How General Motors Killed the First Modern Electric Car
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- čas přidán 20. 01. 2023
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I was selected to be a test driver for the EV-1. I had it for 3 weeks, I believe. I had to keep a record of every time I drove it. The local electric company came to my house to install a charging station (which did not run through my electric meter so I did not have pay to charge it). I found it to be surprisingly quick, but I thought it had an awful ride. The tires were way too skinny. But it was one of the more interesting things I’ve done in my life. At the end of the program, GM held a huge dinner for all of us who participated. I got a little crystal thing with a pic of the car inside it, which I still have on my office shelf to this day.
What is the Chrystal tchotchke worth today?
That’s fucking awesome.
The tires were too skinny...?
@@LeastTresCharLargo YES... the thinner the tires the less resistance on the street. but as a result the car was awful on turns.
@@dannyperrino5308 huh. I've never experimented with different tire sizes although I've heard that for the best gas mileage in general you would want thin tires that are also tall/high.
That being said I can kind of picture what you're talking about. Keep in mind I've been driving the same vehicle since I had my learners permit.
I worked for GM Hughes Electronics (which was heavily involved in developing the Impact) during this time. I've never been more ashamed of a company I was associated with than I was with GM when they destroyed the EV-1 fleet.
Would it have even been legal for them to sell or keep the EV1s? Did they go through all the certifications necessary to be sold as production vehicles? The Chrysler Turbine Car was in a similar situation, and never did get certified, so they legally had to destroy almost all of them.
I was a teen when they did it. I hated them for it.
@@Bertinator-nm9ld I mean they leased them to the public, so they must have been road legal.
@@Bertinator-nm9ld If you're asking if the EV1 was approved for use on public roads as a production car, yes it was.
@@millpreetk1406 The Chrysler turbine car was lent out to cars, though not leased. And they vehicle wasn't legal for sale. I don't know the whole process, but I know Chrysler avoided paying import duties on certain parts for that car by agreeing to crush them at the end of the test program. I don't know if GM had similar stuff going on with this one.
It's amazing how GM can have a massive headstart on something and be shortsighted enough to kill it and allow others to massively surpass them.
The dealerships service departments would be rendered useless. Major profits would be lost. Watch the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car". They interview a mechanic from a dealer that serviced those cars. They had dedicated techs for the EV-1 fleet. The mechanic said all they ever did for the EV-1 was check tire pressure and clean the windsheild. The dude had been servicing cars for over a decade. He never went home with dirty hands after they assigned him to the EV-1.
@@rage242 I'm well aware and have watched the documentary. But again I'm shocked that they're so shortsighted. They could've been leaders in the market. It would've been "Elon Musk who? That guy from Paypal?"
GM could have become a trillion dollar company like tesla but they blew it
@@ChineseWinnie Tesla is not a trillion dollar company.
@@rage242 Not anymore, but it was. It is still highly valued at like $300 billion market cap. Compare it to any other car manufacturer...
Scheduled to be shipped beginning on December of 1975, the first Brazilian electric vehicle called Itaipu E150, from the former manufacturer Gurgel, suffered from short range and complexity to manufacture. That's a piece of history that Brazil didn't write because of politicians being against that innovation too.
Based politicians
Also after the oil companies bought the NiMH battery tech they prevented anyone from making bigger cells than D type as they did not want to people to use them for other EV's, after the patent expired it was said someone was working on NiMH that had much more capacity so would have been able to compete with lithium ions back in the day but because the oil companies prevented this it held things back for years.
The oil companies play as dirty as they pollute
yeah enough time has went by they are now investing the the energy grid an ready to sell you energy..That could just come from the sun....
You know, this is the same reason we're only just discovering bidets in our toilets in the United States in the 2020s. This technology has been around since the 1970s, and Japan has them all over. The paper companies were worried about a threat to their profits because there would be less toilet paper needed, so they leveraged their lobbyists in Congress to outlaw it altogether. Multi-National corporations don't want "Innovation." Innovation is a threat to the established order and their profits. =O
@@mr.boomguy ah ok someone who thinks efficient cars and trucking hasn’t made his life better than without.
@@danh5637 how on God's good earth can one even put so many words in someone's mouth
Very similar to how Kodak developed the first digital camera and killed the program because they thought this new product will eat into their existing business. See where Kodak is now.
Same with Xerox. I was a low-level tech for them back in the 80s and heard about their Xerox Alto GUI interface computer which they developed back in the late 70s. I mentioned it to my boss one day and told him how great it was and he just shrugged it off as a distraction for the company. Xerox could have owned the computer world. Instead, Steve Jobs took the concept of the GUI interface and ran with it. The toner-heads at Xerox just didn't have the vision to capitalize on their own innovation.
@@MisterLumpkin Even iPad was inspired by Microsoft half ass attempts at Tablets
Not really applicable, GM is making some solid electric cars.
@@rmkensington Yeah, now that they have no choice. They could have been 10-20 years ahead, though.
@@rmkensington completely applicable - GM could have been the world leader in EV car manufacturing, instead of being dragged, kicking and screaming. Such shortsighted corporate leadership - it’s pathetic.
Imagine how far the industry could've advanced if corrupt lobbyists didn't ruin everything.
I think nowhere... The electric car is evolution dead end... Hydrogen fuel maybe, but the electric cars are too limited by the battery capacity and recharging speed.
@@radosawnowak9331 Saying that today is just false, except for a few case (
@@radosawnowak9331 if you willfully ignore a bunch of promising battery technology, sure... but why would you?
The idea of "corrupt lobbyists" kinda presupposes the existence of a "pure" system that doesn't create lobbyists through its basic reward structure. Lobbyists are the normal functioning of a system built on encouraging ruthlessness and greed. An unsurprising by-product of turning life into a zero-sum game.
