I began to see and electric vehicle driving around town once in a while and began to take note of how often I saw one.  By the time that the Alternative Fuel Vehicle exposition came to Santa Monica earlier this year I was hooked.  It was with great anticipation that I went to the third street promenade that day but they did not have provisions for a test drive.  I did get to see the all new Nissan Altra (picured below), AC propulsion's T-Zero, Corbin's Sparrow and the 1999 NiMH EV1.  Honda had an EV+ on display and Toyota had both its RAV4 EV and a small battery powered concept vehicle called the Ecom.

I began to read all the articles I could find about these vehicles and watch for them on the roads.  I spend hours browsing the Internet for the latest news about BEV developments.  One day I came across the EV1 owners club page and found the Vin list which keeps information about EV1s that have been spotted in various places.  As a boy I was an avid train spotter and this spilled over into collecting information about EV1s.  Over labor day weekend, the EV1 owners club ran their Malibu Coast run.   They drove from Oxnard down pacific coast highway to Santa Monica. They spent the afternoon in Santa Monica while they recharged their vehicles then took a drive up Sunset, through the canyons to Mullholand then back down to Wilshire and finally to UCLA.  I of course headed down to Santa Monica to collect Vin number information.  I have never seen so many electric vehicles in one place.  I spotted over 40 vehicles including EV1s, Nissan Altras, a T-zero, RAV4s, EV+s and a Chrysler Epic mini van.

On October 7 the complex where I work, MGM Plaza, sponsored a rideshare fair.   They were supposed to have a demonstration of the electric bicycle.  I went to the fair in the hope that I could get to test one of these machines.  I have thought about buying one but my wife nixed that idea.  She has a good point, riding around the streets of  Los Angeles on a bicycle is too dangerous for my blood.  Well, as it turned out, the electric bicycle people did not show up.  However, to my surprise, Quality Car CO Inc. were there with two of their Neighborhood Electric Vehicles.  I got to sit in them both but again there was no chance to drive one.  GM were also there with information on the 1999 EV1.  As it was quite early, I was able to chat with the guy from GM. He had a NiMH 1999 EV1 parked outside and took me over to show it to me.  Again I got to sit in the car and he booted it up so I could take a look at the displays, but I couldn't take it for a spin.

On Saturday, October 30, 1999, my wife and I were invited by GM to their auto show in motion at Dodger Stadium where we would be allowed to test drive vehicles from both GM and their competion.  When we arrived at the show a nice young lady in a GM T-shirt came to ask us if she could help.  "Do you have any electric vehicles" my wife asked, knowing my interest in such cars.  We were directed to a test track where we found several EV1s available for test drives.  We waited in line for about 15 minutes and finally got into a red one.  I put it into forward and pulled ahead to the starting point.  The first part of the track was the acceleration test.  I punched the accelerator and the EV1 took off pressing me back into my seat.   The only sound was a distinct whine that was louder than I expected though not unpleasant. The car handled well but the trip around the test track took all of two minutes so I didn't get much of a chance to see how it performed.  We got back to the start and there were two other EV1s ahead of us.  I took the opportunity to put the EV1 in reverse and back up a few feet so I could listen to the beeping sound it makes.   For most EV1 drivers their only complaint is the sound they make in reverse but I must say it didn't bother me. 

On Monday November 8I had lunch with  EV1 enthusiast Tom Dowling.  He told me that although GM normally won't lease to people who cannot install a 220V charger in their garage, they have made exceptions in a couple of cases.  It is understandable that GM do not want to lease to people who may not be able to get their vehicle charged.  The Last thing they want is a person to have a bad experience with the EV1.  However, because I have several public charging stations within a few minutes walk from both my home and office, I may be able to persuade them that I can manage without the normally required charger.

