Thanks for this video. I worked with the engineering team that developed the EV1 for mass production from the Impact prototype concept, an exciting project. The EV1 was a stylish, full-featured daily-driver, truly unique for its time.

The Weird thing with the EV1 is it looked more like a Citroen then a GM car

GM: Consumers don’t want these cars. EV1 owner: I’ll spend $20,000 of my own money on radio adverts for the car, because you’ve stopped marketing it yourselves. GM: How dare you.

GM could have owned the market, and Elon never would have gotten involved with Tesla. By destroying the EV1, GM will ultimately have caused their own destruction.

The EV1 was a very unique and odd car that I even found hard to believe that it was made by GM. Sucks that most of them where crushed.

It is beyond belief that GM could produce something so marvellous in 1997.

GM: Cast it into the fire, destroy it! Smithsonian: No.

It's a rare beast... a GM car that was ahead of the curve.

There is an episode of Jay Leno's garage where he goes to visit a film director - he had an EV1 and hid it in an outbuilding and still had it .... so maybe GM didn't pursue everyone.

The EV1 was way ahead of its time. I think it's still a futuristic looking car, over 20yrs later.

Actually got to drive one for a couple of blocks in Houston. I was working at a prestigious country club when one drove up by a GM marketing guy. He wanted to take a picture in front of the entrance. We negotiated a quid pro quo. Interesting experience. Fond memory.

still looks unique and futuristic even today.

I saw one of these at my local auto museum, the California Automobile Museum in Sacramento. I was probably the only one who was extremely excited by seeing this dinky little battery car, but I absolutely love it. If you ever visit the museum, it's in the back right corner.

Ooohh I was always going to watch this but the fact that The EV-1 is the thumbnail hooks me in even more. Such a unique car.

The EV1! I drove one. It really was fun. It had a wrap around dash and was very quick. It felt like a little space ship. They could have been Tesla before Tesla became Tesla. What a screw up.

Sadly, GM management has never fully utilized the enormous potential of the engineers and "car people" inside the company. A lot of talent wasted and company profits not realized.

GM killed the ev1 program just as they purchased the Hummer brand. They were at the forefront of a new era while giving them some rare good publicity, no wonder they went from the number 1 automaker to becoming bankrupt so quickly

There is at least one other running EV1. I saw it a couple of times in Madison, Wisconsin in 2007-2010.. The College of Engineering was using it as a test mule for electrical engineering classes. I was able to get up close and personal one day when I saw it at a local shop, famous for classic and exotic car repairs. The shop owner created a lot of projects around super lightweight electric and hybrid cars. Very cool car. I knew that many were scraped and few survived, but I did not know how few were still running!

Crazy, they could have been a gold mine for GM long term, such a short sighted prospect from GM , can’t understand their mentality.

More than 20 years ago after learning GM produced the EV1 I went around to all the local junk yards looking for one I could possibly restore. Finally after not finding even 1 it was discovered GM had them all Crushed! That raised a Big Red Flag for me along with the the Big Question "WHY? Well here we are now 23 years later & finally All Electric Vehicles are being mass produced in many foreign countries with China leading the way & leaving "The Big Three" Behind. Only this time the Electric car won't be Crushed! Great Video Thank You ❤

I've been waiting for this video for a while lol. One of my favorite quirky cars!

There's actually one EV-1 still in the wild, it's in a parking deck in Atlanta somewhere, but no one has revealed its exact location in order to protect it.

I had a friend in California who was lucky enough to have a first gen. She upgraded the tires and the battery pack, and outside of detailing and minor lubrication, that was the only servicing it needed in the whole of her lease (Which was for the full term). She said she loved it, and was hugely upset to give it up. (She replaced it with a Bentley coupe).

I requested this particular video fairly recently and kudos for doing an amazing job on it. I thought I knew everything about the EV1 but I had no idea about the 4 passenger prototype. It is an absolute shame that the car was destroyed, and despite controversy over what killed it, its evident that it was corruption. As someone who suffers from respiratory issues myself, people like me would have been greatly benefited by an early EV revolution as it would have avoided the astronomical amount of air pollution we still have. Obviously Tesla is playing a large role in a clean air future which we should all be grateful for. Let's just hope that elusive dream of a clean air world comes sooner rather than later.

GM didn't think of practicality and cost. they produced the EV only because of legislation that they later managed to overturn and once they did that, the EV one was recalled and destroyed cuz they never wanted it to be in the first place.

Like many motoring enthusiasts, I remember the first time I heard about the GM EV1 electric vehicle. It seemed like a great idea, something General Motors should've kept up, instead of discontinuing the programme and and demanding that customers returning the cars to be demolished. It's damned typical of our American car makers. They automatically assume that no one is going to be interested in the car.

