I was selected to be a test driver for the EV-1. I had it for 3 weeks, I believe. I had to keep a record of every time I drove it. The local electric company came to my house to install a charging station (which did not run through my electric meter so I did not have pay to charge it). I found it to be surprisingly quick, but I thought it had an awful ride. The tires were way too skinny. But it was one of the more interesting things I’ve done in my life. At the end of the program, GM held a huge dinner for all of us who participated. I got a little crystal thing with a pic of the car inside it, which I still have on my office shelf to this day.

I worked for GM Hughes Electronics (which was heavily involved in developing the Impact) during this time. I've never been more ashamed of a company I was associated with than I was with GM when they destroyed the EV-1 fleet.

It's amazing how GM can have a massive headstart on something and be shortsighted enough to kill it and allow others to massively surpass them.

Scheduled to be shipped beginning on December of 1975, the first Brazilian electric vehicle called Itaipu E150, from the former manufacturer Gurgel, suffered from short range and complexity to manufacture. That's a piece of history that Brazil didn't write because of politicians being against that innovation too.

Also after the oil companies bought the NiMH battery tech they prevented anyone from making bigger cells than D type as they did not want to people to use them for other EV's, after the patent expired it was said someone was working on NiMH that had much more capacity so would have been able to compete with lithium ions back in the day but because the oil companies prevented this it held things back for years.

Very similar to how Kodak developed the first digital camera and killed the program because they thought this new product will eat into their existing business. See where Kodak is now.

Crazy to see how many things that would have been good for the public were killed by nothing more than corporate greed. Excellent video

Imagine how far the industry could've advanced if corrupt lobbyists didn't ruin everything.

This was an awesome 20-minute version of the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car" - worth a watch, as well as its sequel "Revenge of the Electric Car", both products of their time. "Who Killed" was made in middle of the dark decade of the mid-2000s in the aftermath; "Revenge" was made at the start of the 2010s' EV revival.

This car still has something futuristic about it in terms of design. It kinda reminds me of those concept cars you'd see in the 50's and 60's.

It's kinda crazy to think that if Tesla didn't push EVs as hard as they did in 2000s, we still to this day wouldn't have any real change in EV market.

I worked for an IBEW contractor at McClellan AFB in 2001 in an old warehouse remodel. Inside were a dozen of these cars in clean driveable condition. I was told why they were there, their story. Upon realizing what GM had pulled, my stomach literally hurt for a moment. A very strange sensation, almost sickening. I totally agree with Dave Martins comment. Not something that you forget.

Finally. Someone big who properly takes this story and pieces it together.

My family had the first version of this with lead-acid batteries. Maybe 30 miles of range. Cool paddle home charger and a weird digital dash that Honda borrowed later. I was a kid, it was the coolest possible show-and-tell.

EV1's were a common sight at a now closed GM fuel cell development facility in Honeye falls NY, some engineers used them for regular commuting, though the winters required a large draw on the batteries for the EV1 resistance heating, which reduced the range for some to forgo the heat in order to make the commute, whereupon the chargers in the parking lots recharged them for the return commute, GM withdrew them and placed them in storage for later destruction, the spare EV1 parts at the facility were also destroyed. They were a heavy (lead acid batteries) but fast little car with puncture proof tires, lots of fun to drive

It is so frustrating how corporate greed has many times set back humanity progress and hinder a better future. This people who did these acts honestly are on a similar level to committing crimes against humanity...

If you're ever in LA take a visit to the Petersen Collection, they have an EV-1 on display; probably the coolest exhibit in the entire museum even if it does make you feel a little sad that it was killed off

I wonder what the GE Executives were thinking seeing the meteoric rise of Tesla. Could they have been the Tesla if they didn't scrap their EV programme?

i remember watching the documentary Who killed the Electric Car with my dad growing up, being Canadian , judging Americans and bush, dreaming of electric cars, he is now delighted with is Chevrolet Bolt.

I remember this ColdFusion episode from a few years back, and I'm so glad to see it back and updated. It's one of the most interesting stories and, my, were those little EV1s soooooo good looking!

I remember seeing one of these when I was a kid. My friends and I were blown away by the concept. I've always wondered what happened to those vehicles. Thanks D.A.!

I don’t normally comment but, gosh damn man what our future could’ve been if people weren’t so greedy. A fantastic history lesson Dagogo thank you.

As recently as 2005 there were still 77 EV-1's at a Burbank, CA lot that had yet to be destroyed. I remember the local news reporting on a vigil that some of the people that drove them were holding at the lot so GM wouldn't crush them and I'm pretty sure actor Ed Begley, Jr. of ER fame was there too as the most famous owner of one those cars.

This was so fascinating!! As an automotive history enthusiast, I really appreciate you making this video. Thanks, Dagogo.

