...and then they built Hummers.

I worked at the GM dealer and didnt get to see this video.I'm supporting your channel 815. I found and filmed a surviving EV1 in Georgia just last week. It has a 95 mile range. Ive already uploaded it to my page. I also filmed one of the first Electric cars made in US. It is over 110 years old and still works.

I worked on the Safety crew during the record setting speed run conducted at the old Firestone test track located in Fort Stockton, TX. It was great fun to watch this almost silent EV fly by at close to 200 mph followed several seconds later by the ZL1 Corvette chase car making a huge racket! The scariest part of the speed runs, for the safety crews, was during the battery change. In order to set an official record they pulled the battery tray, which came out from the underside of the vehicle while high up on a lift, with all the batteries inside, and replaced it with one full of fresh batteries. It was a scary procedure that had to be completed quickly so the car could make the run in the opposite direction within one hour. It was both entertaining and frightening to watch!

what a historical jewel...thanks for posting it...

Absolutely crazy to hear there was a network of electric charging stations and electric vehicles holding 20% of the market ALL THE WAY BACK IN 1900!!!!! I just can't believe it.

2:11 That quote about GM's electric car legacy aged well!

"As we all know it is the customer that will ultimately determine the fate of a product" tell that to GM when they raised money to save the EV1 and begged GM , even went to jail fighting GM to have a EV1, no other car in HISTORY have people gone kicking and screaming fighting to have, no corvette, hummer, has ever done this, GM has never had a car make people beg for a car, protest for a car, go to jail for a car. There's tribute videos of the last days owners had with their EV1s. GM through all of that in the trash, wasted 500 million dollars, and ruined their name to a lot of EV people. Don't worry GM Tesla is here now and they will NEVER treat us like you have.

And then they destroyed them... Just shows you what GM is about and I will never buy a GM product

It is weird seeing this video touting the wonders of EVs knowing the history.

This fits in very well as a prequal to Who Killed the Electric Car.

It's so cute, like a bar of soap. I'd love a bright green or yellow one.

Started working for Saturn in 2001. Saturn would of been a great brand to market and sell as an all electric car brand today. Image the Saturn Volt and the Saturn Bolt. We already were heading the right direction with the Green Line Hybrids.

Really at this point, its all about getting more EVs out there regardless of who makes them. So many misconceptions. I can tell you all who have driven my Spark EV have been stunned (including me). Let's just keep moving forward with the EV.

GM had it's chance and blew it. Go Go Elon!

Too bad they did not keep the project parallel to the internal combustion vehicules they would be even more a head of the game now.

Magnificent machines. Shame they didn't just sell them to their drivers, on the understanding that there'd shortly be no aftercare support. What a wasteful world we live in. Regen brakes weren't a new thing, even when the EVs took it up first time around. We had them on electric railways already, power could be sent back into the system for use by other trains. London Transport and MetroVick made the "Metadyne" system, which applied this idea to subway cars. That was in the 1930's. But older examples of this system existed, such as the 3,000V DC system used on the old Milwaukee Electrics.

So sad, to think how far we could of been. beautiful video thanks.

I'm an early adopter and even built enthusiast conversions in the 80-90s, and indeed test drove the incredible EV1 in Palmdale, Ca. I told GM that the EV1 needed to have seating for more than two or their car would fail, and sure enough, only wealthy west coast jet-setters leased the EV1, and it naturally failed without seating for family, and friends to demonstrate and show off your new electric car. Among the vehicle's weight/range concerns, I believe GM-legal likely limited death-blame liability to no more than two people in the car, sadly a huge mistake.

GM is about money, as is every single automaker out there. You can criticize them for killing their EV products, or you can acknowledge that no other car company was even trying to make a mass market EV at the time. At the end of the day they have to make money and they can't make money off EV's if enough demand was not there. I can at least respect GM for never giving up on the EV idea and revisiting it multiple time's throughout the company's history, they had EVs before the EV1, and afterword's they made the Volt and Bolt. I currently own a 2020 Bolt and I can say it's probably the best non-Tesla EV on the market in terms of cost, quality and efficiency.

