Cohort Ralf K (Don Kincl) has uploaded a bunch of new finds. We’ll get to the rest as a batch post later, but this one deserves a bit of exclusive attention. This is a rather unusual grouping, with the big Olds partially hiding two lead acid-era EVs. The one on the right is a Citicar, or possibly its later permutation, the Commuta-Car, a product of the first energy crisis and essentially a golf car with an enclosed cab and a license plate. We did a post on it here.
The Miles EV was a product of what might be called the third energy crisis, a run up of oil prices in the early aughts as a result of growing global demand from China and other rapidly developing countries. 2006 saw prices nearly set anew inflation-adjusted record. And that wasn’t all: concerns about global warming and other environmental issues sparked a nascent EV boomlet, for those desperate enough and too impatient to wait for the Nissan leaf and the new generation of modern EVs. The ill-fated Zap Xebra was a primary (bad)player at the time.
The Miles was a Chinese-built Daihatsu Move converted to electric propulsion via the usual means at the time, meaning golf-cart 6V lead acid batteries, which gave it a range of maybe up to 50 miles, with fresh batteries. Because it was a four-wheeler, it had to be licensed as a NEV (Neighborhood EV), with a top speed of 25 mph.
My son Ed drove and reviewed this red Miles back in his just-starting out days at TTAC. Not surprisingly, these were flying off the dealer’s lot in Portland at the time. So where are they all now? Oh right; sitting in a driveway with another dead EV pioneer. Unless one keeps buying fresh batteries for these, they just die.
I’m going to assume the Olds 88 has not been converted to an EV. But that’s not to say it might not have been. One of my big regrets is not shooting a somewhat similar but even better collection of vintage EVs in a driveway in Eugene before they were all junked, presumably. There was a Citicar, a Renault 8 conversion, and a 1977 or so Cadillac four door sedan conversion, which had a big humped (non-stock) trunk lid, presumably to leave a bit of luggage space above what had to be a mighty large array of lead acid batteries. I’ve tried in vain to find another or similar one on Google, so either it was a one-off, or built in extremely limited numbers. How I wish I had taken a picture of it and the three others.
And what was the last car in that driveway; the only one that ran and was the daily driver? An elderly Camry.
“Zero Pollution”..oh how ironic now lol
Behind every Zero Pollution electric vehicle is a power station…..
“Even when the electricity comes from the dirtiest coal-dominated grid, electric vehicles (EVs) still produce less global warming pollution than their conventional counterparts.” — Union of Concerned Scientists
And many utilities are switching to natural gas, which is much cleaner than coal.
What time of day you charge your EV makes a difference as to where the power comes from, too. If you charge it in the middle of the night during off-peak times, most of the fossil fuel plants are idle and most of the power on the grid is coming from hydro and wind. Heck, sometimes when demand is low those hydro plants are producing excess power, so they use it pump water back above the dam. Of course if everyone buys EVs and charges them overnight that will start to become a peak time, but that’s not really an issue at the moment.
In this case, it was rather true, as the PNW gets its electricity almost exclusively from hydro-power.
And the percentage of clean and renewable sources for electricity is increasing rapidly.
Oldsmobile Delta 88 is a big unknown name , an ignored brand , just known in the USA and Canada.
Daihatsu Move , as tiny toy-ish as it’s seen, was distributed everywhere but in North Amerika . So far this Daihatsu Move got high value in Euro -continent, Asia, Afrika and SouthAmerica.
Earlier this summer I posted a few pics to the Cohort of a Citicar in perfect condition that happened to be parked in front of my place. Last weekend I ran into the owners at a stoplight and saw their new plates- OG TESLA, fitting as they were the best selling electric until then!
