GM Will Tow 450 Original EV1s in Recall
In one of the auto industry’s more embarrassing recalls, General Motors Corp. on Thursday urged owners of its original EV1 electric cars to garage their vehicles and wait for tow trucks to pick them up, owing to a potential fire hazard.
GM, the world’s largest auto maker, left little hope that the pioneering electric cars will ever be fixed. For now, owners will be offered rebates or special deals on other GM vehicles. And to the chagrin of many EV1 owners, GM can offer only gasoline-powered replacement. It has, however, promised to pay for the gasoline.
Since introducing the EV1 in December 1996, GM had trumpeted the car as a symbol of its commitment to the environment, saying its investment, estimated at $350 million, was intended to put the company ahead of the competition and promote alternatives to the internal combustion engine. The EV1, the first electric vehicle made available to the public, has served an important role in developing electric powertrains and other advanced automotive technologies.
But the car never lived up to GM’s hopes, as fewer than 1,000 motorists have opted to lease the car. The company, like other EV manufacturers, has found it difficult to overcome concerns about relatively limited driving range and monthly lease prices of $350 or more.
And now, GM has recalled all 450 of the original EV1s after discovering that a component of the recharging system can overheat and present a fire hazard. It also recalled 450 Chevrolet S-10 electric pickups that use the same charging system.
The auto maker had received reports of 16 failures of the charging system. At least two fires involving EV1s have been reported within the California EV1 community. GM won’t acknowledge the fires, and insists that the suspect part has not caused any property damage.
Most of the affected EV1s and S-10s are in California. Removal of so many vehicles from a statewide electric fleet of only 2,000 means that green-minded consumers will find it nearly impossible to obtain an EV for the foreseeable future.
Pulling the first-generation EV1s won’t kill the electric vehicle--500 second-generation EV1s that became available for lease in December are not affected by the recall. GM says 150 of them are still available, although it does not know how many will be gobbled up by those who will lose the earlier model in the recall.
In addition, California will require most auto makers to provide limited numbers of zero-emissions vehicles, or ZEVs, for sale in the state by 2003. Electrics are believed to be the only ZEVs that will be road-ready by then.
But the EV1 recall does fuel fears among clean-air advocates that the auto industry’s commitment to developing ZEVs is waning.
Indeed, if GM can’t--or won’t--fix the EV1s and refuses to build more, Thursday’s action will become a rare one-way recall.
“That is pretty significant because it says GM really isn’t all that enthusiastic about electrics,” said George Peterson, president of AutoPacific Inc., an auto industry consulting firm in Tustin.
“If they really thought they would be involved in the electric vehicle business for the long term, they would find a way to get them fixed and back on the road,” he said.
GM insists it isn’t abandoning the electric program. It someday expects to replace the bulky storage batteries that now provide power with a fuel-cell system that produces electricity on board.
“Our first concern is safety, but the electric vehicle is very important to GM and to the whole industry, and we remain committed to the EV1 and to advanced technologies,” said Bob Purcell, director of the company’s advanced technology vehicles program.
Purcell and other GM officials would not say whether the company would build more EV1s if owners who are losing theirs demand replacements. Privately, though, GM insiders say the company has little incentive to build more.
EV1 users appeared divided Thursday, with comments on the California EV1 Club’s Internet chat site ranging from speculation that the recall is a ruse to damage the electric vehicle movement to praise for GM in acting to head off a hazard.
“I have to side with the conspiracy theorists on this one,” wrote one club member and EV1 driver. “Why did GM have to issue a press release for this? They know . . . who the EV1 owners are.” Alerting the media, he charged, “is a not-so-subtle way of planting an idea in John and Susie Q. Public’s minds that electric vehicles are unsafe, because they can catch fire!”
Chris Yoder, an information systems specialist at Caltech in Pasadena and a longtime electric car driver, dismissed speculation that GM is pulling the plug on the program: “GM has had a great history of taking care of the people who have the car.”
Yoder said in an interview that he had just taken delivery of a second-generation EV1 but had kept his earlier model in hopes of renewing the lease next month.
John Hepke, of GM’s advanced technology group, said that, although the faulty part is a small one that can be replaced in the pickups, the way it is installed in the complex EV1 seems to preclude a repair.
