why electric cars didn't succeed back then was because of the negative remarks like what he keeps saying in this video If the media wasn't so negative then the electric car would have been more successful It's the same reason why the British car industry failed
Im trying to imagine how my current B car was already a 5yr old car, and my hobbycar was 6 at the time of this report XDD and they are still both running, and in pristine condition :D (2.0 8v Kadett GSi cabrio 1991, and a daily runner 1992 1.4 8v Astra F hachback)
With the majority of car manufacturers developing and selling PHEV's, I think we're finally getting to see the beginning of mass market adoption of EV's. Though manufacturers will have to start finding somewhere else to place the battery pack. Most of them are shoving them into the trunk of the car which drastically reduces the cargo capacity. BEV's are still rather niche market, but still seeing growth.
@jerry calvert Solar can only take you so far and only when the sun is shining... I think the hybrid Lithium-Ion cells and solar cells on the SONO Motors Sion is a good example of this hybrid that'll work well...
Lithium iron batteries are a dead end. Too damaging to the environment, too expensive to produce, too short lived, almost impossible to recycle, and far too fire prone.
Top Gear is one of the most biased shows. They're entertaining, but 1/3rd of their shows are Land Rover commercials, another 20% is Toyota commercials, they're heavily prejudiced against electric cars... only watch them for entertainment, never for a serious review.
This is the Original Top Gear (like original Star Trek). It was canceled. The New Top Gear started in 2002(?) and indeed the hosts were a bunch of comedians. The new show was funny. The original show (which you’re watching on youtube) was serious .
@@unknownentity742 It's the first mass produced LI-ion car. It's only crap because its one of the first of the current (or just passed) wave of real mass-produced EVs. It predates the Leaf by a year and the Tesla model S by 3 years.
@@unknownentity742 It's a conversion of another car. Yes the leaf is obviously better but I'm just saying it's one of the first so in terms of things like range you can't really complain.
I knew a guy named Doug Wickstrom that worked at GM’s EV1 division. QUOTE: “The range of 130 miles is bogus. None of them ever achieved that under normal driving conditions. Running the air conditioning or heater could halve that range. Even running the headlights reduced it by 10%. “Minimum recharge time was two hours using special charging stations that (except for fleet use) didn't exist..... NiMH batteries that had lasted up to three years in testing were failing after 6 months in service. There was no way to keep them from overheating without doubling the size of the battery pack. Lead-acid batteries were superior to NiMH in actual daily use.” “You cannot turn batteries "off." This is the reason the vehicles were leased, rather than sold. As long as the terms of the lease prohibited maintenance by other than a Hughes technician, GM's liability in the event of a screw-up was much reduced. Technicians can encounter high voltages in hybrid vehicles. In the EV1, there were really high voltages present. “Lessees were complaining that their electric bills had increased to the point that they'd rather be using gasoline..... the car was a dream to drive, if you didn't mind being stranded between Bakersfield and Barstow on a hot July afternoon when a battery blew up from the combined heat of the day and the current draw.“
Lithium ion batteries have came a long way since this car was made...that probably would have made a huge difference if GM could have had those to work with...
@@afk1sec410 If electric cars become mainstream, we will probably see portable battery packs that you could buy for those kinds of emergencies. Although they will certainly be much heavier than a portable gas container
@Rob James Are you really so fucking stupid that you think the two are comparable? Every place that sells gas has containers for it. Also much easier to stop for gas before running out, which by the way is displayed to you so that you don't, than finding a charging station. And what do you suppose that generator is running on?
@Rob James He asks you to imagine if he actually couldn't get to his destination because of the car running out of energy. You responded as if he meant that as some sort of situation being used in an argument between EVs and ICEVs. As far as I can tell he literally just means "what would have happened to him specifically if he actually did get stuck?".
A surprise considering gm top management likes to congratulate themselves with big bonuses while products suffer They created a new car company from scratch, saw success and they ran it to the ground. Same with ev1
'The EV1's discontinuation remains controversial, with electric car enthusiasts, environmental interest groups and former EV1 lessees accusing GM of self-sabotaging its electric car program to avoid potential losses in spare parts sales (sales forced by government regulations), while also blaming the oil industry for conspiring to keep electric cars off the road.[6] As a result of the forced repossession and destruction of the majority of EV1s, an intact and working EV1 is one of the rarest cars from the 1990s. '
The EV-1. The greatest car there could've been, and the greatest disappointment there ever was. As it stands, this market is now dominated by the Japanese and some guy named Elon. D:
This is why I will never forgive GM, sure the EV1 was a bit hamstrung at the time, that time being 1996, and just 5 years latter Elon would go on to use 80% of the GM crushed tech in the roadster since GM used an outside engineering from AC propulsion. So yeah GM literally handed Elon Musk the entire RnD to get his powertrain started as throw away casue well insert your reason here there are whole movies about it...... The reality is GM should not be forgiven, had they made it a CA only lease car for just a few more years the age of lithium would have arrived and the EV 1 could have gone more mainstream quicker and charging would have spread like wild fire. So yeah GM effectively gave ICE 10 more years by shelving the EV1
Loved the optimism back then - Everone looking forwards to the future-Then why is GM recalling them to be crushed ? - Then theres the Musk guy buliding Tesla e cars -This guy puts Eddison Above Tesla because he says eddison did more than Tesla for public -I think Musk should read his history books ?
These are.coming back when digital cash is implemented. Its gonna be awhile whan 5hey get the greenbacks. Retired that buys oil there still gonna use the greenbacks privately
Yeah but it took Elon Musk with Tesla to bring us kicking and screaming to where we are now.....If it weren't for Tesla we would be years away from a sensible electric car and (more importantly) the infrastructure to support them
Koreans will win it all in the end. They make reasonably priced electric cars and batteries for all other brands. Smart Koreans, they already make smart phones and TVs for the whole world.
Koreans (and Japanese) had even made hydrogen fuel cell electric cars as well. GM may had done it much earlier with the HyWire, but it's just a technical exercise.
0:18 That's a sexy 2nd gen Probe SE! The black demographic will never buy that though.. unless it can have 20" wheels or bigger. Needs more chrome, too.
face it people electric cars are not a viable product. they cost to much. they do not help the environment. you still have to burn coal to charge them. batteries are heavy and very expensive and bad for the environment. payload is small families cannot ride in most of the ones on the market. i do realize there are some out there that are suv's and trucks but they are very expensive. the average family cannot afford them. and its been that way from the start. lately people are consumed with the realization that electric cars have been around since the early 1900's but fail to recognize that the cars cost 4 times as much as a model T, so again i say to you it is a failed product and always will be.
@@mikesantos011 Stupid comparison it's irrelevant!!! We're not talking about carriages and we're not talkin about late 1800s early 1900s We're talking about today and the problems with electric cars that I referred to. You have not addressed one of the things that I pointed out. They are way too expensive and the suggested purpose for them to help with green gas emissions is a false narrative because it does no good. You still have to burn coal to produce the electricity to charge them and the lithium and nickel and all the ores that have to be taken out of the Earth to make the batteries by foreign countries and people putting their lives in danger... it doesn't balance out. There is no gain.