Click here for June 2005 update on US DontCrush campaign to save Toyota RAV4 EV.

August 2000
Frustrated, reading about all these sate-of-the-art EV's online? Longing to leave that ICE relic at home and actually drive a REAL EV but can't afford the trip to California, scandalously, the location of your nearest EV dealer? You have my deepest sympathy.
EVUK's Moira Govan & Jersey policeman pose in front of the highly popular Toyota RAV4 EV police car

But all is not lost - there is a cheap solution, much closer to home though not for much longer so book that ticket soon and head for Jersey. For this remote island 3 hours by boat from the UK, 14 miles off the coast of France, is the only place in the UK where you can get behind the wheel of a REAL long-range zero-emission car - that cheeky-chunky, sporty, good lookin' Toyota RAV4-EV. ...for one more year only.
Inspired by our very own Harry EV Wizard, aka Harry Boswell, electrical engineer and super-knowledgeable EV enthusiast whose trip to the island I'd read about in EV World I finally decided to go there myself in July and re-live my Californian Dream of 1998.

My mission, once I'd landed and sorted out bike hire, was to go and pay a visit to Jersey Police HQ. Yes, the States of Jersey Police have a RAV4-EV displaying full Police livery. And they love it. Once I've mastered the tricky part of transforming the interview I recorded from mini-disk to realaudio, you can hear exactly what Brian Beethon, Transport Manager of Jersey Police had to say. In the meantime, here's a summary of my conversations with both Brian and the MD of Europcar, the only car rental company to hire EV's in Europe.
The RAV4-EV pictured above - that's yours truly posing with PC John Philpott - is used for beat duty by police, carrying out administrative tasks, collecting witness statements etc. The car clocks up on average 50-60 miles per day. A doddle for this EV which has a range of approx 120 miles before needing to be recharged. A full recharge takes 6 hours. EV Quick technology in the States, however, has massively reduced charging time - 90% battery recharge in 8-15 mins. The DaimlerChrysler Epic EV shuttling passengers around busy LA Airport uses a Fast Charger - so if this technology were made available in Jersey....Brian was quick to point out that they use Economy 7 to recharge overnight meaning it costs next to nothing to drive around the island. Feeling jealous yet? Derbyshire Police, are you reading this? Just before I arrived in Jersey, I'd heard that this Police Force were planning to reduce the number of patrol cars because of soaring fuel costs. Brian thought the range for actual patrol duty might pose problems but agreed they would be an excellent addition to any Police fleet on the mainland. (Too bad this RAV4 doesn't have the range of the GMEV1 - 225 mph or the Solectria Sunrise - 373mph.
Brian concluded this EV was a great car. 'ELECTRIC is undoubtedly the way to go'. Well it certainly is for those of us who drive less than 125 miles per day. In fact according to a recent survey in Green Futures magazine 45% of car journeys made in the UK are a mere 2 miles!

Then it was time to cycle off to La Moye, 5 miles away and meet Guy Plante(that's him pretending to charge the car), MD of Europcar, and take a look at the civilian version of the RAV4-EV.
Guy was even more delighted with the car than I'd expected. Cynic that I am, I thought perhaps he may really prefer the smell and roar of an internal combustion engine to the clean, silent er, battery. Far too cynical. The man is positively ecstatic about this EV - he prefers it to his petrol car and "my kids love it".
Keen to show off the car, Guy, to my surpise and joy took me for a spin to a sandy car park by the coast.
"Right, let's swap seats," he announced, suddenly.
Fantastic. I was so surprised..and excited. I hadn't been behind the wheel of an EV since California when I had my first driving lesson in a GM EV1. This sporty car felt even more fun to drive, its chunky body affording passenger and driver an elevated view, like sitting upstairs on a double-decker bus. I couldn't wait to feel that EV Grin all drivers talk about when they drive electric, spread across my face. I didn't have to wait long.
"Ignore the clutch for now. Just press down on the break - that big peddle in the middle and the accelerator to your right".

