Solectria Sunrise

[jfaggella@gis.net (Joe Faggella)]

On Sun, 16 Apr 2000 19:58:57 -0400, "David Roden (Akron OH USA)"
<roden@ald.net> wrote:

>The Sunrise has also never seen production, but its prototype did go 238 
>miles on a charge in a Tour de Sol (using Ovonic NiMH batteries).  In 
>1996, they got 373 miles out of it.  In 1997, James Worden drove it from 
>Boston to New York, at freeway speeds, on a single charge.  (Which shows 
>you that anybody who says EVs can't have enough range just isn't paying 
>attention.)

Anyone know what happened to the Sunrise?  Back in 1996 there was talk of
it going into production but it never materialized. 

Here is my recollection of the past.

The Sunrise, a four seater,  was setting records with its NiMH batteries
BEFORE GM had formed a joint venture with Ovonics to produce the batteries.

GM started to produce the EV-1 with lead-acid batteries and a dismal range
of 50 miles while Solectria was setting range records as stated above. 

GM had expressed displeasure with Ovonics for supplying the NiMH batteries
to Solectria.

GM started supplying Solectria with gliders for its electric force.

The Sunrise is no longer on the Solectria site.  Seems to be an interesting
story here.