evnow said:
Ofcourse everyone knew the battery tech worked - they all had working cars by 2000. Remember EV1 ?
The same drivetrain will give less mileage on a CUV - but it would still sell more. After Outlander will probably have about 30 mile range ...
The cells used in the EV-1 were based on a completely different chemistry. Knowing how they'd work really wasn't predictive of how the lithium cells would behave. Additionally, what everyone knew was that the chemistry used in the EV-1 wouldn't work -- the energy density simply wasn't there. The energy density of the lithium batteries was sufficient for a compact hatch but, and this was a big but, testing didn't start until the end of 2007, and you don't know if a new battery chemistry will work until you test it. Turns out it worked way better than GM thought it would, which is why (1) they decided to use more of cell and (2) it's going to last way longer than they thought. They can also offer a very good warranty on the pack. That's all good. However, remember that early pricing models for the Volt built in a larger number of battery pack failures, which is an indication of how dicey the technology was thought to be.
As for why the CUV/SUV is a terrible idea, on the highway every inch you raise the vehicle costs you a couple of miles of range. Add two inches of clearance and two more inches to the height of the vehicle and on the freeway things get ugly in a hurry. In this regard, the Outlander won't get anything close to 30 miles of electric range driving on the freeway. Could in fact easily be under 20 miles. That's just the physics of moving objects through air. Drag goes up by the square of the velocity, the power needed to overcome drag goes up by the cube of the velocity, and raising the vehicle and making it taller increases both the Cd and the frontal area.
As for thinking that a SUV/CUV with much lower electric range and much lower MPG vehicle would have sold better than the Volt, this opinion isn't supported by anything we know. The only vehicle fitting this description which has been released is the RAV4, and it's sales have been a disaster. In some ways I'm glad this is the case because there isn't any reason to bring out an electric SUV/CUV. A hatch gives you all the functionality you'd get in a CUV. It just gives you the functionality in a vastly more efficient package. With battery technology being what it is, going the more efficient route makes more sense. No reason to encourage bad decisions about what electric vehicles to develop.