General Motors EV1

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General Motors
EV1A014 (1) cropped.jpg
EV1
Production period: 1996-1999
Class : Compact class
Body versions : Coupe
Engines: Electric motor :
102 kW
Length: 4319 mm
Width: 1766 mm
Height: 1281 mm
Wheelbase : 2512 mm
Empty weight : 1320 kg
successor Chevrolet Bolt
One of the three surviving General Motors EV1s was on loan at the Autovision Museum in Altlußheim
EV1 engine compartment
View of the interior
Police protection in Burbank , for a transport of GM EV1 for scrapping after the start of the protest movement "Don't Crush"

The General Motors EV 1 was a series-built electric car from General Motors . It was in response to a 1990 in California enacted legislation to reduce emissions planned and offered from 1996 to 1999. The vehicles were only rented out and until 2002, under controversial circumstances, were confiscated and most of them scrapped.

Emergence

The California Air Resources Board legislation of 1990 ( Clean Air Act and Zero Emission Mandate) stipulated that at least two percent of newly registered cars should be emission-free by 1998 and ten percent by 2003 . That is why GM, like all other major automobile manufacturers, felt compelled to push ahead with the development and testing of electric cars . GM was able to build on a test vehicle developed independently by factory engineers, which was presented as the Impact prototype as early as 1990 with an exceptionally high media response. The idea of ​​the impact at a time when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) was developing the new Low Emission Vehicle program was probably the trigger why the demand for “Zero Emission Vehicles” ( ZEVs ) was included. From the Impact, GM developed the two-seater, battery-powered car “EV1” (Electric Vehicle 1). The EV1 was the first and only vehicle in this phase that was newly developed exclusively for electric drive and finally manufactured in series.

When developing from the concept vehicle to the real vehicle, concessions had to be made and some changes had to be made. The slit headlights and rear lights were exchanged for conventional products. The strongly profiled front apron with the distinctive double openings gave way to a more pleasing shape. The concept of the entire vehicle in the form of a teardrop remained, however.

Technical specifications

One electric motor drives each of the front wheels. The car has one of the lowest drag coefficient of a production vehicle (0.195). The battery packs are arranged in a central T-shape. The EV1 reached a top speed of 129 km / h (regulated), 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 kilometers). The EV1 is equipped as standard with pre- air conditioning when connected to the mains, air conditioning , heated front and rear windows, window lifters, CD radio, two airbags , a tire pressure monitoring system and a special acoustic pedestrian warning . Luminous digital displays provide information about range, charge status, speed and temperature. Access and starting can be optionally keyless via a programmable ID code (combination lock).

One owner completed a long-distance test of around 6000 kilometers ( Charge across America ) with a first-generation vehicle .

Battery technology and charging

In the first-generation EV1, lead-acid batteries were used as drive batteries . 26 12 volt blocks with a block capacity of 53 Ah resulted in a total capacity of 16.5 kWh. The voltage of the interconnected blocks was 312 volts. The range was about 70 miles (113 kilometers). In practice, the first generation of batteries could achieve between 60 and 90 miles, depending on the driving style and use of the electrical consumers. The first generation already had a coast-down button with which the engine could be used as a regenerative brake to partially recharge the drive battery.

The advanced, today's nickel-metal hydride accumulator technology was invented by Masahiko Oshitani ( Yuasa Corporation ) and Stanford R. Ovshinsky . The inventor and patent holder Ovshinsky founded the Ovonics Battery Company in 1982. Version 2 of the EV1 with the newly developed Ni-MH batteries had a range of 140 miles (225 kilometers). It was introduced in 1998 and launched in 1999.

