Many people have told me that their treatment at Honda was outrages. Salesmen who never heard of the EV plus and others salesmen who said it was a piece of crap and you should forget it.
Toyota as you all know has never offered the RAV 4 to individuals. Ford has had a converted pickup truck Chrysler hasn't had anything.
The auto press is given half charged EVs to test and misinformation about everything. The regular press has completely missed the story. The only friend of electrics are the Government and they are unfunded by the Republican Majority.
I believe this is a great Story. As powerful as the tobacco industry conspiracy with extremely dire health consequences and filled with even more lies and double talk. I think the time in now to bring in some heavy hitters or the Pure electrics will be dead before it learned to crawl.
The stage for the end of electrics was set when CARB allowed Ultra Low Emission Vehicles to substitute for ZEVS. ULEV is a full blown ICE.
Don Devlin
Honda Stops Electric Car Production
April 29,1999
Filed at 5:05 a.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- American Honda Motor Co. has stopped
production of its EV Plus, becoming the first major automaker to give up
marketing efforts for costly battery-powered electric cars, the Los
Angeles Times reported today.
After spending millions to develop the battery technology, Honda is
instead focusing on other low-emission technologies, the newspaper said.
''We're highly disappointed in Honda,'' said Tom Cackette, the
California Air Resources Board chief deputy director. ''We are
concerned that this violates their agreement with the board to continue to
produce battery-electric vehicles if customer demand warrants it.''
Cackette said the board intends to investigate. Honda officials say they
have fulfilled the company's obligations.
''The program has met both the letter and the spirit of the agreement,''
said spokesman Art Garner. ''Our commitment was to lease 300 electric
vehicles over three years, and we've done that.''
California air-quality rules mandate that starting in 2003, up to 10 percent
of all new cars sold by the top seven auto makers must be zero-emission
vehicles.
Honda's decision to stop marketing the battery-powered cars ''sends a
lot of signals,'' said Thad Malesh, alternate-fuel specialist at J.D. Power
& Associates.
''They're certainly being more honest than anyone else about electrics,''
he said. ''These vehicles are just not acceptable to consumers.''
Few electric vehicles can travel more than 75 miles before needing to be
recharged. A battery pack adds hundreds of pounds to a car and costs
thousands of dollars to replace. Costs to lease the EVs are high -- the
average lease is about $450 a month.
Toyota, General Motors, Ford, DaimlerChysler and Nissan all say they
will continue to produce battery-powered cars and will also continue to
develop other low-emission technologies.
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