It was amazing. I couldn't stop smiling, laughing with delight. The sensation you experience is rather like the one felt when the handbreak of a petrol-car is released, without turning on the ignition, only you move forward of course and travel at normal driving speed.
In an instant, I realised why I'd become an EV campaigner. It's easy, sitting in front of a computer with no EV's to actually demonstrate and no political will to introduce them to feel demoralised.
He agreed unequivocally with Brian that electric vehicles were the future. But I keep hearing this excuse that EV's will arrive one day - the technology is ready so why not now?
Guy nodded, adding that if Toyota supplied him with the cars, he would not hesitate, to set up in London and hire out 100 Toyota RAV4-EV's. For the driver who wants to make relatively short trips, say 30 miles per day, it's a breeze for this car.
"There is", he added "absolutley no reason why Londoners should not enjoy the use of this car now".
Of course if trips to Leeds or Scotland are planned this particular EV would not be appropriate but for many who simply wish to hire a car for shorter trips this would be a welcome option. Of course if we had the GM EV1 - 225 mpc or the Solectria Sunrise - 373 mpc, longer trips could easily be considered.
Ken Livingstone, your congestion charges are most welcome but how about relieving lung congestion?

Visitors to Jersey who hire the EV for 4 or 5 days rarely need to recharge the car at all as they explore the island but if they should need to 'fill up', there are free car parks equipped with free recharging points in the town centre. Guy Plante has many EV converts returning to his company, requesting to hire the car again and again.
Jersey Electricity's Corporate Marketing Assistant, Vicky Stirrup whom I spoke to the following day has hundreds of calls from drivers wanting to know how they can buy the RAV4-EV.
Incredibly, Jim Olson, senior vice president, external and regulatory affairs for Toyota Motor North America, told EV World that the consumer is not ready for the EV! They wouldn't be interested in buying them.
Well bring them here then. We want them here in $6 a gallon UK. Besides, Americans still only pay around $2 for a gallon of petrol..Doooooh!
Harry Boswell has been trying for over a year to buy a RAV4-EV from Japan HQ. It's the only way. He is waiting for a drop in the yen as cost currently is a prohibitive £48,000 approx.

At this point most people having enthused and raved about the car, then dismiss the EV as a viable alternative because of the cost. But there is clearly a reason for the elevated price of zero-emission cars. Car companies simply don't want to sell them. CNBC reported recently that a Toyota executive was heard off the record stating they hoped the 'EV Program' would fail in order to avoid massive reinvestment and a massive shake-up of the whole car industry. All major companies it seems just can't wait to 'pull the plug' once and for all on the EV in fact.
This comes as no surprise whatsoever. Petrol stations would stand virtually empty, BP signs flapping in the wind (See also News for Dr. Jeremy Leggett's "End of the Oil-Era" report) as drivers recharged their cars at home and if they took advantage of Economy 7 as Brian Beethon, Transport Manager for Jersey Police recommends, they would pay around 1p a mile. The long-range EV is not a second car as commonly claimed. The majority of journeys made by the average driver per day is 30 miles For long journeys over 125 miles, the ICE car could be used or hired,(until technology is sufficiently advanced to blast the IC-engine to kingdom come) relieving the driver of anxiety over the depreciation in value of their car by increased mileage on the clock.

To prevent this calamity, Toyota for example is intent on replacing the RAV4-EV with the hybrid, the Prius, a car which never runs on pure electrics therefore always pollutes and cannot be plugged in to recharge, thereby maintaining the monopoly of the internal combustion engine and ensuring petrol-tax greedy governments keep a smile on their big, fat, greedy faces. For more on this, see the excellent Driving The Future.

Last year Honda replaced its hugely popular Honda EV+ in California with the hybrid, the Honda Insight. There is an ongoing campaign to re-launch this pure EV. Both Vicky Stirrup and Brian Beethon confirmed regrettably there were no plans by Toyota to continue the 5 year Electric Vehicle Programme which is now in its 4th year. Neither they nor Guy Plante welcome this move, such is their enthusiasm for the EV. They would no doubt appreciate Mike Wirsch's excellent article, EV's are still the "Gold Standard", in Electrifying Times.
So much for Toyota's 'experiment' in Jersey. It has worked, drivers love it and want to buy it. What more proof does a company need to establish whether the EV would prove a success elsewhere? Clearly, it doesn't want to make the investment. To let Toyota know you'd like to see the RAV4 EV remain in Jersey and hit the mainland, call Marco van Riel, Corporate Affairs Manager at Toyota, tel no: (Belgium) +32 274 52036).

Janet Reno, it's hight time you turned your attention away from Bill Gates and broke up the oil CAR-tel don'tcha think? In the UK alone there are 25,000 deaths a year from air pollution related diseases and in the South East traffic is responsible for an alarming 80% of air pollution. See Driving The Future for US statistics.
And while I'm having my cathartic rant, why is Toyota testing its EV in faraway Jersey? Surely if Toyota genuinely wanted the EV to be a true success story, they would have supplied their cars to an island closer to the UK mainland (the French on the whole are only interested in homegrown products, the Renault, Citroen and Peugeot so Toyota unlikely to spark much interest)like the Isle of Wight or better still why not Oxford for example right here on the mainland itself where news of the popularity of the car would have spread like an EV virus?