The drive battery is charged contactless by induction after inserting a "paddle" into a slot on the front of the vehicle. The EV1 could be charged with a stationary 6.6 kW charger in three hours, with the 1.2 kW on-board charger belonging to the vehicle in about 15 hours.

distribution

The EV1 was marketed by GM's Saturn brand. A total of 1117 EV1s were built, of which around 800 were passed on to selected customers. Among them were celebrities like Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson . GM currently has three roadworthy EV1s.

recall

GM only signed rental agreements with EV1 customers. This enabled the company to recall and scrap the vehicles after three years. The scrapping of all built EV1s was supposedly necessary because GM could not guarantee the long-term safety of the vehicles due to a lack of spare parts production. The cessation of production was justified by the fact that the demand was too low and no profitability was to be expected. The demand argument is often questioned because, according to employees, there were unprocessed orders and the hurdles for an order were unusually high. The same applies to profitable sales despite the high production costs of the EV1 (over $ 20,000 for the battery alone). The status is repeatedly cited as an added value argument. A parallel to this is the obvious willingness of consumers to pay a high price for SUVs that are not suitable for off-road use or well-known brands such as Porsche, which - in purely practical terms - have little added value.

In 2006, the documentary film Why the electric car had to die by Chris Paine was released, which describes GM's reason for discontinuing production as implausible. The advertising measures for the EV1 are also criticized as they were not useful for the purpose of marketing. After the release of the film, which primarily criticizes GM's practices and aroused great media interest both nationally and internationally, EV1 exhibits were even removed from a museum supported by GM.

Market influences

In 1994 General Motors acquired a majority stake in Ovonics, which controlled battery development including patents and the manufacture of large NiMH batteries. The acquisition was justified with the aim of developing NiMH batteries for GM EV1, which secured the approval of the inventor and company founder Stanford R. Ovshinsky . However, "The Big Three" , the three major American automakers General Motors , Ford and Chrysler , founded the US Auto Battery Consortium (USABC) in the early 1990s . In an interview in the 2006 documentary Why the Electric Car Had to Die , Ovshinsky stated that this organization was created to prevent the development of electric vehicle technology and to influence the public against CARB legislation. In Ovshinsky's view, the USABC falsely spread the opinion that NiMH technology was not yet ready for widespread use in motor vehicles. Critics later stated that the “Big Three” were taking action against the CARB laws and, together with other automakers and politicians, argued that electric vehicles were not yet technologically and economically viable. To this end, advertising campaigns were started from the end of 1993 and 1994. After the relaxation of the CARB laws under pressure from the auto industry, GM's EV1 program was terminated, although a new generation of batteries had been developed. In field tests, the Ovonics battery had increased the EV1's range to over 150 miles (241 kilometers).

In 2001 the Texaco oil company bought General Motors' stake in Ovonics. Texaco itself was taken over by rival Chevron a few months later . In the same year, Ovonics reported infringement of its patents and sued Toyota's battery supplier Panasonic . Ultimately, an agreement was reached on licensing and restrictions on the use of large-format NiMH batteries. ChevronTexaco retained a veto right over the sale or licensing of the NiMH technology. The general distribution and further development then concentrated on small-format consumer cells. The upper limit for the cell capacity permitted by patent is 10 Ah. Also for this reason were from Toyota of the first-generation Toyota Prius 228 pieces of series-connected 6.5 Ah NiMH batteries used.

In 2009 Cobasys, the subsidiary of Chevron and Energy Conversion Devices (ECD), was sold to the battery manufacturer SB LiMotive . SBL was a joint venture between Bosch and Samsung for traction batteries . Associated with this was the division of the licensing rights for non-automotive applications to OBC, while Cobasys received those for automotive applications. With the dissolution of SB LiMotive in September 2012, Cobasys became the property of Robert Bosch GmbH. On February 13, 2012, ECD sold its majority stake in "Ovonic Battery Company, Inc." to BASF and used the proceeds in the Chapter 11 proceedings filed the following day . BASF issues licenses for the acquired NiMH technology.

successor

After years of inactivity in the field of electric cars, General Motors decided, under the pressure of the sharp rise in the price of crude oil and its own economic difficulties, in the first decade of the 21st century to produce a vehicle with electric drive in series again. The Chevrolet Volt went on sale in North America in late 2010. Since the Voltec drive used is neither a pure electric drive nor a classic hybrid drive , but a plug-in hybrid , GM avoids the term hybrid vehicle and therefore calls the car " electric vehicle with range extender ". The almost identical Opel Ampera was offered in Germany from 2012 to 2016 .