@@LifeInJambles we will see, anything that relies on goverment grants is corrupt. The better technology will win anyway, but at least for now the electric cars are worse.
Crazy to see how many things that would have been good for the public were killed by nothing more than corporate greed. Excellent video
But the battery technology wasn‘t ready anyway so. Doubt it would have found success.
The public just don't know what's good for them, right?
If the rich kill people to make money(Lockheed Martin), the environment is not even an issue to them.
@@thomasjoyce7910"we know whats good for you so we wont even leave it as an option"
Yes, it's "market forces" in action.@@thomasjoyce7910
This was an awesome 20-minute version of the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car" - worth a watch, as well as its sequel "Revenge of the Electric Car", both products of their time. "Who Killed" was made in middle of the dark decade of the mid-2000s in the aftermath; "Revenge" was made at the start of the 2010s' EV revival.
I agree. I'm in Who Killed the Electric Car, and even got a couple brief spots in this one. The director got most everything right. I helped organize the 28 day vigil to save the last 78 EV1s from being crushed as depicted in the film. We lost that battle, but as of today, we are winning the war. We're going to end the manufacture of internal combustion engines in just over a decade, possibly sooner, finding the elements for sufficient batteries is the bottle neck. But demand for EVs now outpaces supply, and I'm betting that will remain the case until our fleet is 100% electric, and our grid is ~99% renewable. We win!
Featuring the great activist, Ralph Nader (of Unsafe at any Speed). Ralph was right, again!
I remember when the EV1 was killed off despite protests from the public and have always thought since then Tesla would eventually meet the same fate. Somehow the oil companies will find a to kill off the electric car again. It is unlikely now but it seemed like a credible threat up until just a few years ago. I remember GM canceling the Chevy volt in 2019 thinking here we go again.
@@sunpwrd until they keep smacking our electricity prices up so they have more control over us. I love my tesla, but every 3 months here in the UK that goes by makes the car less viable compared to ICE, due to charging prices
@@Novusod - The Japanese, Korean & Chinese manufacturers would have pressed on, further outpacing the West in future electric technologies and developments, etc. GM could have ruled the whole space, but there was more money in Bush's war and those Humvees. The Military Industrial Complex struck again.🎯
This car still has something futuristic about it in terms of design. It kinda reminds me of those concept cars you'd see in the 50's and 60's.
Better looking than all current EVs
It looked like what the 90s would call futuristic, but now it looks weak and quaint.
The EV-1s kind of looked like the early 1990s Saturn SL-1s and SL-2.
@@michaeljozwiak25 I owned an early Saturn SL-2. It was a lot of fun! Then GM came along and ruined everything
@@bobdouglass8010 Yeah. I owned a 1994 SL-1 for nearly 10 years, until it was totaled from behind.
It's kinda crazy to think that if Tesla didn't push EVs as hard as they did in 2000s, we still to this day wouldn't have any real change in EV market.
TESLA built the ROADSTER in responce to the EV1 being crushed.
Tesla is a dead man walking of motor industry.
@@princesssolace4337 - NOPE, Tesla is SECURE for the NEXT Decade, Tesla has $22+ million in cash , and is a Money PRINTER in 2023.
Tesla sold over 1.3+ MILLION vehicles in 2022, in 2023 Tesla will OUTSELL Mercedes and AUDI gas cars .
let that SINK in.
2023 Tesla on track to over 3+ MILLUION vehicles sold.
Founded in 1995 as a battery company, BYD produced the world's first mass-produced electric car in 2003.
Exactly and now we have superior vehicles that GM tried to kill a long time ago!
I worked for an IBEW contractor at McClellan AFB in 2001 in an old warehouse remodel. Inside were a dozen of these cars in clean driveable condition. I was told why they were there, their story. Upon realizing what GM had pulled, my stomach literally hurt for a moment. A very strange sensation, almost sickening. I totally agree with Dave Martins comment. Not something that you forget.
Liar 🤥
Finally. Someone big who properly takes this story and pieces it together.
You mean after the thousands of newspaper and magazine articles, the 2008 documentary, and the Wikipedia entry?
Feel free to also watch “Who killed the electric car”
this story was pieced together many times before .. years ago
Although, I guess as people have commented, this story has been covered before, I will at least agree with you that this may be either one of the best or may be the best presentation that I've seen on the subject of the EV one. This ColdFusion dude definitely gets it right :-)
Jay Leno has one of those early wooden EV's. You can probably still see it on CZcams.
Also, I have seen the documentary on the Impact maybe 20 years ago.... 🤔
Yep, big oil.
My family had the first version of this with lead-acid batteries. Maybe 30 miles of range. Cool paddle home charger and a weird digital dash that Honda borrowed later. I was a kid, it was the coolest possible show-and-tell.
I have the Honda with the borrowed dash haha… Love G1 Insights
got any pics of it? I used to work for Saturn and still keep in touch with some folks, they'd love to see pics of families enjoying their car. :)
you must come from a celebrity family and or rich
@@1greenMitsi You have a strange perception of a 30 mile range economy car.
@@artsmith103 they leased them out in limited numbers to rich ppl and celebrities. Average joes couldnt get one
EV1's were a common sight at a now closed GM fuel cell development facility in Honeye falls NY, some engineers used them for regular commuting, though the winters required a large draw on the batteries for the EV1 resistance heating, which reduced the range for some to forgo the heat in order to make the commute, whereupon the chargers in the parking lots recharged them for the return commute, GM withdrew them and placed them in storage for later destruction, the spare EV1 parts at the facility were also destroyed. They were a heavy (lead acid batteries) but fast little car with puncture proof tires, lots of fun to drive
This was so fascinating!! As an automotive history enthusiast, I really appreciate you making this video. Thanks, Dagogo.
