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.
I don't know, I was a contractor who left after GM first tried to kill the project. Most of the design for assembly work had been conpleted by then. As you know, GM rejuvenated the project later. I do remember much debate about how fully to accessorize an electric car with lead-acid batteries, and unexpected issues like getting the narrow rear wheel track to be compatible with automatic car washes.😎
Kurt Hirschfield what a car, I all most bought one in Atlanta with a Billis sales in 2005 wishing I knew what I passed up. I would get rid of my Geo Metro FXI for EV1
I wouldn't be too proud about that if I was you. I know a 90 old who bought one car in his *whole* life and a matching painted caravan - in 1934, a Morris 14 if I remember - and you could eat your dinner off the engine sump, from the inside. Then there's Tatra who as part of the sales process had a contract by which the cars went back to the factory, were checked, repaired, and upgraded to the latest spec. Electric vehicles are harmful to the environment and their backplane is completely unnecessary - not to mention dangerous to pedestrians and other drivers. Perfectly acceptable vehicles have been destroyed because of them and personally I'd love to travel back in time with a Barrett M95 in .50BMG and deal with the problem permanently.
Hi there. Do you know any details on Mr. Prof. Fritz Indra. What was his part in this EV1 project? Today he is totally against BEV. What happened in the 90ties?
I thought of the mk1 Honda Insight when I saw it and thought was an original design but this was nearly 10 years earlier! Even the font of the logo is similar
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.
@@jasoncarpp7742 blame that on the usa legislation, gm/ford/chrysler would not destroy a single failed car if it didnt need to provide parts for years to them.
I also think Trump had something to do with the closure of GM Motors facility in Lords Town, OH. The facility that manufactured the Chevy Cruze and the Chevy Volt.
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.
They were going to have to stomp their own weiner either way. Recall and destroy the EV1 and get CARB's ZEV timeline killed, or keep pioneering a highly unprofitable car design and undermine their attempts to fight the ZEV timeline. I think they took the correct path. The EV1, for all it's "innovation", was pretty horrible car. Pb batteries are heavy, low power density, and take forever to charge. NiMH is vastly better, but is still crap power density. Tesla came along a bit too early -- 18650's are a horrible choice, but they're doubled down on it. But, if they hadn't, we wouldn't be where we are today.
Then again, everything they learned with the EV1 carried over to everything else. The Spark EV was one of the few cars that had battery heating and cooling.
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.
@@piotrmalewski8178 Thats a great question. My guess is that Mr. Coppola was going to raise a big stink, and had the power and platform to make GM look pretty bad. They probably figured it wasn't worth the headache. The headlines "GM sues world famous director because he won't return his beloved car" probably wouldn't go over well. Especially when he goes on every major news network and tells them all how great a car it is, and starts publicly questioning why they are destroying all of them...
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
THIS is so much what I always thought of GM and its european brand, Opel. The know how, the esprit and innovation was always there. They had it all, but Detroit usually decided for yet another rusty, plasticky, super bland thing, leaving their ideas to thrive with their competition. A shame.
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.
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).
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
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.
Sight & Sounds This is how old money thinks and how they fail. I’m involved with old money companies and you wouldn’t believe how unaware they are of the current state of affairs.
@@Commentator541 Well since the early 80s. Quarterly divided has rulled every Public Traded Company. They are to insecure to take a high per Share lost. So they keep doing what works now to keep Shareholders happy. FMC is famous for this. The original Ford Family controls FMC. They do stupid things like make a TT 3.5 V6 sound like a V8 for the F150. They don't want scare off their insecure kids in adult clothing buyers.. 🤦♂️
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.
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.
Electrics cars are technically much simplier than conventional ones (no cluth or gearbox). They'd potentially require much less maintenance, and a lot of companies' earning is on selling spares and maintenance services.
If Tesla hadn't come along and shaken things up, GM still might not be making any electric cars. Yet another argument as to why a few massive companies is less desirable than many smaller competing companies in a marketplace.
@@jasoncarpp7742 i agree with you when you ask "are they simpler?". TESLAS do away with all the moving parts of an engine and the transmission which are the parts that mostly break down. But the Tesla battery and electronics arent simple at all, but extremely well made by experts. not the crappy electronics we get in modern legacy cars. if it were truly simple, GM and others would be all over it. What Tesla has constructed is an extremely reliable car with possibly long life and really less expensive to run. So you have to plug it up often. This used to be the same complaint about cellphones.
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.
It makes a very practical second car, and almost everyone who had one loved it. They also had developed the batteries further but refused to license it to batteries larger than a D size so no one else could make it either. They were expensive to make because of low volume.