At the beginning of 2016, General Motors presented the all-electric Chevrolet Bolt at the Detroit Auto Show . The vehicle is said to have a range of 200 miles (320 kilometers) and was launched in late 2016. The Bolt is considered to be the successor to the EV1, as it is GM's first all-electric car since the EV1.

Years later, entrepreneur Elon Musk stated in an interview that “the attempt by corporations to kill the electric car, e. B. the EV1 ”, which led to the decision to build electric cars himself.

Web links

Commons : General Motors EV1  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ GM, 1990: Imagine the Impact - May 1990 , web film, inserted February 14, 2012
  2. ↑ a b c GreenCar: 20 Truths About the GM EV1 Electric Car ( Memento from May 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), inserted February 14, 2012
  3. ↑ a b c AutoLine Detroit.TV: Blast From the Past: A look back at the EV1 , vehicle presentation of the first EV1 version, accessed September 14, 2012
  4. ↑ Elweb.info: data sheet of the GM EV1
  5. ↑ a b The Economist, March 6, 2008: In search of the perfect battery , inserted February 13, 2012
  6. ↑ carfolio.com: 1998 GM EV1 Gen II NiMH added February 13, 2012
  7. ↑ Kingoftheroad: Generation II Battery pack , added February 13, 2012
  8. ↑ Axel Postinett: “Who Killed The Electric Car” in US cinemas: GM caught off guard by documentation. In: WirtschaftsWoche. July 16, 2006. From WiWo.de, accessed on October 16, 2019.
  9. ↑ Zürcher Tages-Anzeiger July 11, 2006: General Motors and the EV1 thing , inserted March 13, 2012, not available on October 16, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Associated Press: Smithsonian dumps electric car exhibit - GM, which is museum donor, is accused of killing the technology. In: News environment. June 19, 2006. Accessed October 16, 2019 from NBCnews.com.
  11. ↑ GreenCar.com, March 7, 2008: 5 Things You Need to Know About Nickel-Metal-Hybrid Batteries ( Memento of November 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), inserted February 13, 2012
  12. ↑ a b c d Michael Shnayerson: The Car That Could: The Inside Story of GM's Revolutionary Electric Vehicle , published by Random House, August 27, 1996, ISBN 978-0-679-42105-4
  13. ↑ County Weekly, May 8, 2003: Dude, Wheres My Electric Car!?! ( Memento of May 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), inserted February 13, 2012
  14. ↑ Ovonic: Ovonic Nickel Hydroxide Patents ( Memento of November 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), inserted February 13, 2012
  15. ^ Ovonics: ECD Battery Licensees ( Memento of February 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), inserted February 13, 2012
  16. ↑ ChevronTexaco Corporation, December 2, 2004: ECD Ovonics Amended General Statement of Beneficial Ownership ( Memento of July 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed September 16, 2012
  17. ^ Ovonics: 'NiMh-Energy-Advances ( en , PDF) S. October 1, 2010. Archived from the original on December 15, 2010. Retrieved on February 13, 2012.
  18. ↑ Energy Conversion Devices, Inc: Energy Conversion Devices Announces Sale of Cobasys to SB LiMotive ( en ) In: Press release . PRNewswire. July 13, 2009. Archived from the original on January 5, 2016. Retrieved January 5, 2016: “Cobasys restructured its intellectual property licenses with ECD and OBC so that OBC has royalty-free, exclusive rights to the technology for defined non-transportation uses and Cobasys has royalty-free exclusive rights for defined transportation uses. "
  19. ↑ Energy Conversion Devices files Chapter 11, seeks sale of businesses; Ovonic Battery Company sold to BASF Corporation. In: Green Car Congress. BioAge Group, LLC, February 14, 2012, accessed January 5, 2016 .
  20. ↑ Nickel Metal-Hydride ( Memento from January 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), BASF Catalysts
  21. ↑ Drive Unit and Battery at the Heart of Chevrolet Bolt EV. In: media.gm.com. Retrieved January 12, 2016 .
  22. ↑ Chevrolet Bolt EV: GM drives fully electric again - Golem.de. In: www.golem.de. Retrieved January 12, 2016 .
  23. ↑ Elon Musk: We started Tesla after big auto companies tried to 'kill' the electric car . cnbc.com. July 9, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2018.