Every now and then, another forlorn dust-covered and inoperable GM EV1 makes the rounds on automotive websites and social media. Typically, it’s heralded as the last of its kind or a major discovery, and some people even make attempts to conceal the cars’ locations as if they were archaeological dig sites that needed to be protected from grave robbers and treasure plunderers. However, the reality is that many of the remaining EV1s not in GM’s hands are on public display, have been well publicized, or have become open secrets among generations of engineering graduates over the last 20 years or so. Amazingly, nobody seems to have made an attempt to run down the current whereabouts of all the GM EV1s still in existence, so let’s do so here.
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First, a little background. GM built 1,117 EV1s for public release: 660 in 1997 and another 457 in 1999. None were sold to the general public; all were made available via a lease program to customers in California, Arizona, and Georgia. When those leases came to an end starting in 2003, GM took back every single leased EV1 and decreed that the cars would be removed from the road permanently. The subsequent crushing of many of the EV1s triggered protests from many of those lessees and others who felt that the car and its advanced technology deserved to remain on the road.
That said, GM didn’t destroy every EV1. Similar to what Chrysler did with the Turbine cars, the company donated some EV1s to museums and some to colleges and universities for their engineering students to pick apart and study. In all but one instance, the donated cars were made inoperable, and as part of the deal, GM mandated that the vehicles not be returned to the road.
But how many exactly escaped GM’s crusher? Sources generally claim 40, but that’s not a hard and fast number, and occasionally somebody will claim less—either 15 or 20. One EV1 fan claims there are as many as 180 EV1s, though some of those may be concept, demonstration, or show cars still owned by GM, and some of that number may have been crushed by GM. According to EV collector Steve Hawkins of the Beata collection, 37 total still exist, with nine of those currently in private hands, though as he noted, owners of the cars still prefer to remain secretive and a tight-knit group. “Just in the last couple of years we discovered another complete original car, but the contacts, trust and relationships to get that information developed over a decade of what we call ‘social engineering,’” Hawkins said. “There is another EV1 we are trying to identify now that will likely take years to verify. Our mission is to help every remaining chassis survive for history and education’s sake.”
All that said, this is meant to be a living document that will capture additional EV1s as they emerge, so if you can provide information on additional EV1s out in the wild (or more information on the EV1s discussed below, including pictures), let us know in the comments below or by email at editorial@hemmings.com.
How many EV1s still exist?
So far we’ve counted 40 EV1s that escaped the crusher, including one cutaway car, two destroyed post-GM, one stolen, and one missing. This count does not include the three Impacts still in existence.
Of that number, four are known to be operational, with another half-dozen that either were left intact or were made to run at one point. At least six exist in private hands.
Photo courtesy GM
1990 Impact in the GM Heritage Center
GM’s EV1s
VINs: unknown
Drivetrain: operational
Status: owned by GM and various suppliers
GM retains the 1990 Impact prototype, which it has occasionally lent out for museum exhibits, along with a silver 1994 Impact and the yellow land-speed 1995 Impact (VIN 4G5PG23AVSB5008EX), according to a GM Heritage Center spokesperson. In addition, the GM Heritage Center has two production cars – one light blue, one red (VIN X242) – in its collection, in addition to the red cutaway 1992 EV1.
Meanwhile, the Advanced Batteries Lab in Warren, Michigan, still has a red example, reportedly VIN 001, and may have one other. Another has reportedly passed through the hands of Delco, Delphi, and now BorgWarner at the Kokomo Technology Center, remaining in operational condition.
Francis Ford Coppola’s EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: reportedly disabled
Status: privately held
The only confirmed privately held EV1 belongs to director and winemaker Francis Ford Coppola, who confirmed that he owns one when Jay Leno visited Coppola for an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage. “I really loved this car,” Coppola says on the episode. “When I heard they were going to destroy them all, I hid it so they couldn’t get it.” Coppola didn’t provide any further details about how he kept GM from taking the car back or even whether it still runs.
According to a GM representative, however, Coppola’s leased EV1 was indeed returned to GM, so it’s unknown exactly how he obtained the one in his collection.
Photo courtesy Steve Hawkins
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Beata collection EV1 (green)
VIN: undisclosed
Drivetrain: OEM motor with custom 100kW inverter
Status: owned by the Beata collection of prototype and low-volume OEM production electric cars
From the description of the EV1, it’s a compilation of EV1 parts from more than 50 sources and is currently 80 percent complete. The plan is to convert it to a series hybrid.
Photo courtesy Steve Hawkins
Beata collection EV1 (survivor)
VIN: undisclosed
Drivetrain: running
Status: owned by the Beata collection of prototype and low-volume OEM production electric cars
According to Steve Hawkins, this is an all-original and running OEM survivor car.
Photo courtesy Steve Hawkins
Beata collection EV1 (test buck)
Beata collection EV1 (test buck)
VIN: undisclosed
Drivetrain: removed
Status: owned by the Beata collection of prototype and low-volume OEM production electric cars
In line for an all-original build, according to the Beata’s Steve Hawkins. It is currently disassembled while Hawkins collects OEM parts for its reassembly.
