Honda EV+ (honda ev plus) Electric Car -- Electric Vehicles for everyone

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Evaluation of the HondaEV with retrospective

The Honda EV+ was the first production Electric Car which seated four, had a reasonable range, and was fun to drive. Engineers, Mechanics, the mechanically inclined, will find an EV strangely satisfying. After trying to pin-point the feeling, it perhaps centers around the subliminal perception of "rightness". The EV has (basically) only one moving part, and it's moving in the right direction--same as the wheels. An internal combustion ("IC") engine has a thousand intricately inter-connected parts, all moving in different directions marvelously co-ordinated by timing mechanisms and clever design devices built up over a century of engineering--an amazing rube-goldberg device to accomplish what the EV's electric motor does with no effort. And, of course, the more intricate the machine, the more ways it can fail.

Range:
How far did it go?
The HondaEV used Toyota-Panasonic EV-95 nickel metal hydride batteries , the only proven battery for Electric cars. This battery gave it a range about twice that of lead acid. Any old driver got 90-100 miles out of a single charge, even with no regard for conservation. Careful drivers got at least 148 miles on a single charge (that's our record), and average drivers 120 miles on a single charge. We have calculated that if the car were designed for maximum efficiency, it would attain a range of 180 miles on a single charge, but the practical, consistent range is about 100 miles on a charge.
These batteries, if placed in the GM EV1, would give it 180 miles on a charge.
They are still running in Toyota RAV4-EV, more than 130,000 miles so far on hundreds of Toyota RAV4-EV, trouble-free and reliable. These are the batteries for Electric cars.

The HondaEV was a renegade. GM had tried to kill the idea.
In 1994, General Motors bought control of the patent rights for the batteries needed for the HondaEV. GM tried to suppress these batteries, claiming that they could not use them in their EV1. In 1996, the EV1 was released with defective Delco batteries, GM apparently expected the whole thing to die out. The lease was an astronomical $599/month.
In 1997, Honda confounded this false vision by releasing the HondaEV for only $499 per month.
More important, the HondaEV had no battery troubles, and went twice as far as GM's EV1 could go on the puny Delco batteries.
Honda's advanced HondaEV forced GM to eventually release
the EV1 with NiMH batteries,
and to lower the cost of the EV1 to that of the HondaEV.

Why did the HondaEV die such a rude and unnecessary death?
On Oct. 10, 2000, GM sold control of the patent rights needed for the EV-95 batteries to Texaco. On Oct. 16, Texaco announced it would merge into Chevron (Standard Oil). The next year, Chevron funded a lawsuit against Toyota-Panasonic et al., and the battery production line for the EV-95 batteries was halted.

Toyota paid $30,000,000 and received the right to make small batteries for the Prius, too small to plug in. Toyota shamefully made a virtue of its defeat by bragging that the Prius could not be plugged in. In reality, it was a great disgrace for Toyota to have to bow and scrape to Chevron's unit that controlled the patents.
The HondaEV suddenly had no battery, no more could be made or sold.

Power:
How was it to drive?
The car had all of Honda's tradition of quality, and was well-balanced, safe, a joy to handle, and hooked anyone who drove it on electric cars for ever more. Typically, I set people down in it (I'm in the passenger seat), hand them the keys, and they're on their own. Everyone who has driven it is first amazed that you don't have to "start" anything, and then how easy it is to drive, and then at its acceleration and "feel" of power. In traffic jams, regenerative braking and positive speed control virtually eliminate "stop and start" driving.

Many people involuntarily exclaimed, This is the way cars should drive!

How do you charge it?

At the driver's home, and at almost every where else in America, you will find a 240v (or 208v) electric outlet. Bypassing the "charging devices", we plugged right into these outlets, and could charge anywhere. The Honda EV used conductive charging, so just needed a plug, not a charging station.

It took about 6-7 hours to get a full charge of 26.2 kwh using the 4.2 KW on-board charger. The 1997 Honda was purposely designed for slow charging overnight, using power that would otherwise be unused.
Inexpensive, reliable fast chargers now exist which could charge up the EV+ from 20% to 80% in less than 1 hour. More expensive units could do the same job in 15 minutes or less.

