The General Motors EV1 has a fascinating story. In 1996, it became the first modern, mass-produced electric vehicle offered to the world. With 26 lead-acid batteries and a single electric motor making 137 horsepower, it wasn’t exactly quick by modern standards. But at the time, it was highly innovative—GM was way ahead of anyone else. This was years before Tesla came on the scene.
GM famously never sold any EV1s. They were all leased and taken back by the company to be crushed. At the time, people were distraught, holding vigils over the car’s destruction, with several celebrities in attendance. The EV1’s untimely demise even spawned a film, Who Killed The Electric Car?
While most of the EV1s built were sandwiched beyond recognition, GM saved about a handful of examples—around 40, according to this nifty tracking guide built by Hemmings—and donated them to museums and universities. This doesn’t appear to be any of those, but instead a mysterious and unaccounted-for one.
So how did this one end up as an abandoned vehicle in a tow impound lot?
Some Background On The EV1
The EV1 wasn’t just important because it was the first mass-produced modern electric car. It brought with it a heap of innovations we take for granted in today’s vehicles, like keyless ignition, low-rolling resistance tires, and regenerative braking. With a drag coefficient of just 0.19, it remains one of the slipperiest production vehicles to ever be offered to the public.
The little two-door coupe made big advances in battery tech, too. In the three years of EV1 production, the car received two iterations of battery redesign, the first being nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, which doubled its range, and the second being even longer-range lithium-polymer packs. If GM had stuck with developing EVs instead of killing the program over low sales and high costs, who knows where it’d be now?
GM president Mark Reuss admitted that killing the EV1 was a mistake, stressing to InsideEVs in a recent interview what an important vehicle it was for the company:
I wasn’t around for EV1; I wasn’t in the company. But I think that might have been one example of something that we, the company, should not have done, which was canceling that; that was really quite a car.
So What’s Up With This EV1?
This brings us to the curious case of this mysterious EV1, a green-painted, early model from 1997. It’s currently up for auction through Peak Auto Auctions, an online auction site for unclaimed and abandoned vehicles. It’s listed by A-Tow Inc., a tow pound located in Atlanta, with suspiciously little info.
The car is incorrectly listed as a “GMC ELECTRIC VEHICLE,” and doesn’t come with a key. Both the Runs and the Drives sections are marked as “UNKNOWN,” though considering the condition shown in the pictures, I doubt this thing has moved under its power for a long, long time.
The photos tell a fascinating story. The car looks mostly complete, with all of its body panels and interior bits intact. But it also looks like it’s been sitting outside for an extended period of time, and the left side of the window is smashed in. There’s a garbage bag shrouding the driver’s side A-pillar, and a collection of debris, including what looks to be shattered glass, on the driver’s seat.
Wait, How The Hell Is This Being Sold?
Those familiar with the EV1’s history will probably be wondering how this one ended up in a tow pound lot. GM never officially sold the car, and the examples that still exist are all housed in museums or university collections (aside from iconic movie director Francis Ford Coppola’s EV1, which he reportedly obtained mysteriously after his personal car was taken back by GM).
As it turns out, this one was likely a forgotten piece of history at a university. A representative for the tow pound told me over the phone that this vehicle was marked as abandoned by the Clark Atlanta University Public Safety agency, which is likely how it ended up at this lot.
I called a bunch of people at the school, and most didn’t answer. Only one person, Ravena Lottie-Baskerville, director of the school’s dual-degree engineering program, had heard about it, but described the car’s existence as an “urban legend,” and didn’t have any other info to share. If I had to guess, the EV1 was likely just sitting somewhere on school grounds, untouched for long enough that officials, not knowing what it was, eventually decided to get rid of it.
Importantly, this auction is marked as a court order sale, which means the tow pound got permission from court officials to auction the car off, since no rightful owner or lien-holder has come to claim it (and pay any accrued storage or tow fees). Makes sense, since, technically, either the university or GM itself could be the only rightful owners. GM did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the car.
Who’s Going To Buy It?