If you're ever in LA take a visit to the Petersen Collection, they have an EV-1 on display; probably the coolest exhibit in the entire museum even if it does make you feel a little sad that it was killed off
A few universities that received donated EV-1's had students build controllers from scratch and put the cars back on the road for demo purposes. GM lost their shit and slapped them for violating the terms of the donation by making the cars work again. Such as odd behavior I always thought.
There's also a red EV-1 at The Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI
The Smithsonian museum of history and technology in Washington DC also has one.
@@joes9954 There are huge liability issues for a company like GM if they allow a prototype on the road. No doubt the EV-1s were given to the universities as museum pieces with the agreement that they would be disabled and never made to run.
@@mrdanforth3744 It's a completely road worthy vehicle that passed all DOT requirements. It's no different than putting a different engine or changing the programming on a regular car. No, GM did not want anyone to even see these cars operate lest they stayrt asking for them. They only returned to EVs kicking and screaming because Tesla proved the demand and made a successful business case that GM chose to completely flush down the toilet because once again corporate short shortsightedness. Just like Kodak and digital photography, Xerox and the GUI and mouse, and many others. They even took an EV-1 and added a gas engine to charge the batteries. They essentially has a Prius before Toyota yet they ended up not proceeding as they did not see it as profitable. Oops. What might have been,
I remember seeing one of these when I was a kid. My friends and I were blown away by the concept. I've always wondered what happened to those vehicles. Thanks D.A.!
There's a good documentary from 2006 called "Who killed the electric car?"
czcams.com/video/k96tIRjxzw0/video.html
@@edstar83 I'll check it out
i remember watching the documentary Who killed the Electric Car with my dad growing up, being Canadian , judging Americans and bush, dreaming of electric cars, he is now delighted with is Chevrolet Bolt.
I saw as well years ago. (I think I rented it from Blockbuster!) 16:08 I think this scene is from that documentary.
If you get excited over driving a Chevy Bolt, wait until he drives a Tesla for the first time!
They are all happy, especially when racing against Ferraris and Porches, until the day they try to sell their EVs and found out they ain't worth much!
I feel you. I adore my 2018 Chevrolet Volt LT. I named her Stitch. She has some hail damage because Indiana's weather sucks sometimes, but I can't bear to part with her. She's like a beloved family pet to me.
It was the CARB mandate that was the issue. It wasn't an issue until they tried to force it
I remember this ColdFusion episode from a few years back, and I'm so glad to see it back and updated. It's one of the most interesting stories and, my, were those little EV1s soooooo good looking!
I wonder what the GE Executives were thinking seeing the meteoric rise of Tesla. Could they have been the Tesla if they didn't scrap their EV programme?
Now they are seeing the meteor Tesla come crashing down and imploding. I doubt they really cared about either, they already got their money.
If GM had kept developing and refining EV tech when they had the chance, there would be no Tesla today. But now they are playing catch-up.
They couldn't manage to do the research and development with all the MILLIONS of dollars obama gave them in government bailouts.. I though he was the messiah.. @@MisterLumpkin
@@marcodarko6941 The EV1 was developed, deployed and then destroyed a decade before Obama became president. What has he got to do with any of this? Perhaps if GM had continued development of the EV back in the 90s, they wouldn't have 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙚𝙙 to be bailed out. The big three automakers market share shrank from 71% in 1998 to 41% in 2009. Why? Because they made stupid decisions, like killing off the next generation of motor vehicles when they could have been the market leader.
Rick Wagner was the CEO of GM during the EV-1 years. Here’s a quote from an article I read, “Wagoner-who left GM after decades of bad decisions forced the company into bankruptcy in the financial crisis, and required a huge government bailout- told Motor Trend magazine that killing the EV1 was his worst decision”. Imagine that, Wagner feels that killing the EV-1 was a bigger mistake than driving GM into bankruptcy!
The amount of corruption in this country is absurd. It’s disgusting the amount of executives that are so concerned about their own pockets that they will do anything to prevent progress.
People who think that having morals is bad for them.
They were thinking about corporate profits. They are a publicly traded company. The technology in battery was not ready and the market was too small. They could not recoup the cost, that is why they leased them.
Capitalism does not prevent progress, capitalism has been the biggest force for progress in all of humankind.
The corruption in the US is not as bad as the corruption in Africa
@@ralphmillais5237 that is very true, but in my opinion, there’s a fine line between capitalism and corporate greed. I understand that there are investors and employees, etc that need to be happy but that doesn’t mean stop progres
Thank you for covering this. I was so envious whenever I would see one of these cars riding on Route 1 in Boston. I was cruising in my Nissan 240SX then. I never understood what happened to them until I read an article in 2015.
It is so frustrating how corporate greed has many times set back humanity progress and hinder a better future. This people who did these acts honestly are on a similar level to committing crimes against humanity...
I agree completely with this. These people should be ashamed
If we didn't have religion and politics, we'd be hundreds if not thousands of years more advanced than we are now. All so some already rich people can make more money and control everything.
@@gothnate I was going to say the same thing 👍
@@TheologyVGM Not just ashamed, behind bars. Somehow criminally liable for taking advancements away for political and business reasons. If you develop a forward thinking product and deliberately take it off the market or patent troll to prevent it from growing, you're doing absolutely no one a favor. Why we are so invested in backing this ridiculous profit above people mentality in this country, I'll never understand.
@@gothnate guess what happens without religion? the current woke stupidity becomes religion.
I don’t normally comment but, gosh damn man what our future could’ve been if people weren’t so greedy. A fantastic history lesson Dagogo thank you.
could have been? not much different than now, just 5-6 years earlier.
Wait till you hear about Rockfeller and the pharmaceutical industry
@Alexander Kale 'shell' entered the chat... what a silly thing to write. 500km range is plenty stop with the misinformation.
