how many original Rav4 EV's left?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by psikot, Jan 17, 2008.

  1. psikot

    psikot New Member

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    i was driving down 101 near San Jose and saw a Rav4 EV get on the freeway and speed off in the HOV lane. I was wondering how many of these 2002 electric vehicles are still driving around?
     
    #1 psikot, Jan 17, 2008
  2. jdenenberg

    jdenenberg EE Professor

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    About 300 were actually sold to the public. The others were crushed. Many of the 300 are still on the road.

    JeffD
     
    #2 jdenenberg, Jan 17, 2008
  3. Rangerdavid

    Rangerdavid Senior Member

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    Why in the world would they have crushed them?? :eek:
     
    #3 Rangerdavid, Jan 17, 2008
  4. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    go and see the movie "ho killed the electric car";)
     
    #4 Flying White Dutchman, Jan 17, 2008
  5. cnschult

    cnschult Active Member

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    yeah i was surprised to see one after I saw the movie, they are in high demand, they were probably only around $30,000 new but the one I saw sold on eBay last year used for around $50,000.

    it was weird-looking because it was the only rav4 I've never seen w/o a spare tire on the tailgate, maybe the rav4EV used runflats to save on weight like the mini cooper.


    for $50,000 that person could have bought 3 quality used cars and had 3 EV conversions performed on them.
     
    #5 cnschult, Jan 17, 2008
  6. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    $40k when new. There was a gov't incentive that brought it down to $20 or $30k.
     
    #6 Tideland Prius, Jan 17, 2008
  7. miscrms

    miscrms Plug Envious Member

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    Well, not really. You can do a decent lead acid conversion for $8-$12k. Thats a good 9" DC motor (like a Netgain Warp or ADC), Zilla 1k controller, AGM batteries (probably Orbitals or Optimas), a programmable PFC charger & battery balancer (like manzanita micro) plus all the contactors, interlocks, instrumentation, cables, etc. Then you still have to do all the work, or pay someone quite a bit more for labor. In a RAV4 (add $5-6k for a decent used donor) this would probably give you performance approaching that of the original, but you'd be doing well to end up with an at speed (55mph) range of 40 miles :( On top of that you are looking at ~$3k every 1-2 years for a new battery pack if its your daily driver. You can always cut corners to make it cheaper, but you will be sacrificing range, performance, safety and reliability.

    To get a quality AC motor & controller & Li-ion battery system with BMS you are talking more in the $30k+ sort of range. That would probably meet or exceed the RAV4 EVs original ~100 mile range. If NimH were available it might only be $20k but they are not really (maybe Nilar will solve this eventually.)

    There is a reason those things are so sought after. Quality EV conversions are possible, but given the extreme low volume and scarce availability of many of the components its not cheap.

    Rob
     
    #7 miscrms, Jan 17, 2008
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