Tesla CEO Elon Musk: General Motors “Should Have Gone to EV2 and EV3″

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EV1 Alongside Chevy Volt

In a candid interview with Autocar, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk was asked:

EV1

“Did GM miss a trick by killing its speculative all-electric EV1 in the late 1990s?”

His response:

“They should have gone to EV2 and EV3, iterating it and making it better.  The EV1 was not a great car. It had a lot of issues. But it was good enough to encourage people to take extraordinary steps to try to keep it and to hold candle-lit vigils when it was crushed. They don’t do that for other GM products.”

The passion displayed by EV1 leasees should have been enough to convince General Motors to carry on with the program.  If GM had done what Musk says (EV2 and EV3), then it seems likely that Tesla Motors probably would not exist today.

GM created a cult of followers with the EV1.  Those followers surely would have stayed with GM for EV2 and EV3.  The word would’ve spread and GM would have become the dominant player in the EV space well before Tesla came on the scene.  If there were a dominant EV maker already in place, then there’s likely no way Musk would venture into that dominated space.

Fortunately, at least for Tesla, GM abandoned the EV1 program entirely, leaving all the room in the world for Tesla to carve its own niche.

Now Meets Old: Tesla Model S Lined Up Next to GM EV1

Source: Autocar

GM EV1 Turns Up in China, Twice

GM’s EV1 is something of an automotive legend these days, with stories of unrestricted cars accelerating to nearly 300 km/h coming fast and hard from the mouths of the true believers. Most of the cars were crushed, however, in a move that many believe was motivated by corrupt government officials colluding with crooked oil company lobbyists. Today, less than 40 EV1s are believed to exist, and most of those are tucked away in museums … imagine our surprise, then, when news broke that not one, but TWO unknown examples of GM’s automotive unicorn had been discovered in China!

The first EV1 is a blue-green model that was found in China’s “National Electric Vehicle Experimental & Demonstration Area”, a government-owned center for the advancement of Chinese EV technology. Established in 1998, the facility is still fully functional today, importing several foreign examples of plug in cars for testing and reverse engineering.

The second car, a red EV1, is located in the Shanghai Auto Museum. The museum says it was a gift from the General Motors Heritage Collection, but it’s worth noting that both the red and the blue-green cars are fully functional “runners”, unlike the rest of the museum cars scattered throughout the world. Those cars are “rolling chassis”, which is to say complete, except for engine and transmission. As Car News China puts it, “it seems unlikely a test center would accept a deactivated powertrain, so it seems more likely China got it hands on two working examples in another way.”

My sister has a field day trophy she got in another way, too- and I’m sure it was gained just as legitimately as these two EV1s were. 

Sources | Photos: Car News China, via Motorpasion.

InsideEVs Exclusive Interview with General Motors EV1 Marketing Director John Dabels – Part 2

Mark Hovis (InsideEVs): The question that Sam Dellinger and I have which is covered in the film (Who Killed the Electric Car) is how could GM justify crushing the EV1s?

John Dabels Speaks Candidly About The EV1 Project

John Dabels: That is relatively simple answer.  It starts with controlling the distribution of the cars.  I fully support GM’s decision.

Mark Hovis: To crush the cars??

John Dabels: Yes.   When you buy a car and take title, that triggers an obligation by the manufacturer to provide service parts.  I am paraphrasing the law, but if you buy a car at any authorized dealership in the US, the manufacturer must provide service and parts for 10 years. So, you buy an EV1 in California and you move to Bangor, Maine.  GM has to provide service.  Leasing takes care of that problem.

Mark Hovis: I buy that. Our contributors at InsideEVs understand the lease.

John Dabels: The mistake GM made was not to lease the EV1’s again and even a 3rd time.

Mark Hovis: Why wouldn’t you put them in a museum?

John Dabels: There are few around.  (Editor’s note: there is about 40 still in existence in one form or another today)

Mark Hovis: Not enough!

