I have a differing opinion ... While the RAV4-EV gen1 was a good EV http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_RAV4_EV#First_generation its design was 1997 vintage compliance car, thus did not have the advantages of a purpose built EV http://www.evchargernews.com/miscfiles/rav4evbrochures.html Today's RAV4-EV gen2 has the same issue: that it is based off an existing RAV4 ice design, and was retrofitted at the factory to be an EV.
Plus it was using the unavailable NiMH battery (an Oil company controlled the patent). At that time, many EV'rs were really ticked off that an EV battery's use was being blocked by an Oil company. NiMH energy density was less than Li-ion, but that did not stop the RAV4-EV gen1 from having an easy 90mi range at a constant 60mph when the pack was relatively new http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/whats_the_best_battery Gravimetric Energy Density(Wh/kg) PbSO4 NiCd NiMH Li-ion 30-50 45-80 60-120 110-160 And if I remember correctly, the RAV4-EV gen1 pack was not heated, but was cooled using fans drawing un-chilled/ambient outside air. The GM EV1 was originally the Impact which was designed to use the Horizon agm PBSO4 batteries. When GM upgraded the pack to NiMH, they had to change the EV1's design to have the EV's air-conditioning kick-in and be redirected to cool the NiMH pack for the last portion of the charge (after ~70%SOC). The charger was GM's proprietary inductive paddle spi (which no one but those automakers that got in bed with GM could use), which was designed to operate off a 240VAC 30A home dryer outlet (thus it only charges at about a 5kW rate). Today's RAV4-EV gen1 drivers carry a heavy and large wall/pedestal-mount designed tal-2000 inductive EVSE http://www.evchargernews.com/photos/94533_1b.jpg with them and connect it to today's j1772 6kW public EVSE via an adaptor (their adaptor and tal-2000 are left exposed to vandals when they walk away from their EV to charge). When I was at EVS-14 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Electric_Vehicle_Association#The_History_of_EVS I used my press credentials to get the member-of-the-press ability to drive the EV prototypes. The RAV4-EV prototype was a good EV, and frankly, we were so starving for something, anything at that point, so many issues were over looked (so as to not complain, and just get these EVs into the public's hands). But after talking to the Japanese Toyota Engineers on the project, they explained that their goal was to make that EV drive just like an RAV4 ice with an automatic transmission: they wanted their design to be seamless (the least amount of changes/differences) , as if one of their own grandmothers would have no problem driving it. So, its a Granny-mobile: when you let your foot off the brake, it creeps forward. The EV also has a nasty habit of rolling backward if parked on a grade: some drivers noted on evchargernews.com whether a charging location was on a grade of not (not a super big deal, just had to be dealt with). When the EV1 was ripped from the drivers hands, and taken away to be crushed/destroyed, many EV1 drivers jumped ship and bagged a RAV4-EV gen1 both when they were very-briefly allowed to be sold to the public, and later when those EVs came up for sale. During those very dark years when the CARB mandate had its teeth kicked-in and both CA State and Fed Gov. officials stopped its enforcement, the RAV4-EV gen1 was the better used Production EV available. Ironically, during those dark years, public EVSE installations continued though there were no production EVs being made available to the public. But those DMV moneys were diluted in half because of GM's proprietary spi EVSE forced almost all installations to have both an conductive AVCON and an spi http://www.evchargernews.com/photos/92618_1b.jpg http://www.evchargernews.com/photos/92618_1a.jpg At least twice as many public EVSE installations could have occurred if only an AVCON were installed (remember many of those old AVCONs were easily replaced with j1772 because the wiring, conduit, breakers were already in place = easy-peasy). OK, after saying all that, the RAV4-EV gen1 is still loved by many. There is still a large community of RAV4-EV gen1 drivers, and they have their own discussion list if you have or are considering getting one http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/rav4-ev {brucedp.150m.com} - On Fri, Nov 15, 2013, at 10:03 AM, Steve Powers wrote: > Or we could just go back and keep building the 2001 Toyota Rav4 with NiMH > batteries which I still to this day consider to be the best EV ever made. > And, I do believe it is better than a Tesla Model S and did / could meet > the > needs of most drivers. It has proven durability over 10+ years and in my > opinion history will show it will outperform the production EVs of today > in > terms of battery life. How many leafs are already losing capacity 2 > years > into production. How many Rav4's ran over 10 years and still had more > utility than a brand new and certainly better than a 2 year old Leaf. > What > we need is not something new, but to go back and use what is already > proven. - -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Send your email first class _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
