Battery Electric Vehicles Survive - Part 2

June 29, 2003 – Vol.8 No.14

BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES SURVIVE - PART 2.

DaimlerChrysler, though significantly invested in money and energies in fuel cell vehicles (and diesels, see above) hasn’t entirely backed away from battery electric vehicles either. While the company isn’t pursuing highway capable electric vehicles (nor pursuing hybrid-electric vehicles) it has been successful in the sale of neighborhood electric vehicles, a.k.a. low-speed electric vehicles, through its GEM (Global Electric Motorcars) subsidiary.

The company recently announced that GEM has sold more than 18,000 vehicles in the U.S. with 10,000 of those in California. At one time it was thought that DaimlerChrysler would meet its Zero Emission Vehicle mandate in that state by selling large numbers of GEM cars, but battery-electric vehicles are no longer demanded to meet the ruling. Nevertheless, sales of GEM cars in the state have developed a life - and a market - of their own.

The vehicles are finding homes where driving distances are short, high speed isn’t wanted, and an overnight recharge isn’t a inconvenience. According to DaimlerChrysler, drivers who have a GEM available for use are beginning to choose it over the conventional vehicle parked in the driveway for a significant number of trips. In a study of 28 families living in the master plan community of Otay Ranch, given the choice of the family car or the GEM for short trips, 85 percent of the time the GEM was used.

The 60-day study, sponsored by the City of Chula Vista, the Otay Ranch Company, and non-profits Mobility Lab and the Green Car Institute proved a small-windfall for DaimlerChrysler too. More than half of the 28 participating families have said they will buy the GEM car loaned to them for the study. The GEM cars should act as mobile advertising aimed at the other 7,000 households in the community. Visit GEM at http://www.gemcars.com/ , DaimlerChrysler at http://www.media.daimlerchrysler.com/ .