Not The Best “Final Image” Of The EV1

John Dabels: The disposal of the cars was poorly handled, I agree with that.  As far as the reason, it was the triggering of the title that GM was concerned about.  Anyway that is the rationale for that.

Mark Hovis: It looks like GM could have gotten the word out better on this issue. Failure to do so left it open to the conspiracy.

John Dabels: A little more insight into the inner workings of the EV1 program.  Toward the end of 1992, GM is still hemorrhaging cash.  The Board replaces Bob Stempel as CEO with Jack Smith.  If you cut through all the official press releases, what occurred was a palace coup – the Financial staff takes over the CEO position with the help of Board member John Smale of P&G, who became chairman.  Neither Smith nor Smale is what anyone would call a car guy.

I wish discussion of the palace coup would come out more when people are assessing the EV1 program.  I’m not naïve about the financial needs of a company.  I spent my early years at GM on the financial staff.  But what a lot of financial staff people do not understand is where profits come from.  I know that statement might seem odd but financial guys seem to spend more time looking at how to reduce cost than how to generate more revenue.  Show me a company that saved its way into prosperity.

Hovis: OK but how did the financial guys really affect the EV1?

The Only “Functional” GM EV1 Given To The Smithsonian. This particular EV1 was returned to GM in 2000 by Leasee Phil Karn (phot0 via Jeff Tinsley)

John Dabels:  The most vivid example occurred at one of the regular meetings with corporate staff.  Time is Fall 1992.  There are eight people in the meeting, which is held at the then GM building on West Grand Boulevard.  The conference room is near the Board room.   There are four of us and four corporate staff.  Bob Stempel is the only non-financial guy from the corporate staff. The meeting starts at 3:00.  A portion of the meeting addresses all the positive publicity the EV1 program is generating for GM.

We stress that much of the positive image of GM is among younger people, who have shied away from most GM products.  Jack Smith, then GM president, asks “Are many of these people  old enough to buy cars and if not what do we care?”   That question is a perfect example of the difficulty in educating the financial staff on the value of the program.  Take someone who is say 14 years old now.  Do you know how many cars they are going to buy in their life?   They might buy twenty cars or more.  You want that person to consider your product.  Don’t make them mad! (Not John’s exact words)

Now, in all fairness, we (GM) had financial pressures at that time.   But the meeting was effectively the death knell of the EV1.   At 5:00 Jack stands up, turns to Bob Stempel and says “Bob, you can’t afford the program.” A few days later, the board meets and asks Bob Stempel to resign and puts Jack in as CEO.

That part of the story never gets told.   But the story is indicative of a program going from having support by senior management  to no support.   At the same time worldwide you’ve got all this interest and positive publicity about GM.  But it was ignored.

After the palace coup, the hatchet is taken to the  program. Jack Smith’s team was heavy on financial guys.  A few years later Rick Wagoner, also a financial guy replaces Jack Smith.  So was the decision to cut back on the program a right one?  A number of years later Rick Wagoner admitted cutting back was a mistake.  Here was a tiny program by automotive standards generating very positive publicity and many product innovations.

GM EV1 Interior

Sam Dellinger: Boy, that must have been frustrating.

John Dabels: Understatement of the week.  We used to rank information according to credibility. Word of mouth is number one and media is number two.  So where is advertising? Toward the bottom of the credibility scale. We tried to explain how the $6- 8 million marketing budget was worth some maybe $600-800 million worth of advertising.

Sam Dellinger: Tesla doesn’t advertise. (Note Sam owns a Model S Signature, Chevy Volt and a 10kWh PV solar array. Sam is retired and living the dream)

GM Could Have Used Someone Like Elon Musk A Decade Or So Ago

John Dabels: Elon Musk understands  very well the value of the media.  We could have used him.  With the positive press about EV1, GM had more families coming to showrooms – Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and other divisions – than you would otherwise.  You have a teenager saying “You know what dad, GM has an EV1  program and it is really cool.  Let’s go look at their cars“  Tell me any father that doesn’t want to be “cool.”