As I commented on that earlier post back in 2013, I found a one-owner Citicar on the street, got a good set of photos and talked with the owner. Didn’t CC it then since I believe it did so much for the EV’s silly golf-cart eco-freak reputation before Tesla came along that I wanted to forget it. Now I owe you all a Citicar CC. Maybe a comparison with my little 2017 Fiat 500e. Let’s see, 6 hp vs. 111 hp…
That is so true! My mental image of an “electric car” for a long time was a Citicar, and later a tiny Honda or an awkwardly-converted RAV4 of a previous generation. The Tesla Model S completely transformed my image of electric cars from glorified golf carts or tiny California ZEV compliance cars, to something that I’d actually want to drive and be seen in that was more practical and faster than its gasoline-powered competition.
Ironically(?), here in Florida we are starting to see a lot more “glorified” ATVs being used as alternative transportation. I say ironically, because folks seem resistant to the more logically seeming electric powered golf carts.
If someone is doing it, I haven’t seen one, but I’m surprised no one has combined one of those “custom” bodied golf carts with an ATV type car that is battery powered. I keep saying that we should have at least one “sporty looking” EV or hybrid car but folks keep telling me there is no market for a car that looks like a Miata but is a Nissan Leaf under the skin.
Eugene-based Arcimoto is taking pre-orders on what they call a “Fun Utility Vehicle”, the “everyday electric”. They say deliveries start this summer. “70 or 130 mile range, street and highway, open or enclosed, starts at $12K.”
Don’t get me started on Arcimoto. They’ve been burning up private investors’ money for 10 years now, and still haven’t produced any yet. And now they want to go public. I hate to say it, bu this smells like what I call green-scamming.
I don’t believe this will ever get off the ground. For a lot less than the asking price, one can buy a used Leaf. There’s no proven market for a vehicle like this in the US of any size.
Also, I saw quite a few Renault Twizy electrics last time I was in Paris.
” I keep saying that we should have at least one “sporty looking” EV or hybrid car but folks keep telling me there is no market for a car that looks like a Miata but is a Nissan Leaf under the skin.” I couldn’t agree more. A silent drop-top sports car with that instant electric torque would be so sweet.
When I bought my ’92 Miata I planned to give it an electric conversion. But the Chinese LiFePO4 batteries required are still $400/kWh off the shelf. They haven’t dropped a bit in five years. Word is the Chinese military is keeping it that way for some reason. New motor, controller, batteries, charger and everything else would set me back nearly $20K by the time it was done. 3-year-old low-mileage EVs are available used for half that. It just makes no sense. And I just don’t have the time. Maybe by the time I retire a motor and a set of batteries from a wrecked EV could restart my project.
” I keep saying that we should have at least one “sporty looking” EV or hybrid car but folks keep telling me there is no market for a car that looks like a Miata but is a Nissan Leaf under the skin.”
That’s pretty much what the now discontinued Tesla Roadster was — a Lotus body with a Tesla EV underneath. And if you include hybrids there’s the Honda CR-Z.
I imagine the reason there aren’t many sporty EVs/hybrids offered is just because sports cars in general are kind of a small niche market compared to more practical sedans and such.
Has anyone ever seen a CR-Z on the street? A technical tour-de-force perhaps, but…
They’re not particularly common for sure, but I have seen maybe two or three on the street.
“A technical tour-de-force”. Are you kidding? it’s just got the same old school semi-hybrid system that Honda used for years on their Civics and the Insight sedan. It was a technical dead end, and Honda had to abandon that system.
Yes, there’s a few around.
My favorite early electric was the Charles Townabout (Collectible Automobile) it had a fiberglas replica 50’s Karman Ghia body with soaring ’57 DeSoto tailfins and triple tail lights, with a supposed range of 150 miles. It looked amazing.
Let’s see . . . only one of these cars ever took some poor minimum wage worker to work and back every day, safely and usually reliably. The others had short lives as the plaything of electrical engineers or early adopting dilettantes who then ditched them or parked them out back once they became useless.
Some day we may see the electric that manages to work its way down the food chain to cheap beater status that some down-on-his-luck person can afford and count on. But that day is not yet here. Perhaps the Prius will be that car before long, but I have not yet seen any evidence of such in the midwest. The old GM B body, on the other hand, . . .
