by Emily Schilling
Editor

Electric vehicles 50 years ago? A look back through this publication’s pages reveals some fits and starts for the industry highlighted in this month’s cover story.

The June 1961 Indiana Rural News (Electric Consumer’s earlier moniker) highlighted the “Voltaran,” an experimental electric car with a top speed of 45 mph and a range of 50 miles on an overnight charge.

A November 1967 article featured an early General Motors foray into electric cars, the “Electrovair II.” The front and rear compartments of the car, based on the Chevrolet Corvair chassis, were crammed with a silver-zinc battery pack weighing 2,600 pounds. The concept car had only a 40-80 mile range, and the costly batteries had to be replaced after just 100 recharges.

Jump ahead to the July 1998 Electric Consumer which featured a story about Kris Trexler, a Los Angeles film editor, who, from May 12 to June 2, 1998, drove his EV1 on an eastbound odyssey to the EV1’s GM headquarters in Troy, Mich. He set out on the 3,275 mile trek to dispel the naysayers who said his car couldn’t make a long trip. Trexler became a spokesman for electric vehicles along the way, talking to school kids and anyone who’d ask.

At the time, EV1 seemed promising. It was the first mass-produced electric car of the modern era from a major automaker. Some 800 were leased to motorists in southern California and Arizona in the late 1990s. The car had a range of about 160 miles on a full charge.

But for his trip through 10 states, Trexler had to carefully prearrange some 40 stops every 70-80 miles where he could tap into a 240-volt line for an hour or two for a partial rejuicing. Electric Consumer was on hand as Trexler stopped for tours — and yet another recharge — at a couple of the Indianapolis GM subsidiaries that developed and tested the EV1’s high-tech battery cells and other components.

By the February 2000 Electric Consumer, though, GM and most other major automakers pulled the plugs on their electric vehicle projects. The September 2001 cover story, as did the nation, then turned its focus to the first gas-electric hybrids, the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight, which found broad acceptance.

In the decade since, GM spun off its Indiana-based subsidiaries that developed the EV1. Those companies carried on. Their new and improved batteries and components — and 20-plus years of expertise — are helping lead this new evolution of electric vehicles featured in this issue.

Here's a link to the 1998 article on the EV1.
Here's a link to Kris Trexler's website on his EV1 trip.