Dagogo is my favorite teacher in school that I never had 😢
@@Alexander_Kale All you just said is wrong. Model 3 reaches 500 kilometers in regular commute use, +300 on german Autobahn. Some affordable EVs, with +100 miles of real world range, are almost the price of their petrol siblings already. Gasoline needs to be processed with HUGE amounts of pollution, unlike solar power from our roof. Speaking of... What's difficult about charging your car in your garage? Stop spreading false information and right wing propaganda.
Followed you for the past couple of years and I will say this you are one of the most consistent people in the tech corner of youtube thank you coldfusion
except he said "gas powered" to describe a liquid...
@@joejoe2658 technically speaking, the fuel is evaporated into the combustion chamber via carburetor, sprayed in to evaporate in the intake manifold or sprayed directly in the cylinder. It is the vapor of petrol that combusts. So technically he is right.
Thanks, mate, this is a good one. Typically, Dagogo style 😎
Two minutes papers & Dr Ben Miles will blow your cranium
EU vs US thing, they call it 'Petrolium' in Europe & 'Gas' (short for GASOLINE not the state of matter) in the US. So people get hung up on when somebody calls it gas for the first time.
I remember reading about these in motoring magazines at the time. Those aerodynamics were incredible. Makes you wonder why todays electric vehicles are generally massive land barges. They'd be so much better if they went back to the days of lightweight and aerodynamic
The EV-1 weighed 1,400 kg or about 3,000 lbs. It was the size of a modern VW Golf but slightly heavier.
As recently as 2005 there were still 77 EV-1's at a Burbank, CA lot that had yet to be destroyed. I remember the local news reporting on a vigil that some of the people that drove them were holding at the lot so GM wouldn't crush them and I'm pretty sure actor Ed Begley, Jr. of ER fame was there too as the most famous owner of one those cars.
I became fascinated with the story of the EV-1 after seeing one in-person in an auto museum in Cleveland, OH several years back. GM donated a few EV-1's to museums across the nation around the time the vehicles were recalled, but with the stipulation that they were first internally stripped of components and unable to move on their own power, let alone legally drive on the road. Several of these exist still as virtual husks for the sake of historical artifacts. At least one EV-1 was donated to a university for students to use as a study aid and testbed, and was allowed limited functionality and could move on it's own power. But again, stripped components rendered it incapable of legally driving on roads. You can find old footage of this vehicle on CZcams if you look for it. I don't know if that vehicle still exists. I've also seen footage of an independent group of amateurs who were attempting to rebuild a functional EV-1 drivetrain from parts that survived scrapyards, last I saw I believe they were at least partially successful. Again, that footage was old, and can be found on CZcams. Finally, I've seen footage of one complete EV-1 and it's associated home charging system in a storage garage supposedly dated to sometime post-recall, suggesting at least one person managed to sequester one away from GM for a time. I get the fuzzy feeling it was rediscovered as part of a storage auction, but I'm probably wrong about that. Footage of that might be harder to find, but it's out there.
Yes, my university has a working EV-1 and I walk by it daily! My University, Missouri University of Science and Technology, has one on display in the Electrical Engineering department. It was, like you said, stripped of critical components when donated but the motor and drivetrain were intact. However, the critical motor controller was removed. Luckily, we had the knowledge to build a new one so a bunch of professors and students did just that and got it driving again. It is now covered in dust and has flat tires but it is still one of the few, if any, that was actually able to be driven again after they were stripped and donated.
@@gavinsauer1608 I'm happy to hear that, not only does that particular vehicle still exist, but that it was made properly functional once again! I'm sure recreating that engine controller was just for the sake of being a fun teaching aid, but I like to imagine those involved did it mostly to spite GM. Would be cool if someone on campus could make a video or something documenting its current state. It would be by far the most recent demonstration of a working example in the wild. Thanks for keeping us informed on its whereabouts!
Any test prototype creates huge legal liabilities for the manufacturer if they allow it on the road. If you want a GM electric car just buy a Volt or a Bolt. Both are way better than anything they had in 1996. Unfortunately they went out of production as the public wouldn't buy them.
I have been driving an EV for over 7 years now, same car the entire time. It still works flawlessly and amazes me daily. I bought it back in 2015 in the early day's of the current EV push and got an awesome deal on it as the dealership just wanted it off the floor. It wasn't selling and was taking up space. It's a little different now! I'll likely have this one for another few years before getting another. It still runs like new and has never had a repair, just annual checkups. It's a pity it took so long to get us here. Thanks for nothing, GM!
Can you describe your driving environment: climate, elevation changes, distance daily/weekly/monthly, payload, charging volts/amps, etc.
what car is that?
@@artsmith103 For all that you would be better off checking the web for the specs on a few different EVs. I will say that most of my driving is short to medium range. Temps range from 105F to -20F and the terrain is relatively flat +/- several hundred feet.
@@ChrisHaupt 2015 Nissn Leaf
@@jamesthompson3099 The point is you are a happy EV driver, so what is your use? Sounds like very light use. Then people needing more use can see that with normal use, the devil is in the details. Also suspect that you can't more accurately describe your situation.
If you are ever near Rolla, MO, the Missouri University of Science and Technology has an EV-1 on display in one of its buildings. As far as I know it was given to the university without the electric motor and most of the wiring, but students and faculty were able to get it working again, more or less. It still works to this day and it has even been seen on the road in very rare circumstances (usually only on St. Patrick's Day as part of the town's parade)
Excellent production. I always enjoy a cold fusion video. Informative and captivating
It's too bad none of these previous owners was daring enough to report it stolen, store it away in some storage unit in the desert, and uncover it today for a Doug DeMuro review.
Toyota wasn't able to reclaim all of their's. There were a few rav ev's on the road for a while.
Francis Ford Coppola did hide his EV-1 and didn't give it back to GM.
