Comment Log Display

I do not know the details of the proposal before the Board but I
would like to offer comments and an opinion based on my personal
experience.  I have been driving an electric vehicle--a Toyota
Rav4/EV--for more than 5 years.  It is exclusively battery-
powered (using NiMH batteries), and I recharge it at home or at
various charging stations around the L.A. Area (where I live).

In more than 5 years and more than 60,000 miles so far I have not
used one drop of gasoline.  The vehicle has required no
maintenance or repair, and it runs today at about 98% of the
capacity it had 5 years ago.  This car is a perfect demonstration
that battery-powered EVs do work, and they work very very well. 
In my opinion this is one of the best vehicles ever built because
it combines the virtue of being virtually pure green with the
features of every other "normal" car (i.e. internal combustion
engine auto) we've grown used to .  It drives smoothly and easily
within all types of traffic, including considerable freeway
driving when I commute to and from work.  It will go 75-100 miles
on a charge and for your typical urban/suburban commuter or
stay-at-home mom/dad that translates into a day or two of driving
before recharge is needed.  I personally charge my vehicle about 3
times per week in order to drive about 250 miles per week.  The
cost of electric power to operate my EV is much less than I would
be paying for gasoline.  My vehicle generates no emissions
whatsoever, and the L.A. DWP says that factoring in the fossil
fuel consumption needed to generate the electricity I consume for
the car results in about 3-4% of the atmospheric emissions of a
conventional vehicle.  

I believe vehicles like this are perfect for the urban/suburban
driving environment.  If an automaker tells the CARB that it
cannot build an efficient battery-powered vehicle that is--excuse
the blunt language--utter crap.  The GM EV-1 may have had some
problems regarding operating range/battery life (with a lead-acid
battery system initially, I believe) and but those surely would
have been overcome by now had the company continued to invest
minimally in R&D to improve it.  Instead they withdrew the EVs and
complained that the public would not accept EVs.  Had GM spent the
same budget to improve and market EVs that they spent on the
Hummer, what do you think we would see on the highways today?  

Toyota's EV is a great vehicle and it is a shame that they
discontinued production.  I consider myself very very fortunate to
have acquired one of them during their limited period of
availability.  If Toyota did not find the program to be
profitable, again it was a problem of marketing and economies of
scale and not any defect inherent in the EV technology.  They did
nothing to educate the public to the virtues of this superior
automobile or there would have been a significant demand for the
vehicles, production would have expanded, and they would have
shown a profit eventually.

The CARB should do everything in its power to pressure the auto
companies to resume EV production, resume R&D, and invest in the
necessary marketing to make EVs a success.  Don't "let them off
the hook" again.  The CARB's original program to force the
automakers to put EVs on the road was an evironmentally
responsible and right-minded idea.  Don't back down again,
please!

How can anyone say that EVs don't work, that they are not
practical, that the public doesn't want them?  My Toyota is proof
that they do work, and frequently people ask me about the car--how
far can I go? how much does it cost to operate? etc.--and they are
amazed to hear how practial, economical and green it is.  Many say
they wish they could get one, too.  

Thank you for listening.  I hope you find my first-hand
description useful.  I believe I am a pretty typical
urban/suburban resident in terms of my driving habits and needs.