You’ll love it and hate it–the most practical yet most impractical car you’ll ever drive.
It zips from zero to 60 miles per hour as quickly as most sports cars, but in doing so it zaps its strength and must sit for hours to regain the energy to zip again.
The car is the EV-1, General Motors’ long-awaited battery-powered vehicle that conserves that most precious commodity–petroleum–by using that most common commodity–electricity.
And you don’t have to worry about exhaust fumes because there is no exhaust system–or fumes to pass through it. In a room full of idling EV-1s, even an asthmatic wouldn’t wheeze.
Yet EV-1 is a contradiction–the best of times, the worst of times. It’s not for the impatient, the long-distance commuter, the vacationer or the family of three or more.
The 1997 model EV-1 we tested at GM’s Proving Grounds here is a two-seat, limited-use coupe that enters the market this fall in California and Arizona. It’s the first vehicle to carry the logo of GM and not one of its divisions. It will be available through 26 Saturn dealerships chosen to market it because of Saturn’s reputation for service.
It would be priced at about $35,000 if GM chose to sell the car, but you’ll only be able to lease one–for about $500 per month for 36 months–and only if you live in warm weather and battery-friendly Arizona or California. If you lease it in Arizona and move to Chicago, the car doesn’t go with you and GM cancels your lease.
In addition to the $500 per month, it will cost another $50 per month to lease the charging station to restore energy to the 26 lead-acid batteries that power the 137-horsepower electric motor that propels this car so quietly.
The absence of any propulsion or combustion noise is eerie and forced GM to build in warnings–a “beep-beep” when engaging reverse and a “chirp-chirp” when pressing the light stalk at less than 25 m.p.h. to alert pedestrians.
Teardrop-shaped, it is noteworthy for its novelties, such as the absence of door and ignition keys. You press numbers on the door to open it and numbers on the console to signal the batteries to start the electric motor. You set your own number codes.
Being an electric gadget, EV-1 can be programmed to cool or heat the cabin 15 minutes before you enter.
And to provide optimum range until more powerful nickel metal hydride batteries replace the lead acid, GM went to novel extremes to reduce air drag, from embedding the radio antenna in the roof to enclosing the car’s underbelly and housing 50-psi low-rolling resistance tires in fender skirts. The effect of air drag on range rules out a convertible.
Inside room is good–for two. The batteries are arrayed in a “T” shape down the center of the car and across the rear, where the back seat would be. Lead acid’s limited range won’t allow for the added weight of four passengers.
You get comfort but at the expense of concern. In a gas-powered car, you take a quick look at the fuel gauge and make mental note how far you can go before stopping for a few-minute fill-up.
With EV-1 you stare at the digital displays in the dash to learn miles of travel before the need for a 3- to 15-hour recharge. EV-1 replaces regular instrumentation with digital driving range, speed and “full” to “low” charge readings, the latter signaling you better get to a charger pronto.
Range will vary based on road surface (smooth, rough, winding, flat or hilly), outside temperature, weight of load, length of trip, braking habits, tire pressure, traffic density, use of accessories, throttle technique (light or heavy foot), battery capacity and age.
The digital gauge updates range (like miles to empty).
With a fresh charge, EV-1 can go 70 miles in the city and 90 on the highway before the need to plug into a socket, which takes a whole lot more time than pulling up to a pump.
The vehicle comes with a charger pack in the trunk that plugs into any 110-volt household wall outlet for a 12- to 15-hour charge. While visiting a friend, you can plug in and gain 5 to 10 miles of range– enough to get home for your full charge.
The optional $50-per-month charger provides 220-volt current to reduce charge time to three to five hours. A 440-volt charger will do the job in 13 minutes. However, it is not only too big and expensive for your home, but it also would take all the electricity for the 30 homes surrounding you.
The 440-volt chargers eventually will be in parking lots, restaurants or malls.
The 220-volt recharger is similar in size and looks to a gas pump, but you slip a plastic encapsulated copper paddle into a coupling in the nose of the car. The plastic-coating allows you to stand in a puddle or in the rain while charging without getting fried.
We used the paddle to give our test car a 91 percent charge before setting out on what we expected to be a 70- or 90-mile city/highway range of travel.
As you alter your driving habits (fast or slow) or change conditions (flat roads to hills), the power source will add miles to (or subtract miles from) that range.
We used air conditioning and drove hard over rough and hilly roads and found the display, which was giving us 43 miles of range, dropping into the 20s the harder we drove.
And EV-1 can be driven hard because it’s no golf cart. The zero-to-60 m.p.h. time of 8.5 seconds is only 1 second slower than a ’97 Plymouth Prowler. But the more you play, the more you’ll pay in recharge time because speed drains range much faster than in a gas-driven car.
One unusual note: Unlike a gas engine in which you slow down when taking your foot off the accelerator, the EV-1 continues to gain momentum so you can coast on flat roads or down hills and conserve battery power and, therefore, range. We entered a winding downhill course at 50 m.p.h., took the foot off the pedal, and two miles later were doing 65.
However, when it comes to ride and handling, the suspension is tuned for smooth, flat roads, not uneven, potholed Midwestern pavement, and that translates to harshness over bumps. The variable-effort steering is loose for parking-lot maneuvers, firm and a tad heavy on the open road.
One major woe–and the reason the car is being marketed only in warm climates–is that lead-acid batteries have little tolerance for low temperatures.
GM officials said if EV-1 has an 80-mile range on an 80-degree day in Los Angeles, it would have a 12-mile range on a zero-degree day in Chicago. Even if you stored the batteries in a heated garage, the range would rise to only 24 miles.
Nickel metal hydride batteries would provide twice the power and range and four to five times the life (estimated at 100,000 miles versus 20,000 miles with lead acid), but at many times the price.
Nickel metal hydride would allow for heavier four-door vehicles and electrics in the Midwest. EV-1 has been designed so any new technology battery would fit the lead-acid container.
EV-1 comes with lots of goodies–air, power seats, power door locks, power windows, AM/FM radio with CD player, run-flat tires with pressure sensors (no spare to add weight and reduce range), accessory power plug, dual air bags, ABS brakes and traction control. The trunk holds two sets of golf clubs. The only option is choice of red, yellow or silver/blue exterior.
GM estimates the cost of operating the EV-1 at 1 to 1 1/2 cents per mile in electricity.
GM insists it wants the first customers for its battery car to have a “worry-free environment,” so before leasing they’ll have to submit to questioning from a Saturn marketing specialist who will visit home and office to determine whether an electric is for them–and whether they have room for a 220-volt charger.
Specialists will point out that if potential customers commute 40 miles one way to work, an EV-1 isn’t for them. GM said it wants to discourage non-user trophy hunters from grabbing the cars.
GM has had 1,000 inquiries for an EV-1 but won’t say how many will be built. To keep those first customers happy, GM will pick up the cost of replacing batteries or tires and help obtain any federal, state or local tax credits for energy conservation.
But it hasn’t determined what to do with EV-1s coming off lease.