Wagoner's legacy: 1. Send the world's largest automaker into bankruptcy 2. Kill the EV which was leading the world into electric vehicles.

Thanks for this. You missed element that being the EV1 was "leased: through Saturn stores. I know, I worked with Saturn then and drive the EV1. It was a nice car.

GM must be kicking themselves for scuppering their own future! They could have been the original "Tesla" if they had continued with their work.

The problem was that the battery technology at the time was not mature enough--the EV-1 was essentially a rolling battery pack with not much interior space. At least when the Tesla Model S came out, there was actually a roomy interior, a trunk and a "frunk." Today's Tesla Model 3 and the upcoming Model Y uses the very latest lithium-ion battery designs to give the vehicle lots of decent interior space.

Another great video. I've always loved the EV1 ever since I first came across it. I never knew about all the other variations though, even that there was a MKII so that made this video even more interesting. The film really shows the passion the owners had for their cars and it brought tears to my eyes when I saw them go on the back of trucks on their way to be crushed!!

I remember as a child, in the backseat of my parent's car in Columbus, Georgia, seeing one in front of us. There was a large Saturn dealership in town, and that's probably where the owner leased it.

I love how informative your reviews are. Keep up the hard work.

Nice episode thanks! Always liked the EV1. There is a good book, I think called "The car that could". Its a very detailed story of the development, right up to the point before they cancelled it.

Sounds like an awesome first gen EV. If I owned one and GM wanted to take it back I have a funny feeling that it would have been stolen out of my garage and eventually lost in a tragic boating accident 😣

You've missed on 1930s Wilson, bodied by Mullner, sold 40 untill '39. My personal favourite...

Francis Ford Coppola has his EV1 still. Well he did in 2016 when Jay Leno paid him a visit. It's on YT channel CNBC prime, easy to find. Great series on EV's. Very well done.

One of the surviving EV-1s depicted in the video is at the Peterson Museum here in LA.

Great video! Very informative fun fact back in 2020 the shell of an EV1 sold for $23,662

Waiting for the Geoff and Hammerhead-Eagle-i-Thrust episode

Loved your video. I have six Honda Insight 2000 and 2002 models.after 10 modifications I get over 100 mpg. I drive up to 50 miles an hour. It's my hobby .would love to have a evone.

Hi! What a great channel! Great job you’re doing. Your video’s are superb. thoroughly, well explained, informative. Thx

What's even more sad is... Most don't know the World's first was made about 1832. From then until about 1920s MOST rich people drove a EV or Steam. The EV1 was a CA compliance vehicle. IF you watch "who killed the electric car movie. They state that they were improving battery range. So GM wasn't scared of retail price. In the the 90s and early 2000s there was a Ford Ranger EV, Chevrolet S10 EV, Toyota RAV4, and so many more. Yes you can still buy these old EV cars and trucks today. But they need a battery upgrade bad.

Gotta love the California government laws forcing GM to put the car into production when GM only made the car as a Testing Prototype Concept car. Now I've seen your videos about the EV cars of the 60's, 70's, and 80's. Most of those cars had bunch of issues and yet their wasn't a proper EV standard yet. But really now a days I think that when Toyota released the Prius back in 1997 with that gas-electric Hybrid engine made people rethink how Low emission cars work successfully. But still even at the same time EV cars were still being worked on and being tested. But it wasn't until the late 2000's when Tesla Roadster(2008) and some other EV cars came out and became super popular, reliable, and well received for EV's to become a standard thing.

1:48, my god, straight out of the movies with all that acting.

Great story, although I'm baffled as to why this has less views than many of the other videos. This is a great channel, Little car is great too. I'd love to see a video on the Roots Group or brands that were once big but are no longer around. The whole Austin/Morris/BL debacle would be great to get the big car treatment. Or the Austin Maxi, development of the transverse engine, innovations in cars that never made if (gas turbines), the Austin. Princess, Ford Anglia, Hillman Imp, AMC Pacer etc.

Wonder if all the parts molds are still out there somewhere or not... Would love to see a small manufacturer take over and do a limited run of EV1 bodies with modern EV technology maybe.

I saw one in 2010.. UW Madison has one, I assume, to this day. It runs too!

I own two of the EV1 S 10 version. Great Vehicle. Good job on your research.

I'm finishing VOY Season 1 while watching this. I nearly dies when he showed that LCARS panel.

Gm style has always been stand alone ,in my opinion.

