Wednesday, July 03, 2019

EV One

This is one of only a handful of EV1s in existence.  The EV1 was the first modern rechargeable electric car by a major American manufacturer. Electric cars had been sold in the early days of the automobile, but the unlimited range of internal combustion rapidly took over the market.  General Motors built these, they "sold" them by lease only in California.  When the leases were up, they demanded that they be returned, and sent almost all of them to the shredder.  GM said it was an experiment, a large scale test concept.  A handful remained in private hands, hidden by the lessees who paid a penalty for failure to return the car, rather than surrender them back to GM. Some owners literally locked them away in garages to hide them tow trucks that GM paid to retrieve them at the end of the lease period. It is unclear is this one was selected for a museum by GM, or one of the ones that people refused to surrender - a hidden asset.   

When will we all own an electric car? 

3 comments:

  1. So absurd, is t it. Very cool looking car.

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  2. I would rather not own a car at all and use public transportation. if I lived in the city, that would be doable. in the burbs, you are stuck.

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  3. I have a hard enough time remembering to charge my kindle!

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