We should be driving electric cars. Why? Here's some specs on what electric car technology was capable of 10 years ago. Specifically, Toyota's electric SUV, the RAV4 EV.
See-thru view of Toyota RAV4 EV electric drive and battery system.
Specs:
Top Speed: 80 mph
0-60 mph: 17 seconds
Horsepower: 67
Torque: 142 lb-ft
Range per charge: 120 miles
Battery pack life: 150,000 miles
Curb weight: 3,440 pounds
Seating capacity: 5
Tire size: 195/80R16
Sale price in mass production: $22,500
Sources:
www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.03/backyard_pr.html
ev.inel.gov/pdf/fsev/eva/toyrav98.pdf
http://www.renewableelectricity.com/advantag.htm
http://www.autoworld.com/news/Toyota/RAV4_EV.htm
Just think. This was back in the middle 1990s. Now we have lithium ion batteries and more powerful motors that could give this vehicle 300 miles per charge, 0-60 mph in < 8 seconds, 200 horsepower, 250,000+ mile battery pack life, drop the weight 200 pounds, and 120+ mph top speed for < $20,000 in mass production. And this is an SUV. An economy car or a midsize car would be even cheaper and have more range and better performance. What could be done if big business would be the servants of the consumer, and not vice versa. If the market were truly free, and not manipulated by and for certain industries to maximize profits.
Now for the article. Toyota wants to crush their RAV4 EVs and doesn't want to sell them to lease holders willing to pay $40,000+ for them up front. Quite obvious why: electric vehicles = less profits if they replace gas vehicle sales. If these people have them and show them off, others will find out what current technology is capable of.
http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?sect...ue&newsid=8443
Toyota Urged to Not Crush Its Electric Cars
Source: Don'tcrush.Com
[May 10, 2005]
SYNOPSIS: Dontcrush.com, the grassroots organization that caused Ford to change its policy, is now pressuring Toyota to allow leaseholders to purchase their RAV4 EV electric cars.
DontCrush.com, the Campaign to Save Electric Cars, whose international protests against the crushing of electric cars by General Motors and Ford made front-page headlines, changed Ford's policies and saved hundreds of electric cars, today went public with details of a similar campaign directed at Toyota.
DontCrush.com, supported by numerous organizations, is working to convince Toyota to allow leaseholders to purchase their RAV4 EV electric cars, Toyota's cleanest production model to date. Because Toyota has not responded positively to repeated written requests to discuss this issue, the public campaign commences with the release of the group's advertisement - Toyota: Don't Crush Linda's Car," and debut of its website at www.dontcrush.com.
"We've been leasing a RAV4 EV for three and a half years, but Toyota refuses to sell it to us," said DontCrush.com organizer Linda Nicholes of Anaheim Hills. "Apparently they'd prefer to hook us up to the gas pump again." Her husband, Howard Stein, was allowed to buy his electric car, "but since then Toyota and the big automakers have lobbied and sued and successfully killed the obligation to manufacture zero emission cars. Now they are intent on destroying the evidence that electric cars work," he said.
Thousands of RAV4 EVs were manufactured from 1997-2003 to comply with California's Zero Emission Mandate. Toyota benefited from tens of millions of dollars from the taxpayers of the State of California to put these zero-emission, zero-gasoline vehicles on the road. Now, Toyota is literally crushing California's investment in clean air.
RAV4 EV leaseholders who do not want to move backward to gasoline have repeatedly requested the right to purchase their cars. Despite having sold hundreds of RAV4 EVs, Toyota has refused the requests of these satisfied customers. Toyota has also ignored repeated requests to meet with DontCrush.com to discuss the matter.
DontCrush.com is asking Toyota to immediately cease destroying RAV4 EVs and offer leaseholders the right to purchase their vehicles; and to restart their electric vehicle program with a goal of selling fully electric vehicles or plug-in hybrid vehicles with at least 20 mile all-electric range by 2008.
American consumers have demonstrated they want to buy the cleanest, most efficient cars available. Hybrids have waiting lists while gas guzzling SUVs languish on dealer lots. Waiting lists have long existed for the auto makers' 100% electric cars. Rather than meeting this consumer demand, the auto makers chose to destroy their great electric cars.
