What if General Motors marketed the EV1 in Hawaii?

So there is this channel called Big Car, and there are three videos on 20th-century electric cars...
...the third one is about the General Motors one:
It seems that this electric car did have enough range for use in Hawaii, where "driving for hours to get to the next city" is not possible. Could it have been more successful over there?
 
So there is this channel called Big Car, and there are three videos on 20th-century electric cars...
...the third one is about the General Motors one:
It seems that this electric car did have enough range for use in Hawaii, where "driving for hours to get to the next city" is not possible. Could it have been more successful over there?
There a massive downside...Hawai Electrical energy was always more expensive than mainland so any saving in fuel might get outset because that, unless Wind and Solar power for domestic use is more widespread..
 
@Nivek I didn't realise electricity was more expensive in Hawaii, but could it have been made cheaper if electric car batteries had been charged at times of less power demand for anything else?
 

Devvy

Donor
As I'm not in the US; how much was electricity in Hawaii vs the mainland (if you've got a rough estimate of $/kWh then great), just to give us an idea? How much is it now on average?
 
@Nivek I didn't realise electricity was more expensive in Hawaii, but could it have been made cheaper if electric car batteries had been charged at times of less power demand for anything else?
As I'm not in the US; how much was electricity in Hawaii vs the mainland (if you've got a rough estimate of $/kWh then great), just to give us an idea? How much is it now on average?
Acording to Buying Hawaii, the double to almost 2.5 times depending the island, that is why in current times wind and solar have become vital in newly made houses.

https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/bi...-and-regulations/average-price-of-electricity https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/pr...ehicles/electric-vehicle-rates-and-enrollment

Yep very expensive
 
As I'm not in the US; how much was electricity in Hawaii vs the mainland (if you've got a rough estimate of $/kWh then great), just to give us an idea? How much is it now on average?
Apparently right now it's about $0.33/kWh, compared to about $0.12 on the mainland. Gas prices are about $3.20/gal, compared to a national average today (and I do mean today, given how screwy gas demand is lately this may not be quite true in a few months) of $1.80/gal. On the mainland, driving on residential electric with a range of 3.5 miles/kWh has the same cost per mile as driving a 52 MPG car. On the island, it's only 33 MPG. Still cheaper than a gas car, particularly one of late '90s vintage, but not by nearly as much.
 
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Thanks Nivek and e of pi - blimey it's expensive on Hawaii even by European standards for electricity!
IIRC living costs for Hawai'i in general are high. That's what happens when you live in the middle of the Pacific and have to ship just about most things in, not helped by idiocy like the Jones Act. Have to say I was rather surprised to find that the islands kept oil fired power stations for so long.
 

marathag

Banned
Have to say I was rather surprised to find that the islands kept oil fired power stations for so long.

Better than the Coal plants they supplemented
Studies were done on having the then new Kahe Power Plant expand with a couple Westinghouse reactors in the early '60s.

Nuclear would have really made sense for Oahu.
 

marathag

Banned
Too Dangerous with Tsunami and Earthquake alerts there on hawai.
If there was only a way to get a mobile powerplant....
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Doesn't have to have the Reactors is such an attractive package, however

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Better than the coal plants they supplemented.
I'd have to look at the figures again but I would have thought purely from an environmental angle that replacing oil fired power stations with gas ones would be an improvement, never mind financially with the seemingly constant rise in oil prices after the turn of the century – even the sharp drops around 2002 and 2008 recovered pretty quickly.
 
I'd have to look at the figures again but I would have thought purely from an environmental angle that replacing oil fired power stations with gas ones would be an improvement, never mind financially with the seemingly constant rise in oil prices after the turn of the century – even the sharp drops around 2002 and 2008 recovered pretty quickly.

You'd need an LNG terminal on the island with the station. I think there aren't any in the state today, so that would be a major new expense for a gas plant.
 
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