Sam Dellinger: I agree the car was cool.  Still is.

John Dabels: But none of the value of the media coverage was ever recognized by the financial staff.

Mark Hovis: What about sales volume?  Wasn’t that important?

Dabels: The EV1 program  was always going to be limited volume. By automotive standards, Tesla volume is a rounding error. Yet they’ve got all the press with this tiny volume. Musk understands the value of the media.  The unit volume for EV1 never should have mattered but it did matter.

Mark Hovis: What would the EV1 program look like today had GM stayed the course?

John Dabels: EV1 would be the number #1 electric vehicle.  GM would be miles ahead. There would be a lot more people in EV’s.   GM would have more overall market share…and might have avoided bankruptcy.

Mark Hovis: You spoke of the land speed record.

John Dabels: Yes.  183 miles per hour. Not bad for what some people considered a glorified golf cart. We  modified a pilot production car and set the land speed record.  What also took a regular EV1 and had a drag race with a Miata, and Nissan 280ZX.  The EV1 won, of course.  I think the video is on YouTube.

Below: Video John was speaking of

Sam Dellinger: Anything else?

John Dabels: That’s enough for now.  Some parts of the story you might not have heard.  When people ask about a conspiracy, I tell them there was no conspiracy to kill the car because we weren’t smart enough to think of one.   I’ve given this a lot of thought and I believe the reason the Ev1 died was due more to a lack of understanding inside the company of EV1’s value, rather than some external force. The real story of EV1’s demise might not be as exciting as the film but it is a lesson for all.

Source: Inside EV's

InsideEVs Exclusive Interview with General Motors EV1 Marketing Director John Dabels - Part 1

Back In “The Day,” General Motors EV1 Was The Green Car To Have

It is hard to be an EV fan and not know a little about the EV1. Whether you were exposed to the EV1 through the 2006 documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car”, or if you have been a fan right from the beginning. I recently had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with John Dabels, the Marketing Director of the EV1.

John Dabels wearing his EV sweater from “Who Killed the Electric Car”

The interview

Mark Hovis: Can you tell us a little about your previous experience prior to joining the EV1 program?

John Dabels: I was Director of Marketing at Buick for a number of years prior to heading up the EV1 marketing team. Most people would not think that Buick marketing would be a good training ground. You have to understand something here. We had an inside joke that the median age for a Buick owner was “deceased”.

But during the period at Buick, we had a number of breakthroughs. We also set some records, increased market share and reduced the median age.  Buick was the first auto company to use what is called geo-demographic profiling.

Another innovation but one that was highly controversial was an ad for the Buick Regal Grand National.   The GM Board did not get it.  In fact one of the more well-known Board members thought the ballerina was a hooker.  At the same time when we showed the ad to sales reps from dealers and our field staff at a meeting in  Hartford Connecticut, they went wild.  About 45 seconds into the ad, several hundred people  were standing on their chairs cheering.   The ad pointed out a huge difference between generations.  Board members did not understand and were furious and the people who sold cars loved it.  And, yes, I came within a hairs breath of being fired.  But it still a great ad, all these years later.

Joining the EV1 Team

Ken Baker was program manager.  He also came from Buick.  The interview was brief.  Ken asked  if I would be interested in joining the program.  Doing what, I asked?  He responded, “Develop demand for electric vehicles worldwide.” I asked if he had  any instructions? Ken Baker pushed a blank sheet of paper and said “you go figure it out.”  That was the end of the interview.

Traditional marketing jobs are responsible for overseeing advertising, promotional programs, events, web development and sometimes guidance for product development.  The role at EV1 the job also included public relations and government relations. At the time we were the only staff outside GM corporate to have a separate government relations activity.  This created angst with the group in Washington.

