GM cancelled the EV1 program at the turn of the century, but the world has become so small that Donald Lasell, one of my contacts, used to drive one. So here’s Donald and his EV1
Donald drove one for two years back in 1998-2000, mainly in Michigan, putting about 35,000 miles on it one of those years. That was quite some feat, beginning with lead batteries at 18.7 KWh remember the milk floats, and then upgrading to Nikel Metal Hydrid batteries at 24 KWh. That mean nothing to you? Well by today’s lying WLTP standards that would be 89kms range for the lead and 169 Kms for the NiMH which then only took 2 weeks to charge at home!
What is the EV1 famous for you might ask, well for 3 things
1. Donald drove one
2. It was the favorite of car crushers, GM didn’t sell them, they only leased them out and faced with California law (full after sales, spare parts etc for 15 years) they chose to crush them all.
3. Faced with such forward sighted vision by GM then,Elon Musk, JB Straubel, Ian Wrigh, Martin Eberhard, and Marc Tarpenning (thank you Wiki), formed a new company to make electric cars. Eat your hearts out GM.
Just got an ID3 