@@sam-ww1wk Toyota owned their, but the license on the NiMH batteries didn't allow them to make a vehicle with a charge plug. They got busted for the Rav4e, and ended up paying a fine, and it is also part of the reason why they didn't ship a plug-in prius.
I am guessing the test drivers were all very affluent (6-digits income in 1990s?!). Non-compliance was not worth it.
I had an EV 1979, a Mercedes Benz test vehicle. They took it back after 6 months and I never saw it again.
Thanks for doing the leg work!! I know a tiny bit of each era of electric vehicles, but now I know more because of you. 😊
It's depressing to think we could've had electric cars much earlier.
Really? If the lobbyists are serious about environmental, they shud have full send the project in the logistics transport industry. Get rid of the Mack , Peterbuilt and other diesel trucks.
We cud reduce A LOT in transportation cost , but no one did. Even Elon is full of shit
The battery tech wasn't good enough
@@alphatrion100 Bingo.
@@alphatrion100 And it still isn't enough.
@@alphatrion100 The battery tech was good enough back in the 1800s for the average daily commute of today (40-50 miles at 20 MPH). That's all some people want, though at higher speeds. Even if we just used them part-time to run around town and used an ICE vehicle for long distances, we'd still be ahead in terms of technology and pollution today. Since EVs were supplanted in the early 1900s, battery tech kind of just stopped for a long time. We didn't see the first indication of "new" battery tech until 1985 when the first Li-ion battery was invented. Sure, we had Ni-Cad batteries in rechargeable cordless devices, but imagine if we'd have kept going 130 years ago with no real interrupts. There's really no telling where we'd be now.
Even back in the 1830s when the first EV was invented, the electric locomotive was destroyed by railway workers because they saw it as a threat to their jobs. There is way more to this story than the video lets on.
www.caranddriver.com/features/g15378765/worth-the-watt-a-brief-history-of-the-electric-car-1830-to-present/
Congrats on 4 million! Been here since you were ColdFusTion and had 300k subs, still subscribed to you on my old as well. It's always great when you make technology history videos, I find them more worthwhile than the latest finance fraud drama. Anyways cheers!🍷
Hmm... I think I joined during the ColdFusionTV phase, at maybe half a million subs or so?
haha same, it was a bit of a shit name. And I cannot think of another video producer that deserves that amount of attention than Dagogo
Same here but I don't remember the Sub count. But it was low.
same here!
Who cares 😆
I test drove the EV-1 at EPCOT Center back in '97. Slow but very interesting experience. I still have the original brochure they gave me with the assisted test drive at the expo fair.
On another note, I also have the original DMC-12 DeLorean dealer brochure back from '81. Took a guided test drive too. Never owned either of those cars, though.
The brochure and memories is just as good as owning the car. You’re leaving out the terrible maintenance to keep them on the road.
@@markm0000 maintenance on electric vehicles is little to none. I can understand the maintenance on the engine and transmission for the DeLorean but the Stainless steel body has little to no maintenance.
Would have been awesome if the DeLorean was electric back then.
@@markm0000 The EV-1 was more like a prototype, you couldn't even buy it. More R&D could have been done to make it a much better vehicle.
@@Mr_Battlefield The video mentioned not replacing air filters. That seems odd, wouldn't just regular stuff accumulate in any air filter? (side note: I bought a Leaf and its by far the best car I had, its so nice not to have to wait in line at a CostCo or ever deal with Jiffy Lube or something)
Lucky you, not owning either of those terrible cars.
Watching your videos since 9 years. Great content. Would love it more if video quality was bumped to 2k or 4k resolution. :)
The string section that comes in around 14:00 really fits and accentuates the mood for that scene. Great video.
I distinctly remember that whole story back in that day. Somebody did a huge, 20-minute news piece on it. Then Michael Moore covered it in his 1st doc. about Roger Smith and G.M. One thing is for sure Dagogo, they are now here to stay. About a year ago, I FINALLY recognized the Tesla symbol. Every time I go anywhere, I see a number of them!
Same. Teslas are everywhere where I live now, can't really go a day without seeing one. A few years ago spotting one was so rare it was exciting.
@@computertutorials1286 Here in Santa Monica, they are almost every tenth car. That's not an exaggeration. You stand at any intersection and there will not be a single light change that doesn't have at least one Tesla driving through, and usually several. They are everywhere! And now that the price has dropped it's going to get even better.
Great vid! 👍🏼 Very informative and well presented! Thx for posting! 🙏🏼
I had no idea the initial EV push was to that extent, lasting over a decade and being fairly prevalent. And I didn't know there were multiple attempts at an EV transition since, nor that so many automakers produced EVs in the 90s. We had to look them up, and now my girlfriend is in retro-love with the MiEV xD
Funny that the EV1 also had a keypad instead of a key, and amazing that it had a drag coefficient of 0.19! The upcoming Aptera supposedly has a 0.13! =0
Thanks for making this. The little interview and review snippets were great.
Excellent documentary bringing forgotten historical information back to the surface.
Great video ColdFusion as always. And timely, as it's only been a couple of days since the state of Wyoming proposed a ban on EV sales (similar reasons that you talked about here).
Virginia also just blocked a EV battery plant in the State. This is the worldview of about half of all Americans; Americans are socialized to hate one another. This pathetic cultural pathology is the core of American ideals. A "Lost Cause" mindset of returning to a perception of American greatness. There is nothing "great" about America, never has been, and never will be. It's just like every other Country, only with far more skeletons in her closet.
Just imagine what the world would have looked like today if we would have always stuck with EVs?!
We would be far behind where we are today. Until very recently, the battery technology simply did not exist. The economy would have struggled without the cheap transport afforded by ICE vehicles.
ICE vehicles made us rich and it is that wealth that allows us to now move past the ICE age.