It was shameful for Honda to crush and destroy
perfectly good oil-free cars that many people wanted to buy.
Honda would not sell.

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The Honda EV+ was the first production Electric Car which seated four, had a reasonable range, and was fun to drive.		Engineers, Mechanics, the mechanically inclined, will find an EV strangely satisfying. After trying to pin-point the feeling, it perhaps centers around the subliminal perception of "rightness". The EV has (basically) only one moving part, and it's moving in the right direction--same as the wheels. An internal combustion ("IC") engine has a thousand intricately inter-connected parts, all moving in different directions marvelously co-ordinated by timing mechanisms and clever design devices built up over a century of engineering--an amazing rube-goldberg device to accomplish what the EV's electric motor does with no effort. And, of course, the more intricate the machine, the more ways it can fail.

Range: How far did it go?		The HondaEV used Toyota-Panasonic EV-95 nickel metal hydride batteries , the only proven battery for Electric cars. This battery gave it a range about twice that of lead acid. Any old driver got 90-100 miles out of a single charge, even with no regard for conservation. Careful drivers got at least 148 miles on a single charge (that's our record), and average drivers 120 miles on a single charge. We have calculated that if the car were designed for maximum efficiency, it would attain a range of 180 miles on a single charge, but the practical, consistent range is about *100 miles on a charge.* These batteries, if placed in the GM EV1, would give it 180 miles on a charge. They are still running in Toyota RAV4-EV, more than 130,000 miles so far on hundreds of Toyota RAV4-EV, trouble-free and reliable. These are the batteries for Electric cars.

The HondaEV was a renegade. GM had tried to kill the idea.		In 1994, General Motors bought control of the patent rights for the batteries needed for the HondaEV. GM tried to suppress these batteries, claiming that they could not use them in their EV1. In 1996, the EV1 was released with defective Delco batteries, GM apparently expected the whole thing to die out. The lease was an astronomical $599/month. In 1997, Honda confounded this false vision by releasing the HondaEV for only $499 per month. More important, the HondaEV had no battery troubles, and went twice as far as GM's EV1 could go on the puny Delco batteries. Honda's advanced HondaEV forced GM to eventually release the EV1 with NiMH batteries, and to lower the cost of the EV1 to that of the HondaEV.

Why did the HondaEV die such a rude and unnecessary death?		On Oct. 10, 2000, GM sold control of the patent rights needed for the EV-95 batteries to Texaco. On Oct. 16, Texaco announced it would merge into Chevron (Standard Oil). The next year, Chevron funded a lawsuit against Toyota-Panasonic et al., and the battery production line for the EV-95 batteries was halted. Toyota paid $30,000,000 and received the right to make small batteries for the Prius, too small to plug in. Toyota shamefully made a virtue of its defeat by bragging that the Prius could not be plugged in. In reality, it was a great disgrace for Toyota to have to bow and scrape to Chevron's unit that controlled the patents. The HondaEV suddenly had no battery, no more could be made or sold.

Power: How was it to drive?		The car had all of Honda's tradition of quality, and was well-balanced, safe, a joy to handle, and hooked anyone who drove it on electric cars for ever more. Typically, I set people down in it (I'm in the passenger seat), hand them the keys, and they're on their own. Everyone who has driven it is first amazed that you don't have to "start" anything, and then how easy it is to drive, and then at its acceleration and "feel" of power. In traffic jams, regenerative braking and positive speed control virtually eliminate "stop and start" driving. Many people involuntarily exclaimed, This is the way cars should drive!

How do you charge it?		At the driver's home, and at almost every where else in America, you will find a 240v (or 208v) electric outlet. Bypassing the "charging devices", we plugged right into these outlets, and could charge anywhere. The Honda EV used conductive charging, so just needed a plug, not a charging station. It took about 6-7 hours to get a full charge of 26.2 kwh using the 4.2 KW on-board charger. The 1997 Honda was purposely designed for slow charging overnight, using power that would otherwise be unused. Inexpensive, reliable fast chargers now exist which could charge up the EV+ from 20% to 80% in less than 1 hour. More expensive units could do the same job in 15 minutes or less.