It was clear that some people within GM were genuine about the EV-1 and electric vehicles. And at some point, perhaps everyone up the chain within GM were genuine. There were some good words said by GM representatives to their workforce. Those people were betrayed by GM and so was every person who wanted to see the emergence of electric vehicles. But the destroying of the EV-1 partially inspired Elon Musk and a others like him to form Tesla and do their best to take up the mission to rid FFVs from the World. And, perhaps less significantly, Tesla inspired GM to start down the electric road again. I'd guess we lost about nearly two decades of progress, but it allowed essential battery technology to make up ground. In 2019 we're nearly there. FFVs aren't going to get signficantly better or cleaner, so the EV has a clear path to take over.

1:58 no sir not correct ..they wanted to keep them not return them

“As we all know, the customer will decide the fate of this product” 😮 Didn’t exactly go that way 😂 @1:56

Sometimes I miss video tapes. The part when it did auto tracking is like a time machine for me.

I would like to be driving one now,if they had upgraded the battery it would be a cool car to drive,especially with the price of petrol here in the UK !

What a nice documentary. Thank you for sharing. The EV1 was such a great car. GM had the chance to become as successful as Tesla. Instead, they crushed all those wonderful electric cars. It's a shame. I would like to own an EV1. What could be cooler than driving around in this car today? Greetings from Germany

They really did make automotive history, but in the wrong way!

Notice how much lack of confidence was coming from Saturn President.

He looks excited! Check out that sweet sweater!

And then they say that the way we want a vehicle is Big & Bigger truck’s they just don’t have a clue what most people want, most of my life I haven’t had that type or typical vehicles. I have had triumph , Austin, MG’s, Opal’s , Corvair’s , Mustangs, GTO’s , Volvo’s , Feiro’s & now a SMART car . They just don’t want to make a smaller car for 2 too 4 people!!!

And the rest is history. Literally.

"It is the customer who will ultimately determine the fate of any product"? I think GM determined the fate of the EV1

automotive history comparable only to Kodak's photographic history.

:D Bob is such a geek :)

20:08 Saturn executives appear to be in a hostage video

Dude in blue sweater was serious about this lol

14:34 EV1 promotional conversations

10:20 1987 GM Sunraycer

3:31 Talking intro part ends.

Sick.

And yet Tesla kicked General motors big time!

Imagine if Danny DeVito or Tom Hanks had perished in an EV1, the large settlement their family would have sought. So GM smashed them all, all two seats lol.

I hope GM is embarrassed for sacrificing a golden goose, for a midnight snack

yeah, they recalled their ev1's. booooo

GM logic at the time would have been why using a clean, quiet, low maintain cost, fun electric car when you can drive a dirty, noisy, bad for environment, costly maintenance, air poisonous car?

why is this video here, they killed EV1. if GM wasnt so greedy for money, they would have been ahead of all the other auto makers.

Such a tragic end to a groundbreaking car Well we gotta thank GM for if it wasn’t for their extremely poor and out of touch handling of the EV1, we never would’ve gotten Tesla

So electric cars are still not innovative in 2021 for Gm?

Lies 01:56

Sell??? Never sold a single EV1 BTW I owned a car you DID SELL...A Saturn! What a headache of a car. Couldn't sell it fast enough.

john michaud would kiss evey GM butt from there to DETROIT!!!!!

Too bad this good car was well manufactured just to get crushed. Made history by crushing a well made electric vehicle!

And yet, they didn't 😂

then they ruined an crushed the ev1, an built hummers the biggest gas guzzling waste of money suv ever!! fast forward least it's hummer ev but now there the ev guzzler of electrics ironically

Bla bla bla, they were recalled because they were unprofitable, even though everyone loved them, they’re trying to get back to reality now, corporate greed never stops!