I had a dream I owned this car last night.....it was the last functioning one and was so special and I didnt need a registration for it...everything was operated by buttons ( opening doors etc.) And it was also a 4 door version ....the only one they made.....funny to see it as I wake up lol Edit: I wrote that comment before watching the whole video and was shocked to see they DID make a 4 seat version....craaaazy

I read that one of the reasons GM refused to sell the ev1 was they were concerned that the batteries would not last more than a couple years. I think I read to this in a book called Autonomy: The quest to build the driverless car-and how it will reshape our world.

3 of those escaped! One was just recently discovered just cruisin' down a street somewhere in South America. One driving example was just rescued in Atlanta. Third one is... somewhere. And those disabled units - they aren't destroyed. Some smart guys have cracked the service codes all the way in 2004, and re-enabled an unknown number of these cars in museums across the country. Those crushed units are also probably repairable should someone acquire one. And don't even get me started on replicas!

The fuel cell EV1 sounded like a really promising concept with decent range. Should have pursued that !

GM:nobody wants electric cars though +10,000 calls in under a week when they where expecting much less, plus lease holders saying they will buy the car outright just name a price (being sent by people who make over $200,000 a year and they declined this) GM steals all their cars back and then crushes every single one they can (a few survived and live in museums)

That car even got more range than many EV's today have

Very interesting documentary, I hoped it could have talked about the first electric fiat 500 prototype and the commercialised electric fiat Panda called Elettra if I remember correctly

1:31 Volvo 850 detected! This is definitely the best video yet and I cannot wait to see the rest of the 850 footage you have!

I graduated High School in 1999 and wanted an EV-1 or a car with it's capabilities. Today I drive a Tesla Model 3. No GM vehicle can touch it.

Oil companies and other big business are the blame of this not being mass produced.

I think everyone jumped the gun, including a lot of people at GM. This should have been pitched and treated as what it was, a technology and usage demonstrator. CARB, and some people at GM, as well as the EV1 cultists, treated the EV1 as a practical proposition and the beginning of some electric car revolution. The EV1 succeeded as a demonstrator of the prospects and problems of electric vehicles, as well as demonstrating the electronics that would turn them into a practical road-going proposition (unlike the "milk floats" of old). Look at the places in which the EV1 was released, Phoenix and Tuscon, AZ, and Los Angeles, CA. Warm, dry weather. LA was chosen because of CARB, and the celebrities. You could not have released the EV1 in San Francisco because of its hilly terrain - making any test track range figure look farcical. Cold weather would kill the range because you'd have to use battery power to heat the occupants. Wet weather would marginally reduce range by adding wiper usage. Those contracts purporting to free GM from its support obligations would probably not have been enforceable. If they were, unscrupulous dealers and manufacturers could use them to get out of reasonable support obligations. It could certainly not be enforced for safety-related components.

The EV-1 story is like an angry teenager refusing to do his science homework, reluctantly doing it, overdelivering with a PhD-level thesis, saying "YOU HAPPY NOW?" and throwing it in the paper shredder.

I remember seeing the commercial for the ev1 with the small appliances walking to it and I wanted that car. But like all the good things they never seem to get to us in indiana.

a few EV1s slipped through the net. Every now and then one pops up on Jay Leno's Garage, and the owners all go... 'shhhh' - because that value can only increase!

Funny how you can no longer find the original documentary on YT, It used to be here.

GM shot itself in the foot. If only they gave the EV1 a chance in the 90s then electric cars would be more common then today.

Other than the provocative public outcry and court case based on CARB, there had to be another reason as to why GM just didn't want to keep it going...

The real reason the big 3 (including GM) refused to support electric vehicles for so long is simple economics -- the dealer networks and manufacturers make their money off of repairs, parts replacements and maintenance - the EV1 (as with most electric cars) required almost zero repairs or maintenance - as a result they werent profitable enough to sell because the only revenue gained was from the initial sale - so despite the fact that well heeled folks could have (and would have) shelled out a premium to own those vehicles- because they didnt create an ongoing revenue stream they were killed off -- we live in the days of intentionally low quality products resulting in forced obcelesence motivated by corporate greed -and the EV1 is a perfect example of a product that wasnt low quality enough to require profitable repair or replacement

I love your videos. You deserve millions of views and I don't have any doubt in my mind that you will get there.

I think that is very informative. I learned some things with it. I was unaware of the other variations. I think GM should have continued with the fuel cell version of the EV1; or at least with the fuel cells. They had a fuel cell platform that they could put different bodies on it. I think that was brilliant. It seems GM has done nothing with it. I think fuel cell vehicles are the future (longer range, shorter 'recharging' time and - with continued development - lower cost of the fuel cells and the hydrogen that it uses).

Visually, this is an absolutely stunning car.