Used Prii are the go-to taxi/Uber car these days. They’ll reach beater status once the first group of those are retired, unless the automakers withdraw all non-CUVs just as something causes oil to spike in which case they’ll be like Geo Metros were in 2008-9.
Actually I don’t think many EEs bought those early lead-acid Citicars and Miles EVs. We knew enough about their primitive technology to know better.
Three to ten year old major-brand EVs and hybrids are showing up at affordable prices in the used car market here in Portland. 3-year-old Fiat electrics with low miles are at the dealer now for $9K. Craigslist has plenty of nice Nissan Leafs for $6K to $9K. There’s a clean ’07 Prius with 118K miles for $4500. The food chain is working.
Partly these great prices are due to cheap gas, partly it’s taking time for EVs to show they have long lifetimes worth investing in. Ten years ago people were anxious about Prius battery life, now we see quite a few >100K and even >200K mile Priuses on the road. (I peeked at Indianapolis Craigslist and there are some affordable Priuses there.)
The west coast is ahead of some other parts of the country on this as is often the case.
I think the Olds is just a blocker car, so the electric vehicles don’t get stolen.
I just remembered something I read recently, somewhere online…I think. The Prius has recently been “eclipsed” as the best selling hybrid.
I had momentarily forgotten about the Tesla Roadster. Yes, it was a sporty roadster, but was it really in the same price range as a Miata or a Leaf?
True about the Tesla Roadster’s price tag. Although as someone pointed out to me once, a car that only seats two people and can carry very little cargo is kind of inherently a luxury item. The Miata is kind of unique for being a truly affordable roadster.
That’s for sure, especially used. A sports car is not necessarily a luxury item. I have two friends who commute in their old Miatas every day.
Through May of 2017, it was the Prius. But the Fusion was close behind. Perhaps it beat it in June or July.
You are correct, though the same online article said that even adding in Prius V sales, it looks like total 2017 hybrid sales will still see Toyota as barely staying number 1 in that category.
As a side note, Toyota is number 3 in global sales, Volkswagen is number 2, and Renault-Nissan is number 1.
Speaking of EVs that are basically glorified golf carts, I often see a GEM ice cream truck driving around my neighborhood. Basically it’s got a freezer where the back seats would be. I always wonder how long it lasts between charges considering how much power the freezer must draw, unless it has separate batteries to power the freezer or something.
Used to drive a Citicar back when they were new. Quite the interesting experience. Would really love to find one, upgrade the batteries and controller.
A Rare Sight…………. just saw a 57 Olds 88 2dr HT yest.
The car looked huge with a continental kit adding to it’s mass. I thought it must be a 98 model at first sighting. I spoke with the owner a few minutes and he said that it has the original 372cu engine with 3 duce’s. The car was black and red 2 tone in stock cond.
I would say a almost #2 car, I have seen several dozen 1957 Chev. Bel-Airs since I last saw a 57 Olds. Sorry I didn’t take a few pictures,he said that he seldom drives it.
My ’57 and ’58 Starfire convertibles had 371’s with 3×2’s. until I put a ’59 394 “98” engine and trans in the ’58.
What a contrast! I couldn’t help thinking the big Olds would probably get more looks and thumbs-up now than either of those electrics.
Agreed. Those old EVs were Ugly.
It is ironical that the car from the electric car dealership that your son tested is in the old Lyman Slack Chevrolet building. When it was built it It won some sort of Chevrolet dealer national building award.
Gotta love that Corvette Corner!
The guy is just following that old saying;
One for the money (Citi car)
Two for the show (flashy Olds)
Three to get ready (newer electric car)
And four to actually go! (Good ol Jeep in the corner)
That Olds is an ’84 or ’85, going by the tail lights.
Given the company it’s keeping, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were the LF9 350 diesel, possibly converted to a “grease car”.