The amount of corruption in this country is absurd. It’s disgusting the amount of executives that are so concerned about their own pockets that they will do anything to prevent progress.

I have been driving an EV for over 7 years now, same car the entire time. It still works flawlessly and amazes me daily. I bought it back in 2015 in the early day's of the current EV push and got an awesome deal on it as the dealership just wanted it off the floor. It wasn't selling and was taking up space. It's a little different now! I'll likely have this one for another few years before getting another. It still runs like new and has never had a repair, just annual checkups. It's a pity it took so long to get us here. Thanks for nothing, GM!

The string section that comes in around 14:00 really fits and accentuates the mood for that scene. Great video.

Thank you for covering this. I was so envious whenever I would see one of these cars riding on Route 1 in Boston. I was cruising in my Nissan 240SX then. I never understood what happened to them until I read an article in 2015.

I had an EV 1979, a Mercedes Benz test vehicle. They took it back after 6 months and I never saw it again.

Followed you for the past couple of years and I will say this you are one of the most consistent people in the tech corner of youtube thank you coldfusion

I remember reading about these in motoring magazines at the time. Those aerodynamics were incredible. Makes you wonder why todays electric vehicles are generally massive land barges. They'd be so much better if they went back to the days of lightweight and aerodynamic

If you are ever near Rolla, MO, the Missouri University of Science and Technology has an EV-1 on display in one of its buildings. As far as I know it was given to the university without the electric motor and most of the wiring, but students and faculty were able to get it working again, more or less. It still works to this day and it has even been seen on the road in very rare circumstances (usually only on St. Patrick's Day as part of the town's parade)

It's too bad none of these previous owners was daring enough to report it stolen, store it away in some storage unit in the desert, and uncover it today for a Doug DeMuro review.

I became fascinated with the story of the EV-1 after seeing one in-person in an auto museum in Cleveland, OH several years back. GM donated a few EV-1's to museums across the nation around the time the vehicles were recalled, but with the stipulation that they were first internally stripped of components and unable to move on their own power, let alone legally drive on the road. Several of these exist still as virtual husks for the sake of historical artifacts. At least one EV-1 was donated to a university for students to use as a study aid and testbed, and was allowed limited functionality and could move on it's own power. But again, stripped components rendered it incapable of legally driving on roads. You can find old footage of this vehicle on KZfaq if you look for it. I don't know if that vehicle still exists. I've also seen footage of an independent group of amateurs who were attempting to rebuild a functional EV-1 drivetrain from parts that survived scrapyards, last I saw I believe they were at least partially successful. Again, that footage was old, and can be found on KZfaq. Finally, I've seen footage of one complete EV-1 and it's associated home charging system in a storage garage supposedly dated to sometime post-recall, suggesting at least one person managed to sequester one away from GM for a time. I get the fuzzy feeling it was rediscovered as part of a storage auction, but I'm probably wrong about that. Footage of that might be harder to find, but it's out there.

It's depressing to think we could've had electric cars much earlier.

I've just noticed something about the EV1, the rear turn signals are amber/orange. That _might_ mean the car was destined for a ROW release. That suggests GM _might_ have seen International (or at least European) potential for EV1. Damn.

I remember these. The USA missed a huge opportunity to lead the market 30 years ago. Greed isn't always good.

I test drove the EV-1 at EPCOT Center back in '97. Slow but very interesting experience. I still have the original brochure they gave me with the assisted test drive at the expo fair. On another note, I also have the original DMC-12 DeLorean dealer brochure back from '81. Took a guided test drive too. Never owned either of those cars, though.

Also the patent for large format Ni-MH cells was 'purchased' to prevent anyone else for using that type of energy storage that was used in the later revision of the EV1. Then they were crushed and no-one could use the prevailing battery tech at the time for a competing product. Then GM acquired the 'Hummer' licence and the rest is history.

Thanks for doing the leg work!! I know a tiny bit of each era of electric vehicles, but now I know more because of you. 😊

I distinctly remember that whole story back in that day. Somebody did a huge, 20-minute news piece on it. Then Michael Moore covered it in his 1st doc. about Roger Smith and G.M. One thing is for sure Dagogo, they are now here to stay. About a year ago, I FINALLY recognized the Tesla symbol. Every time I go anywhere, I see a number of them!

This has a parallel with the story of Dyson. The existing companies at the time, all used bagged vaccums and rejected Dysons new and better bagless invention because they would lose their lucrative market of replacement filter bags. Dyson had no option but to start his own company and today only bagless vaccums exist.