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!!
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 ❤
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 😣
@@wardfiction5693 there's about 3 that are in private collections, one is in Canada by a rich private collector, and the other 2 in the U.S. one shows up for about 3 seconds in a jay leno intro video but never spoken of or showed up ever again. there's about 42 or 43 of them out there, just 39 that are officially accounted for at museums and universities. I don't know much more about this since i haven't done my research in this in about 10 years.
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.
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 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
When you posted this in 2021 that may have been accurate, but as of 2023, most fully electric EVs attain far better than 102 miles on a single charge. Many now get over 300. I know because a 350 mile EV in our pri ce range is what we’re waiting for to make the switch to a fully electric car, so we occasionally check to see what’s available. We just bought our second Volt (used, of course). We couldn’t be more pleased. When we’re ready to retire it in five years something m almost certainly be available by then.
Yeah I was reffering to like first gen Nissan Leaf etc. Nowadays I actually drive a Volvo plug-in hybrid and I really enjoy the electric drive, certinally considering a full EV as my next car. Always kind of had my eyes on a Volt too, I am sure it serves you well! @@inkyguy
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.
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.
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.
It won't. Until driverless cars are run by human brains in a box, they are dangerous, and the next level of stupidity. If you can't learn to drive a stick shift or tiptronic in manual mode then you shouldn't get a licence. If it was up to me everyone would learn on Riley A60s or ADO17 manuals. None of the electronic bollocks - make drivers who can drive for once.
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
@@BigCar2 NO WAY!! This is gonna be incredible!! We had a 760 Turbo Intercooler when I was a kid. It was the fastest limousine ever. Would still love one of those but there's none left now :'(
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.
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!
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 😊
Thanks - glad you like the video! I was surprised as to how low an adoption EVs and even Hybrids have. I was expecting it to be much higher with all the hype.
@@BigCar2 Yes , Hype . I can't see these vehicles replacing petrol or diesel engines in my lifetime to be perfectly honest. The infrastructure doesn't exist to make it possible.
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...
@@iluvcamaros1912 GM were stuck in the whole 'spare parts' mindset of things, which was (and still is) a major revenue for fossil cars. Less so with electric cars, due to fewer moving parts Tesla not only makes electric cars, but are focused on creating the infrastructure as well and create a revenue from other products, like the Powerwall, Solar City tiles and Supercharging network. If only GM had been able to think outside the box... It'll be interesting to see if Musk can still disrupt the old fossil industry even more and come up with the solutions to beat some of the few advantages that fossil cars still have over EVs: - Less than 3-5 minutes to charge - More than 500 miles on one charge - Lifespan (although some data from EV owners already suggest that batteries on most Teslas have already exceeded expected life span)
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!
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
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.
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 .
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.
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
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.
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.
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 👍👍
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.
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).
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 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.
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 👍
A person I was talking to the other day said a guy had one in Hawaii and didn't return it, and still has it, now in the Seattle area. But then that's second hand information.
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…..
James Miller no but it seems unlikely that someone would put that much effort into making a video and then decide to mumble the most important thing the numbers. Range anxiety still exists even with Tesla is able to go 300 miles
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
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.
Wow - any interesting stories? Why didn't it get lead acid batteries for the 1996 release? Did you just run out of time?
I don't know, I was a contractor who left after GM first tried to kill the project. Most of the design for assembly work had been conpleted by then. As you know, GM rejuvenated the project later. I do remember much debate about how fully to accessorize an electric car with lead-acid batteries, and unexpected issues like getting the narrow rear wheel track to be compatible with automatic car washes.😎
Kurt Hirschfield what a car, I all most bought one in Atlanta with a Billis sales in 2005 wishing I knew what I passed up. I would get rid of my Geo Metro FXI for EV1
I wouldn't be too proud about that if I was you. I know a 90 old who bought one car in his *whole* life and a matching painted caravan - in 1934, a Morris 14 if I remember - and you could eat your dinner off the engine sump, from the inside.
Then there's Tatra who as part of the sales process had a contract by which the cars went back to the factory, were checked, repaired, and upgraded to the latest spec.
Electric vehicles are harmful to the environment and their backplane is completely unnecessary - not to mention dangerous to pedestrians and other drivers. Perfectly acceptable vehicles have been destroyed because of them and personally I'd love to travel back in time with a Barrett M95 in .50BMG and deal with the problem permanently.
Hi there.
Do you know any details on Mr. Prof. Fritz Indra. What was his part in this EV1 project? Today he is totally against BEV. What happened in the 90ties?