On Saturday November 13, I went down to Saturn of Airport Marina.  As I was looking over the red 1997 EV1 that they had on display, a salesman came over and offered me a test drive.  At first the salesman drove the car while I rode as a passenger.  The first thing that impressed me was the knowledge the salesman exhibited about the car, not only telling me about the features but also giving me driving tips to help improve range.  He was obviously a fan of the car.   After a couple of miles he stopped and I took the drivers seat.  The car accelerated like a rocket. I was easily able to pull away from the other cars at a light.  I also found that I was driving the car faster than expected.  When I came to a light changing quickly I had to slam on the brakes to avoid running a red.   The car seemed to jerk as the brakes were applied but it stopped quickly without any loss of control.  After that I kept a better eye on my speed so that I didn't run too much over the speed limit.  The salesmen showed me how to use the coastdown facility to extend range, and how to control power usage to improve range.  Then I turned onto the Marina freeway and found the car accelerated up to 65 mph quickly and cruised at that speed with just a slight whine from the motor.  After I got off the freeway it was a short drive back to the dealership.  I had driven approximately 4 miles and had a blast.

After the test drive I filled out the papers that are required to get in the queue for one of these cars.  I was told that the wait for a new car was 6 months but I am actually more interested in either a lease assumption or leasing a 97 model that has been returned at the end of the lease.  I told the salesman about the lack of a charging station and how I had lots of public charging stations close by.  He said he would pass my application on to an EV1 specialist and I would be contacted.

I was finally contacted on December 9 only to be told that I would not be allowed to lease an EV1.  The reason they gave is that they do not lease to anyone who does not have the ability to install a charger at home.  The few exceptions that they make are for people who have dedicated chargers installed at work.  This was not totally unexpected but I was surprised that they were not prepared to listen to my charging plan.   They just told me that public charging was too unreliable.  I am begining to agree with Don Devlin that GM do not really want to make the EV1 a success (See his article Making sparks... is GM out to Kill the EV1 which can be found in the EV World archives).

I have come to the conclusion that the main thing required to own an electric vehicle is an abundant amount of patience.  If you want a new EV1 you can wait six months for a 1999 vehicles.  These machines were announced in 1998 and GM have built only 500 vehicles but so far.  They say that they will build more if there is sufficent demand.  The RAV4, Chrysler Epic, and Chevy S10 are only being sold to fleet operators and as far as I know, only a couple of Ford Ranger EVs are being made available to non-fleet customers.  Nissan will begin selling their Altra next year but they are only making 103 available and most of these will go to fleet operators.  People who put down their $1000 deposit for a Corbin Sparrow have been waiting for as long as two years.  Corbin has started up their production line but with a production rate of 5 vehicles per week there will still be one and a half year wait for a car.  Honda has indicated that while they are not marketing any new electric vehciles, they will be allowing current owners to re-lease their EV Plus.  You may be able to lease a returned vehicle but there will certainly be a long wait.

Patience is also needed if you want to take a long trip.  Not to say that you can't travel long distances in an EV.  Greg Hansen has driven his EV1 from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Yosimite, Lake Tahoe and Blyth and, with C E Raum, has just completed a coast to coast odyssey driving from Santa Monica Pier to Hilton head then on to Orlando.  The pioneer of long distance driving, Chris Trexler, in his charge across America, drove over 3,000 miles from Los Angeles to Troy Michigan.  Such trips take a lot of planning.  You have to drive slowly to maximize range and you have to plan ahead so you know where you can charge.   When you reach your charging point you have to wait while your batteries charge.   It takes about and hour to go from 30% to 80% in an EV1 which is good for another 40 miles.

EV Rental finally opened their Beverly Hills location on December 31, 1999.  I had been making such a pest of myself about the opening that Terry O'Day, their director of operations, asked me if I would like to be their first renter.  I accepted in an instant and the story of my day with an EV1 can be found by following the link.

In August, 2001 I thought that it was high time I rented another EV from EV rental.  I logged onto their web site and started up their on-line reservation system.  After selecting the Beverly Hills office I attempted to rent a Honda EV+.  What I got was a RAV4 EV, but the funny thing about it was the pickup point said Burbank.  I went back and attemted to force the system to Beverly Hills.  That worked but all I was offered was a Toyota Corolla or a Ford Taurus, neither of which is an EV. 

 I tried several times, including forcing the system to use the Beverly Hilton location instead of the main office.  Every time I tried to make a reservation I got an ICE, or a  message saying no vehicles available.  I tried to call EV Rental but all I got was a busy signal.  I tried several more times that day and still got a busy tone.  Finally I decided to Email. using the "contact us" option on the web site.  Two days latter I got my email back saying that it could not be delivered, so I abandoned the attempt at a nice emission free weekend.