Excellent production. I always enjoy a cold fusion video. Informative and captivating

I had no idea the initial EV push was to that extent, lasting over a decade and being fairly prevalent. And I didn't know there were multiple attempts at an EV transition since, nor that so many automakers produced EVs in the 90s. We had to look them up, and now my girlfriend is in retro-love with the MiEV xD Funny that the EV1 also had a keypad instead of a key, and amazing that it had a drag coefficient of 0.19! The upcoming Aptera supposedly has a 0.13! =0 Thanks for making this. The little interview and review snippets were great.

Just imagine what the world would have looked like today if we would have always stuck with EVs?!

Imagine showing a Tesla to someone right back with these first EV's. It would blow their minds

I think that GM gave some of them out to Universities. When I was at BYU, we had one that we modified and made into an electric dragster. It was powered by this huge array of supercapacitors. Pretty cool!

Watching your videos since 9 years. Great content. Would love it more if video quality was bumped to 2k or 4k resolution. :)

Congrats on 4 million! Been here since you were ColdFusTion and had 300k subs, still subscribed to you on my old as well. It's always great when you make technology history videos, I find them more worthwhile than the latest finance fraud drama. Anyways cheers!🍷

In your historical review of the EV's beginnings at the turn of the 20th century, you omitted the first speed record... in 1900: the first car to go faster than 100kph was an electric one, the "Jamais Contente" ("Never Happy") with the Belgian Camille Jenatzki at the wheel.

Almost lost me at,"....and GM, a trusted brand in the industry". I literally fell off my chair laughing 🤣😂😆

the best research, entertaining and produced youtube channel. And the music is excellent

Great vid! 👍🏼 Very informative and well presented! Thx for posting! 🙏🏼

Kinda reminds me of the story about how Kodak invented the first digital camera - but refused to put it on the market, because they feared it would threaten their profits from the sale of film rolls. Shame that in this case it resulted in several unnecessary decades of pollution, rather than just photos not becoming digital for a while longer.

As other's pointed out: Same story as with Kodak (digital imaging), Xerox (graphical user interface), Intel (clinging to X86 architectures, shutting down their ARM based processor line, even though this looks not that dramatic at the moment - it is already showing, give it just 10 more years). I'm sure the list could go on and on …

Can you listen to your audio processing on laptop and phone speakers? Your sibilance is super harsh especially in the CH and SH sounds. Could def use some EQ cuts to make it a more pleasant listening experience. Love your channel, hoping this change will make it even better.

As with your video content, I am equally obsessed with your music. It has become a staple during my commutes and road trips.

Battery technology was apparently a significant consideration. Heavy lead acid with concerns with vehicle flipping. This info came from my father-in-law who was an engineer for GM and worked on the regenerative braking system for the EV1 while in Japan in the 90's.

Excellent documentary bringing forgotten historical information back to the surface.

One day there were EV’s at my high school! It was around 1999 or 2000, but they had them parked in the quad and let us eat lunch in them. I think GM did an assembly too? My point is: I got to see the EV1 personally and always wondered why they didn’t take off right away. Didn’t realize that the Prius was something different a few years later.

Great video ColdFusion as always. And timely, as it's only been a couple of days since the state of Wyoming proposed a ban on EV sales (similar reasons that you talked about here).

Legendary story. I’ve been obsessed with this car for years. Thanks for making this video.

Another well made documentary, always a pleasure watching.

Before even finishing this video I know this will be a certified classic. I’m surprised you haven’t made a video about this years ago! ;)

Cold Fusion, please do a part 2 to this video. This one deserves an even fuller deep dive.

I love how the EV1 looks, it's got character. It's unfortunate to imagine how far EV innovation and infrastructure would have come had this tech been allowed to flourish. Sad

I remember these well. Living where I do in Santa Barbara / Montecito, Ca I saw several of these regularly. We were all pretty amazed by its silence. No gears either. I think I rode in one shortly but I was like 12. I remember seeing them at the lots. Range was a big issue but price for what it offered left it really for the rich as a novelty to show off or a few environmentalists. It was cool when it came out for sure.

congratulations on your 4m subs man! been great watching your videos

Been with you for some time. Thank you for putting so much effort into these videos Dagogo

Excellent...video ...well presented and factual...i enjoyed ever minute of it .....

That outro 🎶 is 🔥🔥🔥, glad that you're finally following your true passion which also happens to receive appreciation from people. Proud of you mate.

This footage is making me think the 90s were alot longer ago then I have pictured in my mind

I have one of the remaining Rangers and successfully brought it back to life once. It was a blast. Fast, mostly quiet - one pump sounded like a duck when you start it - It cost less than $20/month to charge it and it worked great around the town I lived. I hope to have it on the road again one day when I have more time, but it is frustrating to see just how close we were back then until politics once again screwed up something potentially good. I highly doubt GM would have faced bankruptcy in 2008 had they continued with the program instead of buying Hummer.

