On 15 Apr 2021 at 15:10, nathan christiansn via EV wrote: > In my opinion, it is VERY suspicious that (except in rare cases) GM only > leased the EV1 and never sold it. It's almost like they were planning on > crushing all of them from the very beginning....
I don't know that I'd say "suspicious." It's their business model. For decades GM built one-off EVs and dutifully trotted them out to the press, and sometimes to the public. For me at least, the standout was the 1966 Electrovair II. It was a Corvair conversion, powered by sliver-zinc batteries. You don't even want to know how much the batteries cost, or how many cycles they were expected to last. But it had quite respectable driveability. You can find a GM "promotional" video clip about it on Youtube; search for YXxgatAznHU. (Spoiler: "It's the battery, stupid.") In 1969, GM also built an interesting experimental Opel Kadett quasi-hybrid with a Stirling engine which ran continuously when the vehicle was powered up. These were never intended as prototypes, but rather "technology demonstrations." I'm not convinced that they initially regarded the GM Impact as much more of a production prototype than the Electrovairs had been. Years ago I heard a story about this that I've never been able to corroborate. Supposedly, when GM showed off the Impact prototype at the LA Auto Show in January of 1990, one of their executives, I think Robert Stempel himself, was standing next to a board member of CARB (California Air Resources Board). The CARB rep was praising to the heavens the Impact and its potential for helping California meet its emissions goals. Stempel is supposed to have listened to him for a few minutes, then said, "You're not going to make us BUILD that car, are you?" David Roden, EVDL moderator & general lackey To reach me, don't reply to this message; I won't get it. Use my offlist address here : http://evdl.org/help/index.html#supt = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times. -- Winson Churchill = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
