I rented an EV

Advanced Battery Technology, Sep 1999 by Bennett, Jay

"Budget EV, can I help you," said the enthusiastic voice on the line. In a week we were leaving Boston with our portable trade show booth for another Annual Battery Conference in Long Beach, California. Having read a news clip in a battery newsletter about Budget's EV Car Rental Program in Los Angeles, I decided to check it out. Could this be happening? We were going to this conference to hear how this might happen some day. We're not supposed to be able to arrive at the conference in an EV - not yet, anyway.

Like many of our fellow conference warriors, we've attended battery shows for too many years, perhaps before they even presented technical papers on EVs. Over the past 15 years, gradually more papers have been presented on the topic. Initially our corporate leaders salivated as we brought back reports of the numbers of EVs (times batteries) that were mandated to be on the road by 2001, 2003, and 2005. But gradually enthusiasm faded around our office cubicles as doubts this would happen took hold.

The Budget representative on the line was cordial and clearly well-trained. He began by asking a few key questions to pre-qualify my itinerary and driving needs. To my continuing surprise he informed me that an EV was available on the dates we needed it. He finished by stating I would need about a half-hour of instruction upon arrival at Budget. No problem!

The excitement built on the trip from Boston to L.A. Traveling with a large plastic tube containing our pop-up show display, I wondered if it would fit in the car. Upon arrival at the Budget Rental Car terminal, I was transferred to Joe Borges, rental EV specialist, who is a personable, enthusiastic young man, kind of an ambassador for EVs. And he knows EVs.

Joe went through the usual paperwork and then took me to the car for my EV initiation. And there she sat, a bright red GM-EV1, hooked like a horse to a hitching post on its induction-charging unit. Safe and easy to plug in, that was a relief. Thanks to a Tshaped battery pack configuration running across the front and through the center of the passenger compartment, there was room in the trunk for the trade show booth and my luggage. A large loose-leaf notebook filled with computer-generated maps showed me all the charging locations in Southern California.

More like a cockpit than a driver's compartment, the instrument lights spanned the base of the windshield. No key, just a keypad, on which to enter the code to power up. Absent are the sounds of the starter and engine. A chime and the instrument lights are all that let you know the car is ready to be put in gear. Moving out of the lot in the EVI, I found it was not as quiet as I had anticipated. A whine of gears and regenerative braking replaced the usual engine noise. Sort of a zzzz hum on acceleration.

A similar but different sound dominates the cabin on deceleration, as the motor actually becomes an electrical generator. The car felt tight and solid, heavy and strong, belying its small size. It rolled better than anything I had driven. It was like having extra lead weights in the best Soap Box Derby car ever built. I had a definite roll advantage on the highway.

This particular EV1 housed 26 sealed lead acid batteries. Once you get them moving these batteries want to keep on going. It was at this point that I learned that mounting 1,200 pounds of batteries on an aluminum frame with 50psi tires in a plastic body vehicle with the lowest coefficient of drag on the road can be a good thing. After I practiced timing my rolls so I wasn't continually braking for the traffic in front of me, it seemed I could coast for miles. The EV1 had no trouble getting off the mark; this was a fast car. It bolted from stoplights with "snap-your-neck-back" speed. In fact, it was even quicker from a 10mph rolling start, after you got the batteries in motion.

A former engineer from Lockheed Martin came over to look at the car as it charged on its 120 volt portable charger outside the battery conference. He told me about all the materials and design elements that were borrowed from the aeronautics and space research programs to produce this vehicle. I began to appreciate what I was driving a little more. Inside and out the EV1 displays quality. I was proud of GM. Air conditioning, windshield wipers, defroster, CD stereo, headlights, electric windows, and cup holders saw duty during my week at Long Beach.

Unfortunately, as much as you had to admire this car, it just can't do all the nice things we like our cars to do. The cold reality is the EV1's limited driving range. This is a particularly gut-wrenching realization if you're one of us EV battery-counting types. At a full charge, the EV1 driving range indicator says 40 miles. Joe Borges explained this is under a calculated average condition and you could expect as much as 60 miles if you "learn to conserve." The problem is you always wonder what your "average condition" will be in the miles ahead.

For example, when you heavily step on the juice pedal from a stop at the lights, you can lose two miles off the "rangeometer" in a quarter of a mile. On the other hand, you can coast for two miles on the highway and the range stays the same. Resisting the urge to kick in the rocket boosters and religious use of the regenerative braking feature can extend your range. But because of the uncertainty of upcoming conditions, when your meter gets down to the 10-15 mile range, fear of hills, rain, and traffic jams takes over. Where am I and where is the closest charging station were my predominant thoughts.