The Weird thing with the EV1 is it looked more like a Citroen then a GM car
Because aerodynamics. Citroen was guru at this in past.
I see saturn myself. Not sure which way the influence went
I thought of the mk1 Honda Insight when I saw it and thought was an original design but this was nearly 10 years earlier! Even the font of the logo is similar
I see Pontiac Firebird in the front bumper and air intakes and Oldsmobile Aurora in the greenhouse.
Like a more modern DS
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.
*intelligent* consumers - there I fixed it for you.
GM killed their golden goose, for a midnight snack.
Serves them right
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.
As is typical of American car makers.
@@jasoncarpp7742 blame that on the usa legislation, gm/ford/chrysler would not destroy a single failed car if it didnt need to provide parts for years to them.
I also think Trump had something to do with the closure of GM Motors facility in Lords Town, OH. The facility that manufactured the Chevy Cruze and the Chevy Volt.
Blame the elite that had only interest in selling petrol 😉
It is beyond belief that GM could produce something so marvellous in 1997.
And kill it as soon as it would take off......'mericans for you.
And that's why it would never last... SMH...
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.
NOT WHILE "MURICANS' ( GEEZUZ ) ARE HOT ON COMMUTER PRICKUPS THAT MAKE THEM FEEL POWERFUL
They were going to have to stomp their own weiner either way. Recall and destroy the EV1 and get CARB's ZEV timeline killed, or keep pioneering a highly unprofitable car design and undermine their attempts to fight the ZEV timeline. I think they took the correct path. The EV1, for all it's "innovation", was pretty horrible car. Pb batteries are heavy, low power density, and take forever to charge. NiMH is vastly better, but is still crap power density. Tesla came along a bit too early -- 18650's are a horrible choice, but they're doubled down on it. But, if they hadn't, we wouldn't be where we are today.
Who would invest billions for them to do it? They had to feed profit from other parts of the company.
Then again, everything they learned with the EV1 carried over to everything else. The Spark EV was one of the few cars that had battery heating and cooling.
@@danb.3397
Cybertruck.
Pickup. Electric. Long range. Powerful. Tough. Eye-catching (for better or worse).
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.
Francis Ford Coppola is known to have one.
You may be right Jo. Some guy told me he knew someone who had one in Hawaii and never returned it.
@@BigCar2 How could he hide a car, and avoid legal action? It wasn't his after all.
@@BigCar2 czcams.com/video/ljPSA6FBdYk/video.html
@@piotrmalewski8178 Thats a great question. My guess is that Mr. Coppola was going to raise a big stink, and had the power and platform to make GM look pretty bad. They probably figured it wasn't worth the headache. The headlines "GM sues world famous director because he won't return his beloved car" probably wouldn't go over well. Especially when he goes on every major news network and tells them all how great a car it is, and starts publicly questioning why they are destroying all of them...
GM: Cast it into the fire, destroy it!
Smithsonian: No.
It's a rare beast... a GM car that was ahead of the curve.
Almost Unheard Of -- yes indeed!
Hey! The AZTEK
Ellon musk master baited to this when he was 13
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.
Retro-futuristic!
Well General Motors have an electric Hummer now they should bring this one back as the ev2
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.
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!
Thanks! Looks like my research missed some ones illegally kept!
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.
I was lucky enough to be able to sit in theirs. It's a very well kept example.
Theres also a red one at the petersen in LA
The EV1 was way ahead of its time. I think it's still a futuristic looking car, over 20yrs later.
Saw one at a museum. Amazing looking. I would buy one today with today’s batteries..19 coratio
Crazy, they could have been a gold mine for GM long term, such a short sighted prospect from GM , can’t understand their mentality.
The car still looks very futuristic 2020. They should make an EV 2
@@stevencorrea7982 their too busy making boring blocky SUVs
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.
Jay leno showed one in private hands as well. Francis Ford Coppola has his still. Well he did in 2016 anyway.
I've been waiting for this video for a while lol. One of my favorite quirky cars!
Nexus same here 👍
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.
THIS is so much what I always thought of GM and its european brand, Opel. The know how, the esprit and innovation was always there. They had it all, but Detroit usually decided for yet another rusty, plasticky, super bland thing, leaving their ideas to thrive with their competition. A shame.
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.
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).
Oh yeah, that did wonders for the environment. Takeaway - EV1 primary advantage? *I can be a lazy sod*
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
And now the Hummer is an all-electric crab Walker
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.
GM must be kicking themselves for scuppering their own future! They could have been the original "Tesla" if they had continued with their work.
..and almost handed the market to the Japanese on a plate...
