Old Top Gear EV1 Electric

Old Top Gear from 1997
Quentin Willson roadtests the EV1 Electric

This clip was extracted from the episode that was first broadcast on the 24th April 1997

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Old
• Top
• Gear
• Quentin
• Willson
• EV1
• Electric
• BBC
• 1997
• 1997_04_24
• Los
• Angeles
• V8i
• V8

[smhorse]

This was the dream that died.

[Joshcom88]

my God I'd have bought one here in Texas,,

IF I EVER HAD A CHANCE.....

[artistwithouttalent]

I don't know how much of my comments made it up, so reply if the full thing isn't there and you care. It's not like the EV would have killed the ICE immediately; cold weather kills mileage, and since most places aren't SoCal, it's not like EVs are practical everywhere. Besides, for long-distance driving a full-on EV may not cut it, so for those trips, people would still rely on the oil companies for some time. That's the only way I can explain destroying the best PR ever

[artistwithouttalent]

@artistwithouttalent That's the only explanation that makes sense to me. It cost GM $500 million in R&D to develop the EV1, and this adds to there experience from a voluntary solar challenge they did, which shows me that they cared enough to try. I don't buy the oil companies killing it either. They could make money off of EVs; all they need is a high speed charging infrastructure, charge people 10 cents for a gallon equivalent, they could make a killing.

[artistwithouttalent]

I did a little reading on the subject and I finally figured out what happened. GM was leasing these based on an equivalent MSRP of $34,000, but it cost upwards of $100,000 to make them. They only made them because they had to, and leased them for the price they did b/c leasing them even at cost would have been cheating. When the mandate was killed, they stopped wasting their money. This would also go some distance to explain why they wouldn't accept the protester's offers.

[TheChargingPoint]

@petitus90 Stated range on the EV1 was 70 to 100 miles but Quentin Willson here states it's more like 40 or 50 miles in the real world. That was using lead acid battery technology.

Modern pure-electric vehicles with lithium ion batteries like the Nissan LEAF are greatly improved. The LEAF can easily achieve 70+ miles in real world conditions and the NEDC rates it at 109 miles of range.

Meanwhile Tesla's new Model S can do 300 miles if you have the money, but costs will decrease over time.

[mikennamorato]

Go baby Go!

[rhcplover100]

@petitus90 i don't think you noticed but this was filmed in 1997.

[petitus90]

why was this car able to drive 250 km and now 16 years later they cant get it over 100 km ??? why ?

[kaasaanfiets]

I hate GM for what they did with this care. I really REALLY like to see GM go bankrupt for what they did.

[MrThestig8]

You gotta admit...for an electric car, it looks pretty damn good.