The National Motor Museum in Birdwood houses some of the most fascinating automotive relics to ever grace the Australian industry, but perhaps one of its most interesting exhibits is the GM EV1, an electric car from 1996 to 1999, that is scarcely available to see anywhere in the world. It’s one of the stars of the museum’s Holden exhibition.
General Motors (GM) was the parent company of Holden before the Australian brand collapsed. It oversees several car brands, such as Chevrolet, Opal and Vauxhall (which you might consider to be Holden alternatives in other markets).
In 1996, GM did something fascinating by producing the EV1. It was the first electric car to be produced on a major scale, complete with between 105km and 150km range before needing a recharge (three hours for a top up, or 15 hours for a deep cycle recharge). About 1,100 EV1s were built.
Even more fascinating was the business model. As this Drive article from the era reads, General Motors refused to sell the EV1 outright, instead leasing the car for $US399 per month (which at the time, 1996, would have totalled around $488 per month in Aussie dollars) over three years.
In 2002, The EV1 leases were repossessed by GM (under the terms of the lease agreements) and destroyed, with liability regulations, parts and servicing cited as some of the problems. About 40 EV1s have been donated to museums and educational institutions, with their electric powertrains disabled so that they’d be unable to drive again.
Which makes the one sitting at the National Motor Museum quite an anomaly. The GM EV1 was never sold in Australia and the model on display is a left-hand drive with clear markings on the back indicating that it’s not for road use.
Long live the EV1! pic.twitter.com/Te04gug5n7
— BLM | Zachariah Kelly (@ZachariahK_) August 4, 2022
The exact car that we’re writing about in this article, the one at the museum, was written about in February by The Driven as an unearthed relic, found in Holden’s storage. It appears that the car has since moved from the Museum of Vehicle Evolution (MOVE) in Victoria to the National Motor Museum in South Australia.
Supposedly this car was brought to Holden from the U.S. for testing, only to sit in storage until Holden went through its pile in 2021.
It would take almost two decades before electric cars started to be seriously considered by automakers, but the EV1 was ahead of the game, long before the Mitsubishi I-MiEV and the Nissan Leaf.
If you’d like to learn more about the legendary GM EV1, you should absolutely watch Who Killed the Electric Car, a documentary about the untimely demise of the EV1.
Today, the (possibly) only GM EV1 in Australia rests beside a Holden Volt, a plug-in hybrid that GM would develop in 2012. Perhaps it wasn’t ready for the world.
If you’d like to go see it, head down to the National Motor Museum in Birdwood, South Australia. You’ll also see the remarkable Holden Hurricane and the Holden Torana GTR-X.
Long live the EV1.
While you’re here, why not check out our list of every new EV in Australia, or every electric vehicle coming to Australia.