Love the fact that California inadvertently stopped the production of electric cars. Hate that place with a passion

I'm not keen on electric cars but I do enjoy your EV videos . My late Dad would have been interested to see how electric cars have come along. He was an electrician all his life and he remembered late 50's or early 60's at Bristol East Power Station ,they had a Morris 1000 van with an electric motor and the back of the van was full of batteries. He said it was an unofficial experiment that some guys put together , totally impractical but they all used it as a site runabout . A bit of a novelty he called it lol 😊

Similar thing happened to Kodak in the late 1990s-early 2000s, they basically invented the digital camera but intentionally did not market it as it would destroy the sales of their film/analog photography products. I guess the USA corporate culture really do value short term profit and are generally afraid of shifting to new pioneering technology

Great documentary! Thank you! I do have a friend that owned an EV1 and I got to drive it a few times, it was a fantastic machine!

GM is sometimes capable of great achievements. Even when they managed to create something so incredible and innovative they still find some way to Fuck it up .

EV1 Bring Back 2022_..... This is Golden EV Car Years

GM leased the electric that all liked, but GM crushed them, not understanding the future. GM did give one to the Smithsonian museum.

I think they should bring this back, it either needs to have a back seat this time or should be turned into a sports car (that still looks like an updated EV-1) to make it stand out or be more practical now though since the electric car market is now extremely competitive

I wonder if California had not tried to make automakers sell 10% of their cars as their emissions vehicles whether GM and other automakers would have fought against electric vehicles so hard back then, or whether GM would have kept the ev1 project even just developing new EV technology. I bet that had the ev1 project continued to develop EV technology GM would have been able to build a profitable 200 mile range electric luxury car by the mid 2000s.

Gm was so far ahead of the curve but also 20 years too soon But if they had only kept on with it they would be the world leaders now I think it was truly an amazing vehicle 👍👍

Thank you for the video. I know of this car. But knew nothing about it I guess. I had no idea how close GM was to sorting out the electric car!

California is also partly to blame, if GM, and others didn't have so much pressure to get EVs on the market they could have make them work. I don't think they could have gotten California to get rid of the EV goals unless they killed the EV 1

Very informative, well done.

You forgot to mention let the reason why they couldn't get new parts was because they sold their patents to the Battery Technology to an oil company

I remember the EV1 well ,shame it came to an end ,there was talk that the odd one or two still remain in private hands in the states ,hidden well away I suspect, I was lucky to drive a brand new Honda Civic IMA In 2001 which was very similar to the Insight very smart car ,great video 👍

It's a pity they hadn't the foresight like Tesla.

It's a pity they didn't introduce it 15 years later on. It would have been a huge success instead of a missed opportunity. Classic case of right car, wrong time.

Oh brother. They missed the boat big time. But on the other hand, Tesla can make their electric cars looking sexy plus charging stations are implemented everywhere and the cars are ownable. At the end, GM still missed the boat.

GM is closing business in huge market like India and believe it or not, their factory is being taken over by Chinese EV makers to built EVs in India. GM could have been an EV leader if they had mass produced the EV1

As the EV-1 film showed GM decided that instead of selling an Electric car that GM insisted the public had no interest in GM would sell a vehicle the public wanted ….The Hummer …a 10mpg Tank😲🤔🙀

I think if they would reproduce the EV1 with new computers and software an li-ion batteries, it would be a smashing hit.

@Big Car, FYI , your video does not appear in KZfaq’s search results for “general motors ev1,” only for “gm ev1,” or at least that was my experience checking a couple of times. Never having posted a video I don’t know how it is done, but I wanted to let you know so you could update the videos description tags or whatever KZfaq uses to index videos. I enjoyed your video and wanted to make sure that it doesn’t get missed by someone else who could gain something from it.

Hay mate,great vid.i,m someone who really wanted an ev1 and was gutted that i never got the chance to buy one.There was a Metropolis,Buck Rodgers look to it. Thanks.

That was fantastic! I really enjoyed that! Thank you!

Like Saturn, a car that started with innovation and expectations that ultimately failed

The Volt was a interesting case.. They did a horrible job marketing it; or more accurately, they didn't market it at all. Hell I didn't even know the Volt existed despite being on the market since 2011. Never once saw any marketing about it. I didn't find out about it until I seen a mention online of the the newly released Gen 2 Volt in 2016. Additionally, they didn't require dealers to be educated at all on it, most didn't even know what it was. They just thought it was another small car. When I bought my Gen2 Volt, the "salesman" had no idea it plugged in or even operated on electric. And this was at a dealership that had about 10 of them on the lot and a bank of Level 2 chargers on the side of the building!

great cant wait for more but .cant help putting a few prompts forward for some forgotten heros I would like to hear about .. fiat x-19 / strada . opel manta . ae86.323 4x4 turbo .firenza…..

Would love to make a drag car out of one of these.