GM Steps On Tesla’s EV Toes With EV1 Celebration

---

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription, on Patreon, or on Stripe. Help us produce all of the high-quality, original content we publish week after week despite the challenges of content-scraping AI, antisocial media, inflation, and other hurdles.

---

In a move that shocked and surprised nobody, last week Tesla CEO Elon Musk pulled the plug on his much-hyped Cybertruck. Production will end sometime next year. It may be small consolation, but at least the Cybertruck sold more units than another notorious flop in modern automotive history, General Motors’s ill-fated EV1 sedan. Was EV1 really a flop, though? In sales, yes, but GM wants everyone to know that the EV1 beat Tesla to the electrification punch in key technology milestones.

Alas, EV1, We Barely Knew Thee

GM actually sold few, if any, EV1 units, preferring to lease the car with a focus on drivers in California. Production began in 1996 but that didn’t last long. In 2003 GM pulled the plug, recalled the vehicles, and sent them to the crusher, having produced barely more than 1,000 units overall.

Only a scant few escaped the junkyard. One of them was rescued by US filmmaker Alex Gibney, leading to his advisory role in the searing 2006 EV1 documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” (btw, Gibney ‘s newly released “Musk” documentary is available on streaming now).

This year marks the 30th anniversary of EV1 production, and GM is using the occasion to celebrate. Rather than shoveling all memory of the EV1 debacle into the memory hole, GM has embarked on sort of under-the-radar public relations campaign, seeking to position the car as a necessary, albeit short lived, step along the vehicle electrification journey.

In not so many words, GM also draws attention to the fact that its work on EV1 predates the launch of Tesla Motors, which came on the scene in 2003. The automaker’s Senior Writer and Editor at GM News, Chris Perkins, ran down the particulars in March, noting that EV1 was the first EV to deploy heat pumps for climate control, energy efficiency, and battery temperature management.

Perkins also takes note of the car’s regenerative braking system. “Engineers developed a system for the car that translated a driver’s brake-pedal input into an electronic signal that blended regenerative and friction braking,” Perkins wrote.

“It’s a precursor to the braking systems used in GM’s modern EVs, which also add One-Pedal Driving1 and paddle-actuated Regen-On-Demand2 capability,” he added.

EV1 also eschewed mechanical actuators in favor of fully electronic (aka by-wire) controls for the accelerator pedal, brake pedal, parking brake, and gear selector, with the power steering featuring electro-hydraulic control.

Additionally, Perkins elaborated on the regenerative braking angle in a follow-up article in August, by way of demonstrating a through line between the 1990’s technology and the automaker’s current EV lineup.

“Conceptually, the EV1’s braking system operates exactly like the braking systems in GM’s modern EVs,” Perkins wrote. “Press the brake pedal, and the car’s computers decide how much friction and regenerative braking to actuate. Should the electronic system fail, it’s connected to a mechanical backup, just as in the EV1.”

GM Seeks To Elbow Tesla Aside

As part of the PR campaign, GM is also putting its 1994 concept sedan on display, the 1994 Impact (pictured above). “As one of the first modern, purpose-built electric vehicles from a major automaker, the Impact was a critical learning tool that shaped the final production version of the EV1,” GM emphasizes.

If you blink, you’ll miss it. The Impact is on display at the GM-sponsored Test Track at EPCOT, the Disney theme park in Bay Lake, Florida, until mid-December.

As for why all this fuss, why now, that’s a good question. Over the past several years, GM has put a jolly spin on its inability to catch up to Tesla in sales, let alone surpass it. As recently as last year, GM vigorously touted itself as #2 in EV sales in the US, second only to Tesla as a badge of honor.

Still, by August of 2025 the competition was beginning to take on a different tone, with GM pitching low-cost LFP (lithium-iron-phosphate) batteries as a near-term pathway to meeting, then beating Tesla.

The 2026 EV1 celebration elaborates upon the technology angle, underscoring GM’s claim on the pre-Tesla, 1990’s roots of innovation in the vehicle electrification field.

The new emphasis on technology also comes at a pivotal moment for EV sales in the US. The US market nosedived last fall after US President Trump and his Republican allies in Congress prematurely eliminated federal tax credits for EVs. However, activity continued to stir in some quarters, and Trump himself made the case for EVs more attractive when he decided to bomb Iran in February.

Nine months later, the price of gas remains stubbornly high, sparking renewed hopes that EV sales will rebound more quickly than first anticipated. In addition, a fresh round of innovation is on the horizon, with GM banking on its forthcoming LMR (lithium manganese-rich) battery formula to push costs down without sacrificing performance.

Life After Cybertruck

While Tesla is not the only competition in town, beating the startup at its own game would be a feather in GM’s cap, and Elon Musk made the effort a little easier when he canceled the Cybertruck, leaving Tesla without a foothold in the hot market for pickup trucks in the US. The automaker still has sedans, SUVs, the new Semi Class 8 truck, and the “flying” Roadster in its pocket, but the demise of the Cybertruck has left the pickup field wide open.

Meanwhile, Ford is on track to produce its new Fathom electric pickup next year starting at under $30,000, far less than the Cybertruck’s most recent starting price of $77,000 plus change. The Jeff Bezos-backed startup Slate Auto is also aiming at the affordability market with a stripped-down electric pickup starting at a base price of $26,000 and change, before accounting for add-ons.

On its part, GM is aiming for the middle ground with the 2027 Silverado electric pickup, starting at around $56,000 and reaching close to Cybertruck range at around $72,000.

Meanwhile, Rivian is also aiming upscale at close to $80,000 and up for its RIT pickup. The startup is on the move, having somehow managed to squeeze a loan guarantee of up to $4.5 billion out of the Trump administration. The funds are earmarked to expand Rivian’s production capacity with a new factory in Georgia.

Readers, what do you think? Does GM — or any other automaker — have a snowball’s chance in hell to catch up to Tesla in the US market? Drop a note in the discussion thread…

Photo: General Motors introduced the Impact concept EV in 1994, laying the groundwork for the automaker’s short-lived EV1 electric car (Impact concept; cropped, courtesy of GM).