Sam Dellinger: How did this cause angst?

Now Meets Old: Tesla Model S Lined Up Next to GM EV1

John Dabels: An example.  I recall sitting in the executive dining room at the Tech Center with Chief Environmental lobbyist for GM.  The environmentalist said “Dabels you are my worst enemy. My role is to convince congress and states that environmental laws shouldn’t be implemented and you’re out there proving me wrong.  You need to stop.”  I asked, Do you sign my paycheck? No. That’s right. Our group works for the chairman and until I am told differently that’s what I’m going to do.

Mark Hovis: Tell us how did the specs for EV1 get developed?

John Dabels: That’s a funny story.  The chief engineer , who came out of Chevrolet, had a sign on his office door that read “Do not enter without data”.  So I entered and he exclaimed “Where’s your data?” My retort was the last people who owned on-road EV’s were either dead or in nursing homes.  That wasn’t satisfactory.  So I went back to my office, wrote some specs for range, acceleration, and some other criteria.  Those became the benchmarks.

Most of numbers were reasonable  expectations for that size car.  Range was tougher.  Based on some anecdotal data people seemed to view 100 miles range as acceptable but 99 miles as far less so.  Most people don’t come close to driving 50 miles per day but a 100 miles seemed to be the psychological target.   Acceleration for a 2-passenger car needed to be 8-9 seconds, not some slug of 13-14 seconds.  We also wanted to be able to carry golf clubs. Not Rodney Dangerfield’s clubs but two smaller size bags.   That’s how many of the specs were written.

Below: Video primer on GM’s EV1

Mark Hovis: What kind of budget did you have to work with?

John Dabels: Buick’s marketing budget in today’s terms was probably $800 million. The  budget at EV1  was a “rounding error” about $6 million.  But to give you an idea the interest in the EV1, over a three-year period our group generated more positive press for GM than the rest of the company combined with our $6 million budget. You can’t buy the kind of press we were generating.

Mark Hovis: Do you feel like GM was behind the project when you started and at what point did they lose interest?

John Dabels: Yes. What happened? I can tell you what happened…and it didn’t come out in the movie (Who Killed the Electric Car). What went wrong?

We did not do a good job  educating people inside the company about the benefits of EV1 as we did outside the company. We took it for granted that people inside the company understood the value of the program. In retrospect that was a major  mistake on the program – and I think the biggest mistake.

GM EV1 Cutaway circa 1996 (click to enlarge)

Now a little history leading up to the program that people either don’t understand or don’t want to talk about.  Roger Smith, GM’s chairman and CEO, reorganized GM in early 1980’s. The rationale was to increase profitability.  However, GM had literally printed money from 1929 – 1980.

On the Cadillac  Eldorado, for example, GM  had a variable  profit rate of more than 60 percent.  That’s what I mean by printing money. Then GM staff announced they are going to reorganize and break into two operating groups –  Chevy, Pontiac and GM Canada in one group and Buick, Oldsmobile and Cadillac in another group.  Bob Stempel was to manage the Buick/Olds/Cadillac group.  Bob was a really good engineer for whom I have a lot of respect.  But the reorganization created a lot of confusion and frustration at the divisional level.

The focus changed from building cars and trucks to maximizing earning.  In addition to the reorganization, Roger Smith has GM buy Hughes Aircraft and EDS.  I agree GM needed to consolidate some systems but the EDS fit was not good.  Plus,  Ross Perot is sitting on the board.   So Ross is Ross and he’s been successful.  Some of his points about GM were very good.  But he is such a thorn in Roger’s side that he pays him 700 million to leave.

The final straw was Saturn.  Roger did not think the existing divisions could be effective in competing with imports.  Saturn is like a black hole, sucking up money faster than you can count.  The initial cost is so high it would likely never make any money.

