A GM senior research manager shares his recollections on the early development timeline of the EV1 electric car
Open Access Article Originally Published: June 22, 2006
Editor's Note: Dr. Jamerson retired from GM in 1993 and readily acknowledges that his knowledge of EV1 development after that period is sketchy. If you can fill in the timeline, please share it with us in the reader’s comment, though we ask that only people directly involved in the program contribute.
Sometime in 1986 -- Roger Smith, GM’s CEO at the time, receives an invitation from Australia for GM to enter the first solar car race. He sends it to Hughes Aircraft for consideration. Comes to attention of Howard Wilson, a VP, who becomes the leader and champion for a GM entry. Howard goes to Bob Stempel, GM President, for funds and authority to engage GM engineering help. Also suggests using AeroVironment to make use of their low energy vehicle (solar aircraft) skills. Paul MacCready puts his best engineers on the job and Howard finds top automotive engineers from several GM locations,
Late 1986 Early 1987--Wilson visits Frank Jamerson, manager division and staff contacts, at GM Research and wants to know if a lightweight motor can be designed and built using powerful Magnequench magnets invented by GMR Physics Dept. (under Jamerson's watch as Dept. Head) and going into production that year at Delco Remy. Frank encourages the Electrical Engineering Dept. to design the motor and the magnets come from Remy. GMR Magnequench motor delivered to Hughes and AeroVironment.
Spring-Summer 1987-- Full effort to design, build and test the Sunraycer before the race in Nov. 1987 in Australia. Prototype tested at Desert Proving Ground in Arizona. Durability a critical issue and was well tested and improved from PG tests.
Nov 1987--Sunraycer shipped to Australia and wins 1st 2,000 mile solar car race by a wide margin. Sunraycer becomes a standard for future solar car race designs.
Original Sunraycer now resides in the Smithsonian in Washington, DC with the signatures of all the team members on the under part of the solar panel (including Frank Jamerson, though admitting to being a minor player).
Early 1988 -- Howard Wilson discusses an idea he wants to propose to Bob Stempel. The idea is to make a very efficient EV with the knowledge gained from Sunraycer but to make it an affordable car with decent range and performance equal to a gas powered car. Stempel buys the idea and work begins at AeroVironment with help from Hughes, they are the lead, and GM engineers and Styling staff on interior/exterior design. Hughes comes up with a non-contact (paddle) charger that is incorporated in the production version of the car. Lead-acid selected as the battery that could be product ionized [sic] easily and 15 kilowatt-hours of battery at around 1,200 pounds goes into the Impact, now named. Remy sets up production line for the battery.
1990 -- On January 3, GM had a press conference at Hughes Corporate HQ in Los Angeles to announce the Impact EV and let the press ride and drive. This was tied to the LA auto show. It was a smashing success. Surveys taken at the show indicated the market would accept a production version so Roger Smith (CEO at the time) announced on Earth Day, April 22, that the Impact would go into production. This was an astounding announcement that caught the Japanese by surprise and that CARB used as a signal to move toward a ZEV mandate for California.
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Reader Comments
7 comments so far...
10-May-2007
56161
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What is sadly missing from the race info is that GM spent millions and millions of dollars and got their pants scared off by Jonathan Tennyson and the Paul Mitchell sponsored land ship with a horizontal sail design fully encrusted with PVC cells. If the wind had blown, (as the research stated it always did during that time of year, but it didn't) GM wouldn't have much to crow about. The Paul Mitchell team spent a few hundred thousand. The current head of Paul Mitchell, (whose face is in every commercial), pulled the research funding after Paul's demise. see http://www.omnitable.com (electric car link at bottom) for a picture of the last EV produced by Sunterra and delivered to HELCO in Hawaii.
Posted by: Dennis McKenna
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22-Nov-2006
38083
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The EV1 was never offered for sale, so the intro to the article is false as well as misleading. All 1150 EV1 were leased, but all the 650 1997 EV1 were the subject of a "voluntary recall".
Not all of those were leased again, only to the original owners, who then were the second lessees.
These were only the upgraded cars, which were released under revised, more stringent lease conditions. Consequently, all 1150 of the EV1 which were produced were leased, some of them twice.
Posted by: Doug Korthof
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06-Jul-2006
27585
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General Moters made an extremely bad decision to discontinue the EV1. They could have given Toyota some real competition. The EV1 platform could have been used to produce electric cars that would out perform and out sell the Prius by a considerable amount.
Electric Cars are the wave of the future because they are non polluting, quiet, require less maintainence, and are considerable more energy efficient than ICE engines, Hybrids, or Fuel cells.
The GM CEO that made the decision to discontinue the EV1 and electric cars is paid 1000 times more than he is actually worth and should be replaced with men with more foresight and vision.
