CarBrandLogos archive · General Motors · 1996

General MotorsEV1

GM built a genuinely good electric car, then took every one of them back.

Photo: EV1A014_(1).jpg: RightBrainPhotography (Rick Rowen) derivative work: Mariordo (t · CC BY-SA 2.0

The story

A defining chapter in General Motors history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the General Motors EV1, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

California forced the issue. The state's zero-emission vehicle mandate required manufacturers selling there to offer electric cars, and General Motors, which had already shown the Impact concept in 1990, was the first to put one into real production. The EV1 reached customers in 1996 from a dedicated line at the Lansing Craft Center.

GM EV1 crime scene · Osbornb · CC BY 2.0

EV1 charging at Walnut Creek BART Station 2002

Design and engineering

It was engineered seriously: an aluminium structure, a transverse motor driving the front wheels through a single-speed reduction gear, and a two-seat teardrop body shaped for the lowest drag of any production car of its era. Generation I cars used lead-acid batteries; Generation II offered nickel-metal hydride and considerably more range. The cars were leased, never sold, and only in a few Sun Belt states, running to 660 Gen I units for 1997 and 457 Gen II for 1999.

EV1 charging at Walnut Creek BART Station 2002 · Dewalttx · CC BY-SA 4.0

In production

Drivers liked them enormously, which made what followed awkward. GM ended the programme in 1999, arguing the car could not be built at a profit or supported long-term, recalled every lease and crushed almost all of them, keeping a handful for museums with their powertrains disabled. Owners campaigned to buy their cars outright and were refused.

EV1A014 · RightBrainPhotography (Rick Rowen) · CC BY-SA 2.0

Legacy

The destruction became the subject of the 2006 documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? and permanently coloured GM's environmental reputation. The engineering did not vanish; much of what the company learned reappeared in its two-mode hybrids and then in the Volt. But the EV1 remains the standing example of a manufacturer proving a technology worked and then walking away from it.

At a glance