Truth is, we here at The Autopian knew about this EV1 as early as yesterday afternoon. We decided as a team to keep it a secret, hoping it would go for incredibly cheap, so that we’d have an unbelievably rare, ultra-cool project car for this winter. At one point, we were even the high bidders (with a very brave bid of $900).
Of course, this EV1 didn’t stay a secret for long. As of this writing, the bidding is up to $31,500 with around three hours to go. Aside from being an ultra-rare collector car and an incredibly important part of automotive history, I can think of another reason why over 70 bids have been placed on this thing: It’s YouTube project car gold.
Resurrecting a forbidden vehicle like the EV1 is textbook-perfect fodder for a YouTube thumbnail. Jared Pink of The Questionable Garage channel confirmed to me his interest in the car.
“I’ve seen the EV1 and have been very closely considering jumping in at the end but I have not yet made a bid,” he told me. “I’ve got its cousin, the electric S10, so it would be a good garage mate, but I’m hoping one of the more obscure car channels grab this one!”
While it might be nice to see a small channel launch its way into the mainstream with the EV1, the big dogs are aware of the car as well.
“I’ve heard of it,” Freddy “Tavarish” Hernandez told me over the phone. “I’ve heard kind of sprinklings that there was one for sale.”
“I saw Rich Rebuilds post about it,” he continued. “So, I just sent him a message because he’s an EV guy. And I said, “Whatever I can do to help you get it, I’d love to be a part of that.’ I think it’d be kind of cool.”
Rich Benoit, the man behind Rich Rebuilds, feels like the most suitable candidate. His channel, which currently has over 1.6 million subscribers, centers around fixing broken EVs like Teslas, Fiskers, and more.
“I’ve been talking with Rich and Robert Dunn (Aging Wheels), but it’s more of an observation perspective. Since it’s not a big auction site, it is kind of tricky,” Pink added.
John Ross from the WatchJRGo channel is another YouTuber who expressed interest.
“I was [bidding], but I tapped out when it went over $17,000,” Ross told me. “The EV1 has always been a hero car to me, and I’ve wanted one on the channel from the start, but the auction has really taken off. Never thought it would come close to $30,000.”
When asked whether he thought other YouTubers would be bidding, Ross told me he assumed they were, and even mentioned Benoit as a potential buyer. Benoit acknowledged the auction in an email to me, but confirmed to me he wouldn’t be participating.
Registering such a car for the road will likely be very tough—the tow lot says derelict cars like this EV1 are sold as parts only. And good luck getting GM to cut you a new key, should you get it fit enough to run. Still, there are ways.
“You can just probably make it a self-built vehicle,” says Hernandez. “So kind of look at a like a kit car or whatever. It’s also a vehicle that’s for the nerds and the geeks. For most people, they’re like, ‘Okay, well, it’s like some old electric car.’ No, like, this is the old electric car.”
Will GM Try To Take It Back?
General Motors did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the car. The company never intended for these EV1s to fall into private hands, so it’d make sense for it to be upset over this sale. It’s also possible that all of the relevant parties at GM have stopped caring about the EV1—remember, these donations to universities happened 25 years ago. As advanced as it was in the ’90s, the EV1 is ancient tech by now, so it’s not like the car is hiding any secrets.
The only precedent I could find concerning GM’s attitude on EV1s in the wild dates back to 2019, when a red EV1, reportedly owned by Morehouse University in Atlanta, was discovered abandoned in a parking garage. The car was eventually removed from the garage, with Hemmings hearing from some sources that it was GM itself that retrieved the vehicle.
At this point, it’s probably pretty tough for GM to obtain legal ownership of this EV1. I’m sure there are a few ways, but it probably wouldn’t be as simple as it was a quarter-century ago.
I sincerely hope that whoever obtains this EV1 from the tow pound doesn’t keep it away from the public eye. So many of these cars have either been destroyed or stuffed into basement collections, never to be seen again. Now, there’s an opportunity to give an EV1 the attention it deserves.
Top photo: Source: A-Tow / Peak Auto Auctions and GM
The post General Motors Built The Holy Grail Of EVs And Refused To Sell It, Now There’s A Brutal Bidding War For One appeared first on The Autopian.