Well of course that's just what they are afraid of. *So, it seems it's still up to the public to keep writing to the media, the Government and of course the car companies themselves to press for change.
Oh by the way could somebody in Jersey please introduce electric bikes for hire? Those hills are hard work after a while - particularly if two wheels are your sole mode of transport. ZAP, EV GLOBAL where are you?

EVUK footnote:
New York City Department of Environmental Protection's vehicle fleet has 20 RAV4-EV's silently motoring around the streets of New York City and 500 are available for lease in California. Japan of course also supplies the RAV4-EV and is home to the world's first eco-car rental company Kobe Eco Car. For more articles on the RAV4 EV, check EV World or just 'goole' it. As if you didn't know.

*The following scathing message was sent by fellow EV supporter to the excellent Yahoo Pure Electric Vehicle newsgroup re: Toyota's hybrid hype:

"It is also interesting to see that Toyota appears to be breaking even on the Prius at $20,000. I must then ask how come they can build a Prius with both an electric drive system and an ICE for $20,000 and yet claim the all electric RAV4 costs the $200,000 each. They must have their highest paid executive building them by hand.

Time to write to US News & World Report to let them know that there are lots of people in the USA who care about the enviornment and want to drive Electric Vehicles but are being frustrated by lack of supply." Stay tuned for realaudio interviews...and BOYCOTT "car-showrooms" not the petrol pumps.....

Feb 2002 update:

Since my visit to Jersey in August 2000, the 1p a mile, 120 mpc Toyota RAV4 EV has gone on sale (Feb, 2002) in $1.60 (approx) a gallon California but for some reason (can't imagine what that is!) in $5.50 a gallon Britain we can only buy the petrol version. Help us to bring the Toyota RAV4 EV to UK/Europe in 2002

January, 2003 - update:

What a huge surprise, Toyota oh-so-predictably follows Ford, GM, abandoning its advanced pure EV Electric Program, ending production of the highly popular RAV4 EV. Excuse? Lack of demand. Could this be because they only planned to make a pathetically small number and sold it for twice the price of the petrol-powered version in $1.50 a gallon California? And incidentally, in spite of this, supply did not in fact meet demand. Strangely, a small microelectronics company has bought up Ford's 53 mpc Th!nk City and plans to launch and sell a new, improved 120 mpc version in 6 months' time. Yet multi-billion dollar global car companies seem unable to do the same!! If only the UK mainstream media/politicians had engaged public interest in advanced electric cars long ago, giving high profile coverage over the last 4-5 years of the development of long-range, near silent, zero-emission, congestion charge-exempt, virtually maintenance-free EV's like the 120 mpc RAV4 EV, 120 mpc Nissan Altra in California, pressure from the 500 million Europeans who pay between $4-$5.50 a gallon would have forced car companies to produce and sell them over here. Email your support for the continued production of the Toyota RAV4 EV which by now should have a range of 200 mpc using current available technology, to Doug Korthof.

For photos of recent RAV4 EV protests in California, including the Santa Monica EV party, see Driving The Future. Live webcast of future protests in LA planned. Watch this space.

June 2005 update:

June 2005 DontCrush campaigner outside Toyota HQ, CA

The return of the popular RAV4 EV's - the cleanest cars Toyota had ever built - from Jersey, UK, to Japan went smoothly it seems without a whisper of protest from either UK environmental groups or our allegedly pro-Kyoto, oh-so-global-warming-concerned mainstream media. However in California, USA, the response to Toyota and all other car manufacturers wanting to crush their respective EV's has thankfully been met with a very robust and vocal defiance at least from EV leaseholders wishing to avoid the petrol/gas station, reduce CO2 emissions and purchase their efficient, low-noise, low-pollution EV's. Toyota has so far flatly refused every purchase request from RAV4 EV leaseholders, even though consumers snatched up every RAV4 that Toyota put on the market.

DontCrush.com, a coalition of RAV4 EV drivers, former Honda EV+, GM EV1, and Ford Th!nk City lessees, staged a protest againt Toyota's destruction of the RAV4 EV at Toyota HQ on June 1 2005 which along with all previous protests went, as usual, unreported in the UK national media which supports the corporate view that there simply is(or won't be if they can help it!) public interest in EV's...UK motorists must remain unreceptive to EV's by simply not discussing them publicly!