The campaign to challenge the auto industry's assault on its own great electric vehicles and to promote electric and plug-in gasoline-optional hybrid vehicles has been growing since the first Ford actions in the fall of 2004.
In September 2004, actions in Oslo, Norway and San Francisco resulted in Ford Motor Company's decision to sell, rather than crush, its US fleet of Th!nk City electric cars, which are now being sold to waitlisted customers in Norway. In January, 2005, an eight-day vigil at a Sacramento dealer convinced Ford to sell rancher David Raboy and other leaseholders their all-electric RangerEV pickup trucks. A month-long vigil in Burbank CA to save 78 GM EV1s brought nationwide attention to GM's unwillingness to meet consumer demand just as its stock price tumbled.
Electric cars and plug-in gasoline-optional hybrids are the quickest path to using less oil and creating less pollution, two pressing national goals.
Business Week recently recognized the unique potential of plug-in hybrids: "These vehicles are quickly becoming the darlings of strange bedfellows: both conservative hawks and environmentalists, who see such fuel efficiency as key to ensuring national security and fighting climate change. Reducing dependence on the turbulent Middle East "is a war issue," says former CIA Chief R. James Woolsey, who calls the cars' potential "phenomenal."
According to the American Lung Association's recent State of the Air report, air quality throughout California ranks among the worst in the nation, largely due to auto emissions. The Central Valley is choking on the Bay Area's exhaust. "No question about it. Electric Vehicles are part of the solution. Such a simple thing can reduce our dependence on foreign oil and positively impact our air quality."
We believe that everyone deserves the choice to drive clean vehicles- and we want that choice," says Rainforest Action Network's Zero Emission Director Jennifer Krill. "When Toyota destroys these RAV4 EVs they are also destroying the possibility for a safe, healthy and environmentally sustainable future."
DontCrush.com is a group of RAV4 EV drivers, former EV1, EV+ and Th!nk City lessees, and clean air and energy independence advocates. It is supported by the Electric Auto Association, Rainforest Action Network, Global Exchange, the Angeles Chapter of Sierra Club and Earth Resource Foundation.
See-thru view of Toyota RAV4 EV electric drive and battery system.
Specs:
Top Speed: 80 mph
0-60 mph: 17 seconds
Horsepower: 67
Torque: 142 lb-ft
Range per charge: 120 miles
Battery pack life: 150,000 miles
Curb weight: 3,440 pounds
Seating capacity: 5
Tire size: 195/80R16
Sale price in mass production: $22,500
Sources:
www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.03/backyard_pr.html
ev.inel.gov/pdf/fsev/eva/toyrav98.pdf
http://www.renewableelectricity.com/advantag.htm
http://www.autoworld.com/news/Toyota/RAV4_EV.htm
Just think. This was back in the middle 1990s. Now we have lithium ion batteries and more powerful motors that could give this vehicle 300 miles per charge, 0-60 mph in < 8 seconds, 200 horsepower, 250,000+ mile battery pack life, drop the weight 200 pounds, and 120+ mph top speed for < $20,000 in mass production. And this is an SUV. An economy car or a midsize car would be even cheaper and have more range and better performance. What could be done if big business would be the servants of the consumer, and not vice versa. If the market were truly free, and not manipulated by and for certain industries to maximize profits.
Now for the article. Toyota wants to crush their RAV4 EVs and doesn't want to sell them to lease holders willing to pay $40,000+ for them up front. Quite obvious why: electric vehicles = less profits if they replace gas vehicle sales. If these people have them and show them off, others will find out what current technology is capable of.
http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?sect...ue&newsid=8443
Toyota Urged to Not Crush Its Electric Cars
Source: Don'tcrush.Com
[May 10, 2005]
SYNOPSIS: Dontcrush.com, the grassroots organization that caused Ford to change its policy, is now pressuring Toyota to allow leaseholders to purchase their RAV4 EV electric cars.
DontCrush.com, the Campaign to Save Electric Cars, whose international protests against the crushing of electric cars by General Motors and Ford made front-page headlines, changed Ford's policies and saved hundreds of electric cars, today went public with details of a similar campaign directed at Toyota.
