News from (Los Angeles Daily News)
by Dana Bartholomew
Thursday, February 24, 2005 - BURBANK -- After Chris Reeves first caught a look at the EV1,
he'd do nearly anything to lease the electric sports car of the future. Now he'd do nearly
anything to get one back.
Reeves is one of dozens of electric car buffs to stand vigil for 10 straight days hoping to
save the last of the General Motors fleet -- 77 EV1s in California and roughly twice that
number in New York -- from the crusher.
"If I could get my car back, I would lie in front of a (car) transporter," declared
Reeves, 46, of Burbank, among a handful of protesters gazing at rows of torpedo-shape sports
car beauties on the backlot of the General Motors Training Center in Burbank.
"I would offer $50,000 for one of these cars. I would remortgage my house for one of them.
They're that good."
Mel Gibson once sang the theme from "Batman" in one. Danny DeVito got one on Father's Day
wrapped in a big red bow. And car collector Jay Leno reportedly offered $1 million to own one
-- and GM turned him down.
For the more than 800 former lessees of the pioneering electric vehicle from GM, they're
now a club without a car.
An electric vehicle designed by General Motors years ahead of a California mandate to
produce zero-emission cars, the EV1 turned heads. By 1999, GM built more than 1,000 EV1s, of
which it leased 800 for between $300 and $600 a month before finally pulling the plug on its
electric car program in 2003.
All Reeves and other EV1 enthusiasts say they want is a chance to buy their former wheels
back for $25,000 each -- free of strings from the factory. And for GM to recharge its electric
car program.
On Saturday, the group will hold a Burbank rally to include such celebrities as Ed Begley
Jr. of "Six Feet Under," Alexandra Paul of "Baywatch" and Ted Danson of "Cheers."
"This is Death Row," said Chelsea Sexton, a former EV1 specialist, marketer and customer
service rep for GM, staring through a chain-link fence at the "incarcerated" fleet as storm
clouds raced over the horizon. "These cars are just sitting, waiting to be crushed -- to make
EV pancakes out of them.
"GM is not just crushing a car, but a symbol of what's possible."
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