(Car Lust) - In 1990 GM introduced the Impact (a rather unfortunate name for a car, if you ask me), an all-electric vehicle at the 1990 LA Auto show. Based on a perceived positive viability of the Impact, GM went forward with a limited hand-built run of the Impact, lending 50 of them out to select customers for 1-2 weeks for evaluation. Press and customer reaction seemed favorable, but I suspect that GM already had the electric car pegged as a mass-market dud. Still, they pressed ahead, led in part by California's CARB regulations.
As an aside, this wasn't the first electric car since the early 1900s, even by GM. The Henney Kilowatt was in production for two years, but only 100 were ever produced. Others had a bit more luck; Sebring-Vanguard produced more than 2,000 of its CitiCars. GM itself had tinkered with all- electric versions of its Corvair and Chevette lines in the
1960s and 1970s, respectively.The end result of the Impact was the 1996 EV1. It was the first model to wear the "GM" brand and was introduced to much fanfare in the mass media. Initially, the EV1 was only made available to lessees in southern California and Arizona, including some high-profile celebrities. Lessees tended to be rather fanatical about their EV1s -- some would say absurdly so -- but they had some good reasons to be enthusiastic...
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