Which is probably the way it should be. Not that I wouldn’t want to snag one from a research institution, rebuild it with a fresh powertrain/battery pack and sell it on the free market for an insane amount.

After the documentary, I expect a working EV1 is worth $100,000 or more. Barret Jackson would kill to get a piece of this action.

Hopping right on that as soon as I get a backyard and a garage.

Something I been wondering the last few weeks is why none of the small aircraft manf. like Gulfstream haven’t thought to jump into this game. Sure they would have a little learning curve for crash worthiness but not much condiering what they have to do for airframe design. They could probably build a better, lighter, stronger and more durable package to toss the motors and batteries in that they source form someone else. And a dumbed down avionics package would marry well in an all electric car, with the redundancies. Maybe I will see if they want to develop my garage project whenever I get to it.

I remember having seen an EV1 at the Petersen Museum in LA in ‘06.

I went just a few weeks ago–it’s still there.

I’m getting tired of hearing about it, but seeing no new work from ANYBODY.

It was a GM product. How hard could it be?

It was a LONG TIME AGO. Equipment and parts are much cheaper now. This should be nothing more than a slightly more complex go-cart project!

Really; how difficult could it be for somebody to make a new EV in this day and age? Come on, we’ve got geeks making rockets and airplanes in their backyards, why not an electric vehicle?

Somebody get to work on this. I’d do it myself, but I hate working on cars…

* Golf cart that is. [$$$Link]You Know Gas Prices Are High When Texans Start Driving Golf Carts: Low-Speed Electric Vehicles Catch On; Peters Family Jaunts in the Land of Giants” by Ana Campoy in the Wall Street Journal on July 31, 2008 at Page A1[$$$Link]

So it had to make the most of this juice.

Seems like this same ultra-efficient engineering package could have been largely reused as a hybrid gasoline car or even a non-hybrid (Geo Metro Xfi 1.0L/5-speed running gear, but with slicker aero)

Honda’s Insight ran a 1.0 liter engine. I’d take one straight, without the batteries.

So here it is:

Might be worth going through the slides …

Safety wasn’t an issue then, but it is now, if we’re talking about dusting off the old design and making it meet current safety standards.

Now I have to wonder how many of these are tucked away in the bowels of research universities being pieced out for various projects. Since GM has winnowed down their R&D over the last few decades, putting the EV1 in the hands of academia seems like a better fate than the crusher. And there are no support/warranty issues.

I know, I know, stop sniggering at the idea of Cornell football.

Last I heard it was sans drivetrain, long since ‘borrowed’ for some project or another.

The Insight was a Honda product.

The point is, GM engineering can get well ahead of the curve when they want to, but GM management lacks the focus to follow through. The Insight could have become the first successful hybrid, but GM seems intent on ensuring nobody realizes it.