On 30 Jun 2025 at 16:20, Darryl McMahon via EV wrote: > Today, I'm sharing an article from about 3 decades ago, highlighting the > Solectria Sunrise. I'm not going to try summarizing it, it's free to access > at:
> https://www.theautopian.com/three-decades-ago-a-sleek-street-legal-electric-ca > r-drove-375-miles-on-a-single-charge/ Interesting article - thanks. It's good to see James Worden discussed. I don't think that he gets nearly enough credit for his pioneering work. His EVs were marvels of efficiency. The article seems to lean pretty heavily on Joe Sherman's book Charging Ahead. It's been many years since I've read it, but I don't remember Sherman being as down on Worden's management as this author seems to be. For the Sunrise development, I had the impression from Sherman that Boston Edison was more the problem, but as I say, I read him long ago. We have at least one person on the list, Beth Silverman, who worked for Solectria around that time. Maybe she'll have something to say about this. Also, the author seems to have totally missed the Force Mk 1, based on a Geo Metro hatchback, and thinks that Solectria's first Force was the Mk 2 sedan. > I don't care for the label 'CRAP Era' in the article; IMO it maligns > the kind of work EV pioneers from the 60s to the 90s were doing to keep > the idea alive with pretty much no resources and less public support. Yeah, that, times two, at least. The Citicar/Comuta-Car weren't fast or sophisticated by any means, but I don't think it's fair to call them crap. Many C-cars are still daily drivers today. And "This era produced such weirdos as the Chrysler TEVan, Ford Ranger EV, Nissan Altra EV, Toyota RAV4 EV, Honda EV Plus, and, of course, the iconic GM EV1." : "Weirdos"? Really? The RAV4 EV and Honda EV+ especially were respectable EVs for the time - usable range, comfort, practicality, and reliable NiMH batteries; The Nissan Altra EV wasn't exciting, I guess, but it was the first EV with a lithium battery. You know about the EV1. I see why Streeter calls the present the "Tesla Era," but to me that skips over some pretty significant EVs. The Mitsubishi Imiev, Nissan Leaf, and Renault Zoe all appeared at the same time as the Model S, or earlier, AND they were much more affordable. The 2012 Zoe was about 1/4 of the Model S's price. More on the Sunrise: http://evdl.org/pages/sunrise_tds.html http://evdl.org/pages/boston_ny.html http://evdl.org/docs/boston_to_ny_times_1997.pdf https://sunrise-ev.com/original.htm > I do wonder how the EV timeline might have gone if the NiMH batteries > had remained accessible to startups and pioneers. The NiMH patent encombrance was nefarious. IMO, it should have been illegal. It set back EV development about 15 years. It's hard to believe that GM so easily snowed Stan Ovshinsky. 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 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = The more money you have, the more things money will promise you - childhood, youth, happiness, respect. Before you know it, you've bought Twitter. -- Dorothy Gambrell, "Cat and Girl" = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ Address messages to [email protected] No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/
