Back in the 90s, before electric vehicles (EVs) became a thing, General Motors (GM) embarked on an ambitious project: it would build an all-electric vehicle called the EV1. This comes after the California Air Resources Board (CARB) passed a regulation that required that by 1998 at least 2 percent of all cars sold by California's largest automakers were zero-emission.
Ironically, it was GM that released an electric concept car called impact at the 1990 Los Angeles Auto Show and overproduced that 100,000 units could be delivered a year that inspired CARB to draft the policy.
Since GM did not want to lose its largest market share in the United States, it produced 1117 EVs between 1996 and 1999. The automaker has no intention of selling EV1s to customers, it only offers rental services, and there are no terms of purchase after the contract expires. Here's a key issue, though: After CARB was forced to overturn the zero-emission vehicle policy in a lawsuit in federal court, GM gradually recalled and destroyed nearly all of its leased EV1 vehicles. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the few vehicles that survived had control units and batteries removed before handing them over to museums and universities.
GM didn't manage to get back all the EV1 cars
Apparently, GM didn't get all the 1,117 EVs that were issued to customers and were later recalled because some drivers refused to hand over their vehicles. According to The Drive, a lone survivor EV1 was found abandoned in a parking garage in Atlanta. Although it is unclear who rented the EV1 before it was forgotten in the garage, it looks almost driverable.
In addition to this, outside the museum, the only confirmed private owner of the GM EV1 is film director Francis Ford Coppola. "I really liked the car, and when I heard they (GM) were going to destroy them all, I hid it so they couldn't get it," Coppola confirmed in jay Leno's Garage Season 1 episode eight.
Other reports of a GM EV1 supposedly found outside the museum are unverified rumors, which is why the electric car is still one of the rarest cars in the world. The question remains: What if automakers don't recall and destroy all these EV1 cars? It's hard to say, but one thing is certain: GM is back in the electric car industry, and this time, it will stay here.