Sight & Sounds This is how old money thinks and how they fail. I’m involved with old money companies and you wouldn’t believe how unaware they are of the current state of affairs.
@@Commentator541 Well since the early 80s. Quarterly divided has rulled every Public Traded Company. They are to insecure to take a high per Share lost. So they keep doing what works now to keep Shareholders happy.
FMC is famous for this. The original Ford Family controls FMC. They do stupid things like make a TT 3.5 V6 sound like a V8 for the F150. They don't want scare off their insecure kids in adult clothing buyers.. 🤦♂️
@@jaybee2344 ooff you've just spewed a hell of a truth
@@jaybee2344 honestly that's not as dumb as it seems. There's a *lot* of car buyers that like that shit
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.
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.
Electrics cars are technically much simplier than conventional ones (no cluth or gearbox). They'd potentially require much less maintenance, and a lot of companies' earning is on selling spares and maintenance services.
If Tesla hadn't come along and shaken things up, GM still might not be making any electric cars. Yet another argument as to why a few massive companies is less desirable than many smaller competing companies in a marketplace.
So true. I regret that I've never driven a Tesla. Nor do I know anyone who owns one.
Are they simpler than "conventional" cars?
@@jasoncarpp7742 i agree with you when you ask "are they simpler?". TESLAS do away with all the moving parts of an engine and the transmission which are the parts that mostly break down. But the Tesla battery and electronics arent simple at all, but extremely well made by experts. not the crappy electronics we get in modern legacy cars. if it were truly simple, GM and others would be all over it. What Tesla has constructed is an extremely reliable car with possibly long life and really less expensive to run. So you have to plug it up often. This used to be the same complaint about cellphones.
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.
Perfect summary.
It makes a very practical second car, and almost everyone who had one loved it. They also had developed the batteries further but refused to license it to batteries larger than a D size so no one else could make it either.
They were expensive to make because of low volume.
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.
Wagoner's legacy: 1. Send the world's largest automaker into bankruptcy 2. Kill the EV which was leading the world into electric vehicles.
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!!
1:48, my god, straight out of the movies with all that acting.
You've missed on 1930s Wilson, bodied by Mullner, sold 40 untill '39. My personal favourite...
I love how informative your reviews are. Keep up the hard work.
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 ❤
One of the surviving EV-1s depicted in the video is at the Peterson Museum here in LA.
Waiting for the Geoff and Hammerhead-Eagle-i-Thrust episode
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.
I saw one in 2010.. UW Madison has one, I assume, to this day. It runs too!
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 😣
Yeah, I am surprised that some did not go Missing...
@@wardfiction5693 there's about 3 that are in private collections, one is in Canada by a rich private collector, and the other 2 in the U.S. one shows up for about 3 seconds in a jay leno intro video but never spoken of or showed up ever again. there's about 42 or 43 of them out there, just 39 that are officially accounted for at museums and universities.
I don't know much more about this since i haven't done my research in this in about 10 years.
I'm finishing VOY Season 1 while watching this. I nearly dies when he showed that LCARS panel.
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.
The fuel cell EV1 sounded like a really promising concept with decent range. Should have pursued that !
Methanol fuel cell, not a hydrogen fuel cell. Still a fossil fuel.
@@SquareoftheyearFM i dont think methonol is a fossil fuel. its distilled from a number if sources like wood and other waste products as well.
Johnny - FCV cars do not work , Today FCV sell less than BEV does and are More expensive to purchase and it costs over $120 to FUEL.
@@markplott4820 you're right but that's what I mean, years of development could have helped that not have been the current reality
Hi! What a great channel! Great job you’re doing. Your video’s are superb. thoroughly, well explained, informative. Thx
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 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
stop taking drugs Buddy ;-)
That car even got more range than many EV's today have
When you posted this in 2021 that may have been accurate, but as of 2023, most fully electric EVs attain far better than 102 miles on a single charge. Many now get over 300.
I know because a 350 mile EV in our pri ce range is what we’re waiting for to make the switch to a fully electric car, so we occasionally check to see what’s available.
We just bought our second Volt (used, of course). We couldn’t be more pleased. When we’re ready to retire it in five years something m almost certainly be available by then.
Yeah I was reffering to like first gen Nissan Leaf etc.
Nowadays I actually drive a Volvo plug-in hybrid and I really enjoy the electric drive, certinally considering a full EV as my next car.
Always kind of had my eyes on a Volt too, I am sure it serves you well! @@inkyguy
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.
Great video! Very informative fun fact back in 2020 the shell of an EV1 sold for $23,662
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.
Thanks for the suggestions! It's a mystery why some videos do well and others don't. I put the same effort into each one.