@@apostolakisl You're not taking into account the systemic implications of keeping with electric transport for 150 years. We can't even imagine how things would have been and what people would have discovered in such a timeline. Our entire world infrastructure is built around ICE cars. This wouldn't have been the case in an alternative scenario. We would naturally adapt and plan in regards to the battery technology that was available. Advancements would have been discovered faster, too. Lithium was commercially produced in large quantities as early as the 1920's.
Before even finishing this video I know this will be a certified classic. I’m surprised you haven’t made a video about this years ago! ;)
the best research, entertaining and produced youtube channel. And the music is excellent
As with your video content, I am equally obsessed with your music. It has become a staple during my commutes and road trips.
Imagine showing a Tesla to someone right back with these first EV's. It would blow their minds
EV1 was the tesla of the day.
Imagine if Elon was around back then. We love you Elon!!!
@@retrogamer2548 He was around. And he was driving a McLaren F1.
Imagine showing a Tesla to someone now! It still blows their minds!
I've just noticed something about the EV1, the rear turn signals are amber/orange. That _might_ mean the car was destined for a ROW release. That suggests GM _might_ have seen International (or at least European) potential for EV1. Damn.
You’re right! That sucks :(
"rear turn signals are amber/orange" - what colour are they in the US?
@@kiwitrainguyThere’s no standard. Some are amber, others are red. The latter are kind of a growing plague here
That outro 🎶 is 🔥🔥🔥, glad that you're finally following your true passion which also happens to receive appreciation from people. Proud of you mate.
Get a room geez
It enrages me that we 'plebs' have to save every last drop of water, wear winter jackets in our own homes to save energy and the environment, while corporate greed grows worse and worse. This world could have been a utopia if it wasn't for corporate greed.
If only our leaders were angels...
We were lucky while 'plebs' in western civilization were actually useful (idiots)... Now we can be blamed for all... And punished.
But corporations are nothing without bought government powers
It goes way beyond just corporate greed. It's the world of finance and the banks behind this whole system that pushes corporations to increase the value of their stocks indefinitely. It's a systemic flaw, where greed is a virtue that makes investors invest in your business. Every single person who has money in the hands of investment banks is part of the problem. Generally, making money with money. That's the core problem. Firms like BlackRock handle TRILLIONS of dollars, and decide which businesses are good investments and which are not.
It's not just individual greed. The whole structure of economics is geared towards constant growth. Any executive who compromises growth in the interests of basic ethics will never make it to the upper ranks, and those who do develop a conscience will be swiftly replaced by shareholders who have an obligation to maximise returns for their own customers. Without constant growth the whole system collapses in economic ruin.
"Trust the government :)" - The government.
Greed and corruption is just as widespread in the public sector as it is in the private sector. Bashing "big oil" won't change the fact you'll be waiting in bread lines, its just a decision of which authoritarian regime you'd rather have. A corporation, or a government.
Would have been a utopia with capitalism
congratulations on your 4m subs man! been great watching your videos
Another well made documentary, always a pleasure watching.
I remember these well. Living where I do in Santa Barbara / Montecito, Ca I saw several of these regularly. We were all pretty amazed by its silence. No gears either. I think I rode in one shortly but I was like 12. I remember seeing them at the lots. Range was a big issue but price for what it offered left it really for the rich as a novelty to show off or a few environmentalists. It was cool when it came out for sure.
There was no "price" for this vehicle as they were lease only. They were never for sale nor was it ever planned to be allowed to be for sale. The ev1-2 was a gimic to "prove" to consumers and government that they were not "profitable" and never would be. A planned failure if there ever was one!!!
I remember these. The USA missed a huge opportunity to lead the market 30 years ago. Greed isn't always good.
That's not what our current form of capitalism thinks 🙁
@@earthling_parth boo hoo ;(
Tesla is American
If the US missed an opportunity to lead the market, isn't that a missed opportunity to make a lots of money? Why didn't someone else step in to make a bunch of money, or was nobody else greedy enough to make electric cars and lots of money?
@@jevandezande The someone else is China
Been with you for some time. Thank you for putting so much effort into these videos Dagogo
I first saw the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car" about 15 years ago. We rented a video back then. Thanks for getting the information out to the public again.
Great video, and congrats on 4M !! Well deserved sir
In your historical review of the EV's beginnings at the turn of the 20th century, you omitted the first speed record... in 1900: the first car to go faster than 100kph was an electric one, the "Jamais Contente" ("Never Happy") with the Belgian Camille Jenatzki at the wheel.
Excellent...video ...well presented and factual...i enjoyed ever minute of it .....
Geez you know how to make a good video! And I’m loving that you’re Aussie as well 😊
I love how the EV1 looks, it's got character. It's unfortunate to imagine how far EV innovation and infrastructure would have come had this tech been allowed to flourish. Sad
Your videos are informative and well researched !!! Car manufacturers are introducing more EV models. However there are less numbers of charging stations. They need to develop an infrastructure to address to those issues.
Few car manufacturers are risk takers, they won't build charging infrastructure.
You will have to demand your government to build infrastructure.
We need magnets opposing one another to create the lift and add frequency which must be the exact wave or you can lose them thru teleportation and never knowing where they landed. Possibly across town or next door.
Yeah, buy an electric car.. but don't do a load of laundry, run your dishawasher, turn on your ac on or take a shower.. by the way we are switching to wind and solar but buy an electric car. Surely when you have an emergency or radical a n t i f a terrorists goes out there and starts a forest fire surely your EV will be charged up and ready to transport you and your family to safety. @George's Curious
Oh I know, I was being facetious.
Is it that they are elected or is it foritification that gets them in office and keeps them there.. then the media complex clamps down and controls the narrative.. free and fair is what they claim, nobody can dispute it.@George's Curious
Absolutely, I completely and totally agree with you.@George's Curious
Also the patent for large format Ni-MH cells was 'purchased' to prevent anyone else for using that type of energy storage that was used in the later revision of the EV1. Then they were crushed and no-one could use the prevailing battery tech at the time for a competing product. Then GM acquired the 'Hummer' licence and the rest is history.