Posted by: Herbert Dorsey
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29-Jun-2006
26909
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I'm not sure that Mr. Adams comments about the NiMH batteries are accurate. I had both a Gen I and Gen II EV1 in Phoenix between June of 1997 and October of 2003. My Gen I was upgraded to the Advanced Lead Acid batteries and I did realize an immediate and significant improvement in mileage. The upgrade was done in anticipation of me renewing my lease on the Gen I. Unfortunately my car was recalled after the fire experienced by a California owner.
I then decided to get a Gen II which came with the Advanced Lead Acid Panasonics. I don't believe the NiMH were ever an option in Arizona because our summer temps regularly exceeded the 105 degrees which seemed to render them ineffective. I believe only California drivers had these vehicles available.
I had the pleasure of being an EV1 'owner' for a little less than 6 and 1/2 years. I drove approximately 98,000 miles between the 2 cars. I wish I could say I did it for noble reasons. I did it because it was the most fun I've ever had driving. I have a photo of my local Saturn dealer and the GM rep pulling me out of the vehicle by my legs while I grasped the steering wheel, which was the only way I told them they would be able to get it from me.
Posted by: Philip Goldberg
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25-Jun-2006
26514
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There is an obvious error in this report that I don't think was intentional. The article says that half the EV1s were fitted with NiMH batteries implying that about 300 of the original 660 EV1s were upgraded. This just insn't true. The original batch of cars were upgraded with Panassonic LEad Acid batteries and this pushed their range up to about 110 miles per charge. There was a second batch of 500 EVs built and most of these were fitted with NiMH batteries with some, mostly sold in Arizona and the low desert area of Southern California. The NiMH batteries as they were originally stored upped the range to about 160 miles but had some heat problems because the T shaped tunnel they were stored in wasn't adequately ventilated. The problem was fixed by using the AC to cool the batteries but this dropped the range down to about 130 miles per charge.
I have driven both versions of the EV1 and they were both just fantastic cars to drive. Unfortunately GM wouldn't allow me to lease one - just plain said no. If you want to make a car successful, particularly one that would that is revolutionary, you can't do it by saying "no" to good customers, saying "you can lease but not buy", making it available from a limited number of dealerships in two states.
BTW - did you know that GM would not allow a lessee to take their vehicle out of the coverage area. If you had leased one in Lake Tahoe, CA then moved 100 yards up the road to Stateline, NV you woulod have had to return the car to GM.
Posted by: Noel Adams
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25-Jun-2006
26535
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2004- protesters offered to buy EV1s instead of have them crushed, 25K offers refused.
GM crushes all of the EV1 vehicles they took back from lease holders. I saw them in Mesa AZ at the dis-proving gr(i)ouds.
2005- About 50 EV1 drive train S-10 pickup trucks were owned by private utilities and citizens. All were bought and refurbished by a private company. Many have been refitted with NiMH batteries.
2006- Fact=Many innovative companies are now planning to relase EVs with lithium batteries. Tesla, AC Propulsion, Subaru, Mitsubishi, UEV, MilesAutomotive to name just a few. 100-300 mile range will become standard.
2007- I Estimate that Gas reaches $8 a gallon in the USA. Only hybrids and EVs can afford to drive on the roads. fact=Germany hit $8 in 2005.
2008- Hybrids start using lithium batteries. 100 mpg becomes the standard.
Posted by: jim stack
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30-Jun-2006
26959
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A very little known, properly professional automobile AND not coincidentally, large cell phone battery manufacturing company, is thought to be introducing a fully electric car at some point, soon. In fact, in the 2005-2006 World of Cars book http://www.worldofcars.pl/ the section relating to this manufacturer states plainly that an F3 car WILL be introduced with a 50kw (68hp) electric motor.
This company is called BYD, and is in China. Once you get to their website for the auto company, you can click on "English" on the top right area (unless, of course, you can read Chinese).
http://www.bydauto.com.cn/
There is one fly in the ointment. The BYD F3 car is a virtual clone of the new Toyota Corolla; thus, until such time as BYD design their own C-class car to replace it, there is no way that the EF3 (electric car) could be sold elsewhere in the world.
However, if you read this article in autoindex, you'll note further plans by BYD to introduce their "own design" cars - including an F6 car which is also on their corporate website and apparently, now in production.
Hopefully the planned, own-designed F4 station wagon (which will share the gasoline engine of the F3) will be adaptable to the electric motor and batteries.
Could it just be the Chinese who manage to introduce an affordable, "real" car which happens to be powered solely by electricity, for the mass market?
I guess we'll see.
Posted by: Glenn Arlt
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