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.
It won't. Until driverless cars are run by human brains in a box, they are dangerous, and the next level of stupidity. If you can't learn to drive a stick shift or tiptronic in manual mode then you shouldn't get a licence.
If it was up to me everyone would learn on Riley A60s or ADO17 manuals. None of the electronic bollocks - make drivers who can drive for once.
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!
Glad you liked it! I’ve just finished the Volvo 740/760 video, and the next logical step is the 850, but I’ve no idea when I’ll get to it.
@@BigCar2 NO WAY!! This is gonna be incredible!! We had a 760 Turbo Intercooler when I was a kid. It was the fastest limousine ever. Would still love one of those but there's none left now :'(
@@KarlHamilton Special early access, just for you Karl - and all your requests to make it happen! czcams.com/video/-7_H_aZtLl8/video.html
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.
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!
Gm style has always been stand alone ,in my opinion.
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
Funny how you can no longer find the original documentary on YT, It used to be here.
Oil companies and other big business are the blame of this not being mass produced.
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'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 😊
Thanks - glad you like the video! I was surprised as to how low an adoption EVs and even Hybrids have. I was expecting it to be much higher with all the hype.
@@BigCar2 Yes , Hype . I can't see these vehicles replacing petrol or diesel engines in my lifetime to be perfectly honest. The infrastructure doesn't exist to make it possible.
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...
It's a pity they hadn't the foresight like Tesla.
This literally preceded the Tesla. GM had foresight, they lacked follow through.
@@iluvcamaros1912 GM were stuck in the whole 'spare parts' mindset of things, which was (and still is) a major revenue for fossil cars. Less so with electric cars, due to fewer moving parts
Tesla not only makes electric cars, but are focused on creating the infrastructure as well and create a revenue from other products, like the Powerwall, Solar City tiles and Supercharging network. If only GM had been able to think outside the box...
It'll be interesting to see if Musk can still disrupt the old fossil industry even more and come up with the solutions to beat some of the few advantages that fossil cars still have over EVs:
- Less than 3-5 minutes to charge
- More than 500 miles on one charge
- Lifespan (although some data from EV owners already suggest that batteries on most Teslas have already exceeded expected life span)
Family car replacement? It was a 2 seater with limited booth space.
A plain woman and two cats in the passenger seat. That's a family!
There are families of two :)
GM leased the electric that all liked, but GM crushed them, not understanding the future. GM did give one to the Smithsonian museum.
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!
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!
Love the fact that California inadvertently stopped the production of electric cars.
Hate that place with a passion
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
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.
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 .
I own two of the EV1 S 10 version.
Great Vehicle. Good job on your research.
Very informative, well done.
I think if they would reproduce the EV1 with new computers and software an li-ion batteries, it would be a smashing hit.
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!
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.
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
www.corvetteforum.com/articles/corvette-offer-electric-all-wheel-drive-2023-2024/
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.
YES, MERCEDES DIDN'T INVENT THE CAR AS CLAIMED.
@@MICHGO1 yes they did
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.
That was fantastic! I really enjoyed that! Thank you!
Like Saturn, a car that started with innovation and expectations that ultimately failed
Would love to make a drag car out of one of these.
Interesting and Informative - Always Learning! Cheers
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.
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 👍👍
Bravo, yet another feet up, cup of tea, informative, enjoyable video, great stuff, keep the coming.
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.
Very interesting episode, how is it possible for a big firm to miss the boat
Johnno Dordrecht, I don’t know...ask the Edsel.
They didn't miss the boat - they just got off the boat too soon.
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).
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.
Nope. Battery sucks
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.
Visually, this is an absolutely stunning car.
When GM stopped listening to their own customers, they would write their own obselescence
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.
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 👍
A person I was talking to the other day said a guy had one in Hawaii and didn't return it, and still has it, now in the Seattle area. But then that's second hand information.
Big Car same here ,will never know for sure .
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…..
Amazing Video thank you (:
Thanks for the kind words as always Darren.
@@BigCar2 You are most welcome really enjoy your videos and look forward to them coming out (:
Damn man I can’t tell whether you’re saying the range is 18 miles or 80. Kind of like the most important part you decide to mumble...
You think that much R&D plus adding a 1,200 lb battery would only get 18 miles?
James Miller no but it seems unlikely that someone would put that much effort into making a video and then decide to mumble the most important thing the numbers. Range anxiety still exists even with Tesla is able to go 300 miles
80 miles for the SLA battery version, 140 miles for the NiFe battery version.
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
Oeee noo that crushed Volvo 850 breaks my heart