The GM EV1 was an electric car produced and leased by the General Motors Corporation from 1996 to 1999.[1] It was the first mass-produced electric vehicle of the modern era from a major automaker. It was the first GM car designed to be an electric vehicle from the outset. Born as the GM Impact concept car of 1990, a production version came about as a result of a California Air Resources Board mandate that made the production and sale of zero-emission vehicles a requirement for the U.S.'s seven major automakers to sell cars in that state. The EV1 was initially available in the U.S. cities of Los Angeles, California and Phoenix and Tucson, in Arizona, under a limited lease-only agreement.[2] EV1 lessees were officially participants in a "real-world engineering evaluation" undertaken by GM's Advanced Technology Vehicles group, as well as a market analysis and study into the feasibility of producing and marketing a commuter electric vehicle in select U.S. markets.[3][4] The cars were not available for purchase, and could be serviced only at designated Saturn dealerships. Within a year of the car's release, leasing programs were also launched in San Francisco and Sacramento, California, along with a limited program in Georgia.
While customer reaction to the EV1 was positive, GM viewed the program as evidence that electric cars occupied an unprofitable niche of the automobile market, evidenced by their ability to lease only 800 units in face of production costs of US$1 billion over four years.[5] An alliance of the major automakers fought the CARB regulation in court, resulting in a slackening of the ZEV stipulation, permitting the companies to produce super-low-emissions vehicles, natural gas vehicles, and hybrid cars in place of pure electrics. The EV1 program was subsequently discontinued in 2002, and all cars on the road were repossessed. Lessees were not given the option to purchase their cars from GM, which cited parts, service, and liability regulations.[1] All repossessed EV1s were crushed, save for a select few examples which were delivered to museums and educational institutes with their electric powertrains deactivated, and under the agreement that the cars were not to be reactivated and driven on the road. The car's discontinuation remains controversial, with electric car enthusiasts and environmental interest groups accusing GM of self-sabotaging its electric car program due to its negative profitability, while also blaming the oil industry for conspiring to keep electric cars off the road.[1]
In 2008, amidst an automotive industry crisis due to rising fuel prices and the global financial crisis, GM's Chevrolet division presented the production version of a new electric vehicle, the Volt plug-in hybrid, with the promise that it would be available for sale beginning in 2010.[6] The Volt, a four-seat compact car (in contrast to the EV1's two seats) will be capable of driving under fully electric power for 40 miles before its range-extending gasoline-powered generator is activated, about a third of the range that the final generation of EV1s were capable of driving under optimal conditions.