Patents are such bullshit. The proposition of "you can patent something so you can have market advantage" is somewhat appealing, but they are so easily abused for the exact opposite purpose - to prevent things from coming to market. Patent trolling should be massively illegal and really, competition is good. Patents hinder competition. I'd rather patents just die off.
@@CalcProgrammer1 patents are supposed to be a protection against people ripping off your idea. Patents are public information! You can use it and file a patent for your own improvement.
@@pratyushjayachandran China has entered the chat
fantastic video
thanks for bringing this up to the light
Kinda reminds me of the story about how Kodak invented the first digital camera - but refused to put it on the market, because they feared it would threaten their profits from the sale of film rolls. Shame that in this case it resulted in several unnecessary decades of pollution, rather than just photos not becoming digital for a while longer.
I'm still making my real photos on film. Much better.
That story is actually a misnomer. Kodak went pretty hard on digital cameras and even produced many of the CCDs in early digital cameras. They were the number 1 digital camera manufacturer for quite a few years. The problem was that their finances weren't diversified and the drop in demand of film strapped them with gigantic losses that digital camera and sensor sales couldn't make up for. Plus, they couldn't compete with Japanese manufacturers on cost. This coupled with the strong competition from other image sensor manufacturers and the improvement of CMOS sensors which Kodak didn't have a hand in killed them.
@@Dipsoid thank you - i hate having to retell this story.
That’s what used to distinguish Apple from other companies. Releasing the iPhone was the eminent death of the iPod, and they did it. But now they’re acting like Kodak, limiting the iPad potential to protect MacBook sales, cowardly & shameful.
Difference is though, people will still stay brand loyal to GM despite them fucking over the health and well being of everyone in the country.
This was covered in the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” narrated by Tom Hanks.
Its still funny to think that Tom Hanks was relevant at one point in his life.
As other's pointed out: Same story as with Kodak (digital imaging), Xerox (graphical user interface), Intel (clinging to X86 architectures, shutting down their ARM based processor line, even though this looks not that dramatic at the moment - it is already showing, give it just 10 more years). I'm sure the list could go on and on …
Almost lost me at,"....and GM, a trusted brand in the industry". I literally fell off my chair laughing 🤣😂😆
This has a parallel with the story of Dyson. The existing companies at the time, all used bagged vaccums and rejected Dysons new and better bagless invention because they would lose their lucrative market of replacement filter bags. Dyson had no option but to start his own company and today only bagless vaccums exist.
There are tons of canister vacuums like Dyson now, but bag vacuums definitely still exist.
@@LindorPlays yeah this definitely in the future too there is certain strength of ICE and EV market need
Dyson just replaced $2 disposable bags on a $50 vacuum with a $300 disposable vacuum. It's not good engineering, it's good marketing. People being able to see the dirt was a huge selling point. They turned a tool into a luxury item.
They also have a $300 fan that pushes less air than a $15 Walmart fan and a hand dryer that blows germs up into your face. The only good thing Dyson did was get other hand dryer companies a market for more powerful designs. What's crazy is companies like Costco still use these $1500 Dyson's when other brands are producing better ones for $350.
The bigger issue is that most vacuum cleaners are stupidly loud for no good reason. There was some silent ones but they were reviewed by idiots who thought the units were broken as they didn't make as much noise.
This footage is making me think the 90s were alot longer ago then I have pictured in my mind
One day there were EV’s at my high school! It was around 1999 or 2000, but they had them parked in the quad and let us eat lunch in them. I think GM did an assembly too? My point is: I got to see the EV1 personally and always wondered why they didn’t take off right away. Didn’t realize that the Prius was something different a few years later.
Can you listen to your audio processing on laptop and phone speakers? Your sibilance is super harsh especially in the CH and SH sounds. Could def use some EQ cuts to make it a more pleasant listening experience. Love your channel, hoping this change will make it even better.
Nice. I love your videos (although I also knew electric cars came first, but I didn't know the bigger picture), I'd like to just say to you that your calming voice together with your music, the information, and the insights and provocative conclusions, are a great combination. It's like I'm learning important stuff from a cool teacher. Thanks mate. (btw, I love your music, Burn Water). Sometimes I think 'how does Dagogo manage to make videos, music, and research? Does this guy sleep? Maybe you're a personalised AI, and there would be no way for me to know.
Btw, have you seen the 2077 series on curiousitystream? I'm going through some of their episodes now, and they're serious quality, they understand it's speculation (of course) but they also make sense. I'm seriouslty that guy who dislikes non-sense.
Please keep your videos coming, I always love it when I see. a new thumbnail of yours. It makes me feel more positive. 🙏
Omg, Holy fk, you have 4M subs now? Jeez I remember when your channel when it was called ColdFustion, which was a really weird name reallly. Great channel and I hope the best for you, well deserved, you put a lot of creativity and research into the things you do.
Great video as always! Wanted to share the situation currently in Canada where I'm doing my engineering grad studies. I have several friends/colleagues in the power electronics group and the biggest hurdle for EVs to become more common is the existing infrastructure and the electrical grid system not being able to support the increasing number of EVs. There are several PhDs and master's actively researching to resolve this issue but it doesn't look like there is going to be a solution for a while (unless we do a complete rehaul of the existing infrastructure).
Same in the UK, the grid is at its limits but they keep adding EV fast chargers…
With the rapid progression in battery technology, I would assume that with increased range we will see less regular demand on the system. That seems like a better place to focus these bright minds on over how to extract more oil from the ground.
