Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Robert Llewellyn's Fully Charged

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I noticed he mentioned "Who killed the Electric Car?" at 7:37 saying that California imposed a law stating that if a manufacture did not create a zero-emission vehicle, such as an EV, they couldn't sell cars in California. Too bad this law wasn't on a federal level. :frown:

I know that the EV1s were destroyed after this law was repealed but is that law the reason Toyota came out with the RAV4-EV?
 
Last edited:
I know that the EV1s were destroyed after this law was repealed but is that law the reason Toyota came out with the RAV4-EV?

I would think so. And the Ford Ranger EV. And the Nissan Altra. And the Honda EV+.
All of those were basically rush efforts to satisfy CARB by making a bunch of low volume prototypes not practical for mass production. The Rav4-EV and Ranger-EV for instance were not very aerodynamically optimized which is really needed in an EV where range per charge is critical.

The EV1 was perhaps the most evolved and sophisticated of the bunch and part of the reason why CARB thought a mandate was the right thing to do. ("If they can be this good, then lets make sure to make a lot...") GM had some technology lead at that point, but didn't really seem to have their corporate heart in seeing it through as a mainstream production direction.
 
I like his little sound test at the end. Gas car ... electric car ... gas car ... electric car ... gas car ... electric car ... Not too scientific, but it does prove a point:smile:

Absolutely it does - that ICE cars have quieted down so much recently, all you can make out are the tires rubbing the asphalt. The whole electric-cars-are-too-quiet paranoia is so ignorant, in my opinion.
 
Sleek!:
Delta-E4-Coupe-1.jpg