DontCrush.com, supported by numerous organizations, is working to convince Toyota to allow leaseholders to purchase their RAV4 EV electric cars, Toyota's cleanest production model to date. Because Toyota has not responded positively to repeated written requests to discuss this issue, the public campaign commences with the release of the group's advertisement - Toyota: Don't Crush Linda's Car," and debut of its website at www.dontcrush.com.
"We've been leasing a RAV4 EV for three and a half years, but Toyota refuses to sell it to us," said DontCrush.com organizer Linda Nicholes of Anaheim Hills. "Apparently they'd prefer to hook us up to the gas pump again." Her husband, Howard Stein, was allowed to buy his electric car, "but since then Toyota and the big automakers have lobbied and sued and successfully killed the obligation to manufacture zero emission cars. Now they are intent on destroying the evidence that electric cars work," he said.
Thousands of RAV4 EVs were manufactured from 1997-2003 to comply with California's Zero Emission Mandate. Toyota benefited from tens of millions of dollars from the taxpayers of the State of California to put these zero-emission, zero-gasoline vehicles on the road. Now, Toyota is literally crushing California's investment in clean air.
RAV4 EV leaseholders who do not want to move backward to gasoline have repeatedly requested the right to purchase their cars. Despite having sold hundreds of RAV4 EVs, Toyota has refused the requests of these satisfied customers. Toyota has also ignored repeated requests to meet with DontCrush.com to discuss the matter.
DontCrush.com is asking Toyota to immediately cease destroying RAV4 EVs and offer leaseholders the right to purchase their vehicles; and to restart their electric vehicle program with a goal of selling fully electric vehicles or plug-in hybrid vehicles with at least 20 mile all-electric range by 2008.
American consumers have demonstrated they want to buy the cleanest, most efficient cars available. Hybrids have waiting lists while gas guzzling SUVs languish on dealer lots. Waiting lists have long existed for the auto makers' 100% electric cars. Rather than meeting this consumer demand, the auto makers chose to destroy their great electric cars.
The campaign to challenge the auto industry's assault on its own great electric vehicles and to promote electric and plug-in gasoline-optional hybrid vehicles has been growing since the first Ford actions in the fall of 2004.
In September 2004, actions in Oslo, Norway and San Francisco resulted in Ford Motor Company's decision to sell, rather than crush, its US fleet of Th!nk City electric cars, which are now being sold to waitlisted customers in Norway. In January, 2005, an eight-day vigil at a Sacramento dealer convinced Ford to sell rancher David Raboy and other leaseholders their all-electric RangerEV pickup trucks. A month-long vigil in Burbank CA to save 78 GM EV1s brought nationwide attention to GM's unwillingness to meet consumer demand just as its stock price tumbled.
Electric cars and plug-in gasoline-optional hybrids are the quickest path to using less oil and creating less pollution, two pressing national goals.
Business Week recently recognized the unique potential of plug-in hybrids: "These vehicles are quickly becoming the darlings of strange bedfellows: both conservative hawks and environmentalists, who see such fuel efficiency as key to ensuring national security and fighting climate change. Reducing dependence on the turbulent Middle East "is a war issue," says former CIA Chief R. James Woolsey, who calls the cars' potential "phenomenal."
According to the American Lung Association's recent State of the Air report, air quality throughout California ranks among the worst in the nation, largely due to auto emissions. The Central Valley is choking on the Bay Area's exhaust. "No question about it. Electric Vehicles are part of the solution. Such a simple thing can reduce our dependence on foreign oil and positively impact our air quality."
We believe that everyone deserves the choice to drive clean vehicles- and we want that choice," says Rainforest Action Network's Zero Emission Director Jennifer Krill. "When Toyota destroys these RAV4 EVs they are also destroying the possibility for a safe, healthy and environmentally sustainable future."
DontCrush.com is a group of RAV4 EV drivers, former EV1, EV+ and Th!nk City lessees, and clean air and energy independence advocates. It is supported by the Electric Auto Association, Rainforest Action Network, Global Exchange, the Angeles Chapter of Sierra Club and Earth Resource Foundation.
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