So leading in to the EV1 program you have the combination of the reorganization, money going to buy Hughes and EDS and Saturn, all using profits normally directed toward product development.  And the continued emphasis on cutting costs.  And we wonder why the divisions didn’t support it (EV1)?

Ultimate Fate Of All But 40 Of The 1,117 EV1s Produced

You have a slew of high-volume  midsize cars that are getting long in the tooth now, and are not getting refreshed because supposedly there is no money left.  That’s part of  what happened  to GM in the 80s.  By not putting money into product the GM divisions  lost market share and became a very frustrated group .

In 1990 Roger Smith announces at the LA auto show that GM is going to launch the EV1. This is his last major declaration as CEO and retires. In the meBantime, you have starved the division for product development, your market share is going down, you have disgruntled people and then a recession begins. Now GM is  starting to hemorrhage cash. The divisions look at us (EV1) and say, we’ve gone through Hughes, we’ve gone through EDS, we’ve gone through Saturn and now we’ve got the EV1 group  getting preferential treatment.  Were they a little upset?  Yes, and rightfully so.  But what was not explained as a benefit of the EV1 program was all the advanced  electronics that were developed.  Many of the developments  had immediate application in all GM cars.

Mark Hovis: The question that Sam Dellinger and I have which is covered in the film (Who Killed the Electric Car) is how could GM justify crushing the EV1s?

Alternatively-Powered Vehicles On Display At GM Heritage Center

General Motors put their old alternatively fueled vehicles on display at the GM Heritage Center, showcasing the company’s long history with exploring fuels outside of petrol.

There are a variety of different types of vehicles in display at the Heritage Center, which also includes other famous cars from GM’s long history. Quite a few of these concept vehicles are electric, while others are powered by fuel cells (these vehicles use electric propulsion with electricity provided by fuel cells).

The vehicles and engines included XP512E, a very tiny battery electric vehicle from the late 1960s, and the XP512G, a gasoline-powered version of the 512E. These micro-commuters were designed with future city dwellers in mind, though the cars never caught on in a country where gas prices were low and big cars were the fad. Check out this video below to see more of the 512 cars.

Also on display is a GM-developed Stirling engine, a low-power but high-efficiency alternative to the standard internal-combustion engine. GM also played with hybrid-turbine drivetrains, gas-electric, and even steam-powered cars for a time, though none went mainstream.

On of GM’s more-recent inventions was the 2002 Autonomy, which rode on a self-contained “skateboard” chassis. This skateboard held all of the vehicle’s mechanical and drivetrain components in a flat skateboard, allowing mutiple bodystyles to be used on a single chassis. The Autonomy had a hydrogen fuel-cell setup, but never got beyond the concept phase.

The Electrovair II was a Chevy Corvair converted into an EVpowered by a silver-zinc battery bank which filled the front tunk of the rear-engine Corvair. It was propelled by an AC electric motor controlled by “solid-state electronics”. To clarify, solid-state electronics were still new in the days of the Electrovair II, which was developed in 1966. GM also made

Of these vehicles, my favorite were the Electrovan and Electrovair. In the days of old electric vehicles like the Electrovan, the batteries were so enormous that they significantly ate into passenger room, so passengers barely fit. Today, electric vehicle batteries are out of sight, and barely noticeable under vehicle floors. Sometimes they are mounted in the engine bay. These vehicles show just how far we have come in terms of EV comfort.

Vehicles on the market now achieve up to 300 miles of range (Tesla Model S) compared to older electric subcompact vehicles such as the GM EV1, which was made of plastic, seated only two people, and achieved up to 100 miles of range. To think the EV1 was actually a range milestone in its day. Electric vehicles have come a long way!

If you live near the Heritage Center, in Sterling Heights, Michigan, make sure you swing by and check it out.

   

Source: Hemmings Auto Blog

GM CEO: We’re Working On 200 Mile EV

What is the magic number when it comes to EV driving range? The initial wave of Nissan Leafs received a 73 mile rating, though plenty of owners have achieved more or less range, depending on a wide variety of factors. Yet EV sales are not what Nissan hoped for, and other automakers have taken note. GM’s CEO Dan Akerson said the General is working on an EV with 200 miles of real world range.

