In a new chapter of the series of great cars that did not succeed, today we are going to talk about the GM EV1, an electric car launched in 1996 that was destroyed in 2004.
Whoever tells you that the electric car is the work of Tesla or that it is a modern invention would be lying to you. The electric vehicle has existed since the dawn of the automobile, although its technology was not initially consolidated as the combustion engine did. Today we talk about a great car that, unfortunately, did not succeed: the GM EV1.
The electric car would fall into a lethargy for about 70 years from the 1910-1920s until the ’90s, when some manufacturers dared to experiment with this technology again. For many, it may have been a way to keep their research and development departments busy, but for others it was an imposed measure that surprisingly paid off.
Great cars that didn’t make it: GM EV1
One of the manufacturers that was forced to develop, produce and market an electric car in the 1990s was General Motors. We say forced because the California Air Resources Board (CARB) instituted the nation’s first zero-emissions law that required electric vehicles to comprise a percentage of each brand’s total sales.
The law was inspired by the GM Impact EV Concept of 1990, a prototype that, in principle, General Motors had no intention of producing but that ended up becoming the car that stars in these lines, the EV1. The street model would end up arriving six years later, in 1996, and would do so as part of a leasing program for customers in California, Arizona and, later, Georgia.
In 1996, as I said, the GM EV1 was presented, an electric car that promised a range of 160 kilometers on a single charge. This original battery would be replaced by a nickel-metal hydride pack, a new unit that increased this autonomy up to 225 km, a quite surprising figure for 1999, when GM presented it.
In charge of driving the vehicle was an asynchronous electric motor that developed 140 CV of power and 150 Nm of torque. Power was sent directly to the front wheels.
At the design level, the EV1 was an extremely aerodynamic car, with smooth and rounded shapes, flush headlights, no grille or air intakes, a very steep front window, a two-door coupé body, partially faired rear wheels, a rounded and an elongated rear to facilitate air flow. It also included rims with narrow tires.
Inside, the GM EV1 looked modern and minimalist, with a digital instrument cluster located in the center and back of the dash. The steering wheel was far from the dashboard and the center console integrated a multitude of buttons, ventilation outlets, cup holders and a kind of joystick that managed the transmission of the General Motors electric car.
Only available as a leasing program
The car was offered exclusively on a leasing contract to certain customers. 1,117 units were manufactured between 1996 and 1999, at which time production ceased due to the relaxation of the law established by CARB, since the market for hybrid cars had been allowed to enter. Remember that the first Toyota Prius arrived in the late ’90s.
The cars were priced at $33,995 and rented for monthly installments ranging from $299 to $574 with no option to buy. However, it is estimated that the development cost of each unit was between 80,000 and 100,000 dollars, which meant significant losses for the manufacturer.
This meant that, in 1999, GM decided to cancel the production of the EV1 and in early 2002 it notified its customers that it was going to withdraw the cars from the market. Many were the owners who wrote letters to the manufacturer requesting to extend the lease and others even deposited checks to acquire the car in property.
GM refused and began recalling the vehicles in late 2002. In some cities, police had to escort trucks carrying EV1s to the scrapyard because of the possibility of break-ins or looting by their former owners.
The cars eventually ended up in scrapyards, and only about 40 were donated to museums and academic institutions with their systems locked. Today it is estimated that barely twenty EV1s remain safe and that one specimen was even sold to a private collector in 2008 for a whopping half a million dollars.
In short, the GM EV1 did not succeed because the American company did not want to continue with the rental program despite the fact that its customers demanded it. Years later, several GM executives acknowledged that retiring the EV1 was a mistake and that, had they followed through, they could have developed the electric technology to bring the Chevrolet Volt to market a decade earlier.