I'd think the 30% decrease in efficiency due to extreme cold would worry all those PhDs 🤣
@@tedsmart5539 A decrease in 30% would still make them more efficient than ICE's
quite a few years ago I actually once saw an EV-1 at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. I also remember the docent specifically mentioning that the GM had removed the battery and all related electronics from this display vehicle.😕
Thanks for the attention to detail.
Gm had shell companies buy light rail, tram and trolleys then replace them with buses so the rail would get pulled out. Then they made sure the buses would get defunded and scrapped.
They're probably responsible for getting crossing the street on foot criminalized too.
That was Ford. That's where term "jaywalking" comes from.
Yup, a fully crime syndicate move.
And American urban planning too, there's no way that's a coincidence
US is designed by the corporates
@@pranaym3859 absolutely
Battery technology was apparently a significant consideration. Heavy lead acid with concerns with vehicle flipping. This info came from my father-in-law who was an engineer for GM and worked on the regenerative braking system for the EV1 while in Japan in the 90's.
Where’d the put the batteries…the roof?
@@JBaughb in the tunnel
@@JBaughb They were under the floor. Low center of gravity, obviously, with minimal rollover risk...but the concern was IF there was a rollover.
Is battery acid leaking from a crashed EV a greater danger than petrol leaking from an ICE car ?
@@dalstein3708 just reporting what was told to me by someone who participated on the project.
Brother your voice is soothing, did anyone hired you for voice producer or something like headspace? 😊😊
8:23 does anyone know where any of these early conversions are at? Would love to get my hands on the rav4, s10 or ranger
Legendary story. I’ve been obsessed with this car for years. Thanks for making this video.
My dad got to drive one of these one! He had a friend that leased one and let him drive it around once. I also got to see one at a museum over ten years ago.
Excellent presentation, thank you.
Great video!
I think that GM gave some of them out to Universities. When I was at BYU, we had one that we modified and made into an electric dragster. It was powered by this huge array of supercapacitors. Pretty cool!
They gave a few out to universities and museums.. on condition that they were not to be driven on public roads! The threat their new EV product presented to their entrenched repair and maintenance revenues absolutely terrified them.
I have one of the remaining Rangers and successfully brought it back to life once. It was a blast. Fast, mostly quiet - one pump sounded like a duck when you start it - It cost less than $20/month to charge it and it worked great around the town I lived. I hope to have it on the road again one day when I have more time, but it is frustrating to see just how close we were back then until politics once again screwed up something potentially good. I highly doubt GM would have faced bankruptcy in 2008 had they continued with the program instead of buying Hummer.
Good point on the solvency of GM. Imagine how much money they missed out on by not being the 'tesla' of this space! That said, I suspect GM faced huge pressure from the other Automakers and the oil industry to not rock the boat.
The oil industry. Politics is irrelevant.
@@zaco-km3su I mean, no. Politics is 10000% relevant. It's impossible for politics to not be relevant when large industries spend tons of money on astro-turfed campaigns to protect their profits. You can't separate capital from politics, the two are intertwined because we live in a capitalist society.
@@Dipsoid
No, it isn't. It was the oil industry.
@@randeep6346 More like they saw the potential "losses" from vehicle service that helped to scare them off. Other than tires and maybe a windshield wiper there is little else to regularly service if everything is working with the high voltage system.
Love this documentary. Thank you for this.
Great video. Does you have the sources?
Nice rehash/refresher on the 2006 documentary 'Who Killed The Electric Car' - you missed the ending where GM explained that most customers (back then in 2003) didn't want to stump up $40k for the cars (equivalent in purchasing power to about $64,521.09 today).
I remember the EV1 I still don’t have an electric car but if they had built off of the EV1 we would have been 25 years a head and the electric car would be even better today!
Thank you for the great content dude.
I was the moldmaker that designed and built many of the molds for the charging units for this GM's EV1 both a wall mount and floor mount unit back in the early 90's. This was when GM had owned Hughes Aircraft and these unit's were built at one of there facility's in Southern California.
1910's United Parcel Service had electric vehicles in New York City. It was one of the first industrial engineering analysis the company conducted where they calculated the slower acceleration of the electric vehicle versus the time it took every morning to fuel the combustion engine vehicles
Same problems today. Slow to charge. Short range even on a full battery. Gets worse over time and with more passengers and heavier loads for trucking. The basically instant refuelling gas pump supplies is just superior. Even now. Until a stack is invented where recharging is faster than at a pump then it’ll only get mass adoption through government force. Hydrogen could have been a viable alternative but it’s spendy right now and Musk basically publicly shat on it and sadly policy makers listen to him even though he’s a bozo
@@danh5637 add Magnetic resolves instanty
@@danh5637 1, Evs do charge slower than gas cars, but not enough to call it "too slow". 2, 250 miles is not "short range". 3, mass adoption is already happening voluntarily. The video you just watched (i hope) demonstrates how the lack of public interest is a lie that oil companies told you. 4, hydrogen could not be viable because hydrogen requires far more energy to make and store, and infrastructure costs are an enormous barrier to growth.
@@gormauslander 250 miles is short range in my world. EV is not scalable at that segment of the market. If everyone that would be happy with 100 mile range could carry on without gov mandates it would be an okay balance.
@@artsmith103 scalability is an issue of battery density and price, both of which are seeing improvements every year. LG (the company providing Tesla's batteries) is working on a lithium sulfur tech that will double the range for the same size pack. It's only a matter of time
these are all so astonishing to me. it just speaks volume on how corporates are the ones stifling proper innovation
Great insight!
There’s actually one of these at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, GA. Unfortunately it’s not in what you’d consider to be well-kept condition, but with zero factory support it’s possible the museum staff prefer to interact with as little as possible, lest a need for replacement parts (which no longer exist) would arise.
Either way it looks slightly better than a barn find. Plus it’s a GM product, so the quality of the parts used to build it were less than substantial.
Cold Fusion, please do a part 2 to this video. This one deserves an even fuller deep dive.