Akerson told Bloomberg News that his company is developing two separate technologies side-by-side, to see which works out better. One of these technologies will result in a 100-mile EV, while the other will supposedly give GM an EV with 200 miles of range. Such a car is probably a long ways out though, and in the interim the Chevy Spark EV will fill the gap with 75 to 80 miles of range.

Of course, if we address the elephant in the room, GM produced a vehicle capable of 140 to 160 miles range over 13 years ago in the form of the EV1. How hard could it be to produce a 100 mile range EV and how easy would it be to re-create an EV with Lithium batteries and a 200 mile range?

The key here will be price; Tesla already sells a Model S sedan that can comfortably go 200 miles on a charge, but it costs around $80,000 (before the tax credit). If GM could sell an EV with 200 miles of range at half that price, it could give EV sales the kick in the ass they need. Nissan has managed to sell 50,000 Leaf EVs across the world since going on sale in December of 2010; respectable, but not nearly as many as Nissan had hoped to sell.

But Akerson’s comments about battery “breakthroughs” that are “just on the horizon” aren’t exactly encouraging. That’s the same story we’ve been hearing for years. His call for Obama to form a 30-year energy commission also isn’t much help right now, considering the whole sequester situation. How much longer before one of these battery “breakthroughs” actually comes to market?

Source: Bloomberg

BMW ActiveE electric car, at BMW Manhattan media event, April 2011Gallery

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The choices among electric cars just keep getting better, as BMW has now announced the lease details for the first stage of its evolution into BMW-branded electric cars.

The ActiveE, an all-electric version of the 1-series, will be available for lease requests later this summer. It will be offered in four California markets--Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Sacramento--along with the greater New York metro area and Boston.

Actual deliveries will start in September or October this year. And previous lessees of the Mini E may get priority on the waiting list for this new type of BMW drive technology.

Using a substantial lithium-ion battery pack, the ActiveE should have a range of around 100 miles. The batteries are both heated and cooled via circulating liquid to keep the pack temperature within tight parameters.

BMW ActiveE electric car, at BMW Manhattan media event, April 2011

Enlarge Photo

Of the ActiveE markets, Boston and New York are in colder settings, which typically compromise electric vehicle range and performance.

BMW says that the ActiveE will have a 125-kilowatt (170-horsepower) motor that produces 184 foot-pounds of torque, and should make the sprint from 0 to 62 mph in less than 9.0 seconds. This means its performance will be a shade better than the 2011 Nissan Leaf, but perhaps not as good as the 2011 Chevrolet Volt.

The lease is priced at 499 per month, with $2,250 down. While this seems high, compared to the 2011 Nissan Leaf ($349 per month and $2000 to start), if BMW follows the pattern of the Mini E program, the BMW ActiveE will include comprehensive and collision insurance, all maintenance, even replacement wipers.

BMW ActiveE

Enlarge Photo

The Mini E leased for around $700 per month, so the ActiveE's $499 is at least less than the cost of that two-passenger electric conversion.

Like the Mini E, ActiveE lease is only for two years. That suggests that this is just field-testing for the drivetrain that BMW plans to use for their carbon-fiber bodied, electric-drive MegaCity urban minicar, now to be called the i3.

Does this smack just a bit of the General Motors EV1, with the subsequent recall and destruction of all those electric cars? Perhaps so, but GM never announced plans for a single followon vehicle, whereas BMW has already confirmed two plug-in cars: both the i3 battery electric minicar and the i8 plug-in hybrid.

A total of 700 ActiveE cars will be available here in the U.S., out of a global total of 1,100 BMW ActiveE models to be built. Other markets will include Germany, the U.K., Japan, and China.

Source: All Cars Electric