November 2006 update:

"Who Killed the electric Toyota RAV4?"
Well, the UK/EU media for a start - and they're still burying it..

RAV4 EV at "Who Killed the Electric Car" screening in US. Click for (larger) original photo and 'screenplay' from Darell Dickey's superb RAV4 EV owner's site

 Most EVUK'ers may find this hard to believe - but we are currently working with a major UK/global TV network on a documentary about transport which is to include a segment about Zero Emission Vehicles. Filming is scheduled to finish in December 2006. Although - for reasons of confidentiality - we cannot reveal the identity either of the TV network concerned or of our contact there - we would like to share with you the following email(from us to our contact) regarding the Toyota RAV4 EV:

"We would consider it a real achievement if we could finally persuade a mainstream media(esp. TV journalists) to make even the briefest of references to the all-electric Toyota RAV4 EV if you do intend to include a quick "potted history" of electric vehicles in this documentary.

The RAV4 EV(an 80 mph, up to 125 miles/charge electric version of the midi-SUV ) - not the GM EV1 - was/is the most internationally significant, stereotype-shattering battery EV of the past 10 years(and conspicuously the one that our UK/EU media simply refuse to talk about) - and for two principle reasons:

1) Unlike the GM EV1 it was the only long-range advanced EV that was actually brought over to Europe and most importantly to be made available, from 1999-2003, to the public(car hire) and to the police in Jersey in the Channel Islands(part of the British Isles).
We and others got so frustrated attempting to persuade mainstream journalists to go out to Jersey and test it that we eventually went there ourselves.
Please read our report at: http://www.evuk.co.uk/hotwires/moira/art16.html - and ask yourself why not a single British or(to the best of our knowledge ) European mainstream journalist ever went to Jersey to review it and report on it - despite being blitzed at regular intervals by us and others.
The fact is that the RAV4 didn't fit the 'short-range, odd-looks, too small' stereotype - the 'EV script' - so it has been simply ignored, blacked out from almost all potted EV histories in Britain and Europe. (And journalists are doing the same with the TZero when reporting the Tesla Roadster: without the 10-year legacy and drivetrain of the TZero there would be no Tesla Roadster. Period. See our Tesla Roadster report at: http://www.evuk.co.uk/news/index4.html#Tesla_Roadster_launch )

Again when the BBC consulted twice with us this summer 2006('You and Yours' and BBC Online) they too refused to mention the Toyota RAV4 EV - despite our best efforts to get them to do so - see our report: http://www.evuk.co.uk/news/index4.html#BBC_You_Your_Real_EV_Silence
Then in August this year(2006) BBC Online's Finlo Rohrer contacted/consulted us - his piece too fails to mention the all important Toyota RAV4 EV: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5245036.stm

In the past 9 years since the RAV4 EV was launched we have probably sent out over 100 emails to mainstream media outlets asking why they always happily talk about the 'short-range, low-speed, odd-looks and limited size' of electric vehicles while refusing to make reference to the Toyota RAV EV - despite the fact that it was on their doorstep in Jersey for 4 years.

Our equally frustrated friend Harry Boswell also went to Jersey himself and produced this excellent report "Mr. Boswell takes an EV Holiday": http://www.evworld.com/archives/reports/boswell.html
Ironically it was a US broadcaster, CNN, who contacted us and DID include generous coverage of the RAV4 EV in Jersey - see their report(EVUK gets a mention too) : http://edition.cnn.com/BUSINESS/programs/yourbusiness/stories2001/cleaner.vehicles

2) In their potted histories of EV's, journalists are, often understandably, able to 'explain away' most EV's - even the GM EV1 - by pointing to the fact that they look quirky and are only a 2 -seaters.
But the Toyota RAV4 EV could/can not be explained away or criticised on either of those counts. It looks and performs more or less like a normal RAV4 but is quiet, costs next-to-nothing to run and has better acceleration from 0.
What's more Toyota - unlike GM - proved that they were serious about EV's(for a while at least) by doing the rational thing and bringing one of the best EV's ever to $5 a gallon Europe.

Yet despite all that - or more likely because of it - our media ignores it....and continues to ignore it.

We have included a very telling photo of a Toyota RAV4 EV parked up outside a cinema in the US that is showing "Who Killed The Electric Car" from http://evnut.com/wktec_doc.htm "