Did any Leaf pilots lease an EV1?

[supra410]

Car makers finding alternative ways of propelling a vehicle have always intrigued me. I remember reading about the GM Ev1. I was so fascinated by the car, even with the drawbacks. I thought it was just too cool. I had never seen one until one day while in Atlanta. I remember seeing one get on the freeway. I could not believe my eyes! This was in 2000 if my memory serves me right. I'm really curious if anyone here had one & can share experiences with it.

 

[TimLee]

GregH in Irvine, CA had two.
Gen1 EV1 1997-2003 (Joulee1)
Gen2 EV1 1999-2002 (Joulee2)

 

[surfingslovak]

ElectricVehicle had one as well (1999 Green GM EV1) and so did darelldd. There might be others. And then there is evchels, who worked at GM and was part of the EV1 program from the beginning.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I kinda thought there were dozens here that had an EV 1 then went to a LEAF. obtw; Darelldd doesn't have a LEAF but does have a "legacy" RAV 4 EV

 

[surfingslovak]

I kinda thought there were dozens here that had an EV 1 then went to a LEAF. obtw; Darelldd doesn't have a LEAF but does have a "legacy" RAV 4 EV

Yes, correct. And neither does evchels I'm sure that there are a few former EV1 drivers here, aside from the three identified on this thread. That said, there were not that many of them to begin with. How many EV1s did GM lease?

On a related note, I found and reached out to a few former MINI-E lessees here on MNL and elsewhere. That was a fairly small program as well. It's difficult to identify participants here, since the forum search feature isn't the best, and most members prefer to lurk and don't post very actively.

 

[RonDawg]

How many EV1s did GM lease?

Per Wikipedia, 660 and 457 were built for 1st gen (MY 1997-1998) and 2nd gen (1999-2003) respectively. So if you exclude ones leased by utilities and government agencies, it would likely be under 1,000 and could be as low as 500.

 

[cwerdna]

so did darelldd....

Re: him, I watched the EV1 video he posted at http://priuschat.com/threads/darells-ev1-video.58140/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. He shared some of his experiences there. He's also got http://www.evnut.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

I think I stumbled across it from somewhere else, not Priuschat.

(Hope he doesn't mind, but he was also one of the folks invited by Toyota to the 2010 Prius unveiling.)

 

[GregH]

Car makers finding alternative ways of propelling a vehicle have always intrigued me. I remember reading about the GM Ev1. I was so fascinated by the car, even with the drawbacks. I thought it was just too cool. I had never seen one until one day while in Atlanta. I remember seeing one get on the freeway. I could not believe my eyes! This was in 2000 if my memory serves me right. I'm really curious if anyone here had one & can share experiences with it.

The initial markets (1996) where SoCal and AZ because the lead acid performed well in warmer climates. About a year later the EV1 came to Northern California. Atlanta was a special case as Georgia Power had an agreement with GM so there were a few cars in Atlanta as well as a few public charging stations although GM never leased to the public there. I drove with a friend (C.E. Raum) in our EV1s from SoCal to Atlanta for an EV trade show in 1999. EVOdyssey.. ended up in Orlando FL.. fun trip! I wonder if C.E. still has the html for the web site somewhere, that'd be cool to see...
When the Gen2 NiMH cars came out (Dec 1999) they were CA only (with perhaps a few in a small test fleet in NY).. NiMH doesn't like the heat and even the gen2 EV1 didn't really have effective thermal management (although they tried). I think the AZ folks did get some of the Gen1 cars later when they were refurbished with Panasonic lead acid batteries.. That was a great car.

 

[supra410]

Very interesting! Such a shame gm executed them.

Car makers finding alternative ways of propelling a vehicle have always intrigued me. I remember reading about the GM Ev1. I was so fascinated by the car, even with the drawbacks. I thought it was just too cool. I had never seen one until one day while in Atlanta. I remember seeing one get on the freeway. I could not believe my eyes! This was in 2000 if my memory serves me right. I'm really curious if anyone here had one & can share experiences with it.

The initial markets (1996) where SoCal and AZ because the lead acid performed well in warmer climates. About a year later the EV1 came to Northern California. Atlanta was a special case as Georgia Power had an agreement with GM so there were a few cars in Atlanta as well as a few public charging stations although GM never leased to the public there. I drove with a friend (C.E. Raum) in our EV1s from SoCal to Atlanta for an EV trade show in 1999. EVOdyssey.. ended up in Orlando FL.. fun trip! I wonder if C.E. still has the html for the web site somewhere, that'd be cool to see...
When the Gen2 NiMH cars came out (Dec 1999) they were CA only (with perhaps a few in a small test fleet in NY).. NiMH doesn't like the heat and even the gen2 EV1 didn't really have effective thermal management (although they tried). I think the AZ folks did get some of the Gen1 cars later when they were refurbished with Panasonic lead acid batteries.. That was a great car.