November 15, 1996

GM SEES NEW AGE OF ELECTRIC CARS WITH PRODUCTION OF EV1

By BRIAN S. AKRE
AP Auto Writer

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors Corp. pointed toward a new age for the electric automobile as the first production EV1 coupe rolled off the assembly line Thursday.

The sleek, teardrop-shaped cars will begin appearing in the next two weeks at 26 Saturn dealerships in Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz. They will be available by lease only starting Dec. 5.

The first EV1 came off the line at GM's Lansing Craft Centre.

"The EV1 leaving this plant today is the symbolic link between all the technological advances of the past 100 years and all the possibilities that lie in the next 100 years," said GM chairman Jack Smith Jr.

The EV1 is the first step in GM's plan to create a mass market for battery-powered cars.

"It is a new era," said industry analyst Art Spinella of CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore. "Based on the research, they have a pretty good shot at establishing it as a viable retail product."

Others doubt there will be significant demand for a relatively expensive, two-seat car that has a 90-mile range and can take hours to recharge.

"GM deserves credit for trying something new," said George Peterson of AutoPacific Inc., an industry consulting firm in Santa Ana, Calif.

"But unless the market is absolutely mandated by the government, I don't think there's really a free-demand market for electric vehicles out there," he said.

Other automakers are more cautious.

Honda will offer next spring the Honda EV, a four-passenger compact car made in Japan. It will be leased only to fleet owners in Southern California and Sacramento, Calif., as part of a long-term performance test.

The EV1 and Honda EV differ from most other electric vehicles planned by the major automakers: Both are new production vehicles, rather than a conventional model modified to run on batteries.

GM has invested $350 million in the EV1 in hopes of eventually selling thousands of battery-powered vehicles as pollution-free transportation, especially in warmer cities beset by smog.

That investment has been spurred in part by California's decision to require that electric vehicles comprise 10 percent of the cars sold in the state by 2003.

The EV1 also is an image-builder for the world's largest automaker, which only recently has begun an overhaul of its aging product line.

"It needed something to break the image that it only produced stuff that's relatively low-tech," Spinella said.

Bob Purcell, GM's director of advanced vehicle technology programs, predicts the EV1 will be like the microwave oven. Initially, people wondered why they would need one. Many people own one as a second oven.

Similarly, the EV1 is intended as a second car for short commutes or trips to the store -- not cross-country journeys.

According to Spinella's research, about a third of California drivers said a car with a range of 60 miles would meet their needs 70 percent of the time. The average daily use of a Californian's second car is about 40 miles, with the longest one-way trip in a week typically only 47 miles.

The EV1, with conventional lead-acid batteries, has a range of about 90 miles in highway driving, 70 in the city. Those figures are likely to be lower if the air conditioner is on, the terrain is hilly or the driver goes fast.

The Honda EV, with high-tech nickel-metal hydride batteries, has a rated range of 125 miles in the city, but the automaker estimates its "real world" range is likely to be closer to 80 miles per charge.

Lease payments for the EV1 will range from $480 to $640 a month, depending on federal, state and local tax credits available. There is no down payment with the 36-month lease. There is an additional $50 a month fee for the wall-mounted charger.