I have one of the RAV4 EV's from the 90s. The EV-95 cells are BEASTS and they still work

Geez you know how to make a good video! And I’m loving that you’re Aussie as well 😊

these are all so astonishing to me. it just speaks volume on how corporates are the ones stifling proper innovation

My dad got to drive one of these one! He had a friend that leased one and let him drive it around once. I also got to see one at a museum over ten years ago.

fantastic video thanks for bringing this up to the light

The biggest problem was that the battery technology wasn't ready. Lead acid batteries are bulky, and lose efficiency pretty quickly after only a few recharges. Also, the range was pretty horrible as well as the charge times.

Great video, and congrats on 4M !! Well deserved sir

It enrages me that we 'plebs' have to save every last drop of water, wear winter jackets in our own homes to save energy and the environment, while corporate greed grows worse and worse. This world could have been a utopia if it wasn't for corporate greed.

quite a few years ago I actually once saw an EV-1 at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. I also remember the docent specifically mentioning that the GM had removed the battery and all related electronics from this display vehicle.😕

Thanks for the attention to detail.

Gm had shell companies buy light rail, tram and trolleys then replace them with buses so the rail would get pulled out. Then they made sure the buses would get defunded and scrapped. They're probably responsible for getting crossing the street on foot criminalized too.

This was covered in the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” narrated by Tom Hanks.

Great video!

I first saw the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car" about 15 years ago. We rented a video back then. Thanks for getting the information out to the public again.

Nice. I love your videos (although I also knew electric cars came first, but I didn't know the bigger picture), I'd like to just say to you that your calming voice together with your music, the information, and the insights and provocative conclusions, are a great combination. It's like I'm learning important stuff from a cool teacher. Thanks mate. (btw, I love your music, Burn Water). Sometimes I think 'how does Dagogo manage to make videos, music, and research? Does this guy sleep? Maybe you're a personalised AI, and there would be no way for me to know. Btw, have you seen the 2077 series on curiousitystream? I'm going through some of their episodes now, and they're serious quality, they understand it's speculation (of course) but they also make sense. I'm seriouslty that guy who dislikes non-sense. Please keep your videos coming, I always love it when I see. a new thumbnail of yours. It makes me feel more positive. 🙏 Omg, Holy fk, you have 4M subs now? Jeez I remember when your channel when it was called ColdFustion, which was a really weird name reallly. Great channel and I hope the best for you, well deserved, you put a lot of creativity and research into the things you do.

Nice rehash/refresher on the 2006 documentary 'Who Killed The Electric Car' - you missed the ending where GM explained that most customers (back then in 2003) didn't want to stump up $40k for the cars (equivalent in purchasing power to about $64,521.09 today).

8:23 does anyone know where any of these early conversions are at? Would love to get my hands on the rav4, s10 or ranger

RE: Dave Martin, "I worked for GM Hughes Electronics (which was heavily involved in developing the Impact) during this time." Hi Dave, during that time did you work with the engineers at Aerovironment? My engineering professor at Caltech, Pasadena was Dr. Peter Lissaman, VP of Aerovironment. They developed the prototype that GM based the Impact on. Major differences were, the prototype had 150 mile range, would do over 180mph and in a quarter mile race beat a Nissan 300Z. Not like the Miata they show it racing agaist in this GM video. GM de-engineered the entire prototype except the chassis, reducing the power, cutting the range and increasing the weight. For example, Aerovironment designed and built electric motors specifically for this car, when it came time for production GM bought off the rack motors from GE.

Your videos are informative and well researched !!! Car manufacturers are introducing more EV models. However there are less numbers of charging stations. They need to develop an infrastructure to address to those issues.

1910's United Parcel Service had electric vehicles in New York City. It was one of the first industrial engineering analysis the company conducted where they calculated the slower acceleration of the electric vehicle versus the time it took every morning to fuel the combustion engine vehicles

I still have an electric car from 1992, the Fiat Panda Elettra. I hope to put solid state batteries in it when they are available in future.

In a book titled "Autonomy", about the development of autonomous car companies; a former GM executive mentioned that the EV-1 batteries post a fire risk as they aged and completed more charge cycles. He contended that this was way GM refused to sell the EV-1 and only leased it.

The story of the EV1 and how it was destroyed is ultimately why we cannot have nice things in this country.

I remember the EV1 I still don’t have an electric car but if they had built off of the EV1 we would have been 25 years a head and the electric car would be even better today!

Excellent presentation, thank you.

Love this documentary. Thank you for this.

Sometimes I think about what our world would look like today had we kept the pace of new technology. It's so sad that a lot of our tech is still stuck in the 80's and in some areas even going _backwards._