Smithsonian’s EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: intact
Status: museum owned
When GM decided to donate EV1s to museums, it made one exception to its rule that every example be disabled for the Smithsonian. Specifically, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History responded to GM’s offer by noting that the Smithsonian’s guidelines only allow the museum to accept complete specimens.
“Our requirement is that all the vehicles in the museum have to be complete models,” according to Bill Withuhn, a curator at the National Museum of American History who spoke with Smithsonian Magazine for a 2006 article on the museum’s EV1. “We may remove parts, but we have to know that if we wanted to drive a car, or a steam engine, we could—not that we would. It’s a question of authenticity.”
According to the article, GM agreed to the Smithsonian’s terms in March 2005, though the lead-acid battery in the Smithsonian’s EV1 has since become inert.
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Holden’s evaluation EV1
VIN: undisclosed
Drivetrain: unknown
Status: owned by GM Australia New Zealand, on museum display
When GM discontinued Holden as an Australian carmaker, the subsidiary’s employees started to go through company archives and unearthed an EV1 that had been sent to Australia for evaluation purposes. The silver car remained left-hand drive, as noted by the stickers on its rear bumper declaring it an engineering evaluation vehicle. Whatever GM’s intentions with the EV1 down under, it remained forgotten until it re-emerged in 2021, after which it first went to the Museum of Vehicle Evolution in Shepparton, Victoria, then later to Australia’s National Motor Museum in Birdwood, South Australia.
Petersen’s EV1
VIN: V099
Drivetrain: disabled
Status: museum owned
The EV1 was met with a flurry of enthusiasm when GM first released it, with individuals putting in plenty of effort to publicize the car for GM. One of those individuals was Kris Trexler, who decided to drive his EV1 cross-country in the summer of 1998 and document the whole trip, dubbing it the “Charge Across America.” That car subsequently made its way to the Petersen Automotive Museum, where it remains today, on display as part of the “Alternating Currents: The Fall and Rise of EVs” display.
Virginia Museum of Transportation’s EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: disabled
Status: on display at the Virginia Museum of Transportation, Roanoke, Virginia
The Henry Ford’s EV1
VIN: V410
Drivetrain: disabled
Status: on display at The Henry Ford, Dearborn, Michigan
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Tellus Science Museum’s EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: disabled
Status: on display in the Science in Motion gallery at the Tellus Science Museum, Cartersville, Georgia
R.E. Olds Museum’s EV1
VIN: V383
Drivetrain: disabled
Status: on display at the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum, Lansing, Michigan
Curiously, it still wears a Michigan license plate (915 SGG) with 1996 registration sticker. Was also shown at the 2013 Concours d’Elegance of America at St. John’s.
Photo by Bradley Brownell
Crawford Auto Aviation’s EV1
VIN: V392
Drivetrain: disabled
Status: on display at the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum, Cleveland, Ohio
According to the Crawford’s Bradley Brownell, “I have heard tell that it was the inverter that was removed to render the car immobile.”
Nethercutt’s EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: disabled
Status: on display at the Nethercutt Collection, Sylmar, California
EV1 at the California Auto Museum
California Automobile Museum’s EV1
VIN: V536
Drivetrain: disabled, battery removed, PCM removed, charge port communications card removed, wiring harnesses removed
Status: on display at the California Automobile Museum, Sacramento, California
According to a museum spokesperson, the 12-volt system is still intact and functional. “The lights do still turn on,” the spokesperson said. It was reportedly displayed on the Apple campus at one point.
Photo by Morio, via Wikipedia
EV1 at the Shanghai Auto Museum in 2016
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Shanghai Auto Museum’s EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: unknown
Status: on display at the Shanghai Auto Museum
The banner across the windshield indicates the red EV1 on display at the Shanghai Auto Museum came from the collection of the GM Heritage Center, which makes sense given that the museum opened in 2007, well after GM rounded up all the EV1s and made its distributions to other museums and universities. According to Car News China, the museum claims the EV1 was a gift from GM and is not on loan. However, according to a GM Heritage Center spokesperson, the one in Shanghai is on loan from GM.
University of Wisconsin’s EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: controllers and batteries removed by GM, made to run as a pure EV in 2005
Status: privately owned
According to a 2006 article on the University of Wisconsin Madison’s EV1, members of that campus’s hybrid car team decided to get the car running in September 2004, replacing the removed battery pack with NiMH batteries from an electric Ranger that Ford donated to the school, then installing a Ballard Power Systems Integrated Powertrain in place of the original motor and controller. As seen in the video above, it was running and driving on private property in 2010 or so. It is now reportedly in a private collection in Middleton, Wisconsin.
Howard University’s EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: battery removed when given to Howard, converted into a hybrid
Status: parked outside at Howard University, Washington, D.C.
This is one of those “Look what we found!” cars that made a splash and spurred some news stories in August 2021, but as DCist reported, its known history at Howard University goes back to at least 2008, when Jason Ganley started converting it into a serial hybrid with ultra capacitor buffers for the U.S. Department of Energy’s EcoCar Challenge. He did get it running, as seen in the August 2010 video above, and drove it both on the University’s campus and somewhere in Maryland for a test drive. A subsequent project in 2018 aimed to return the car to a full EV, but that project apparently stalled out, so the car remains in its hybrid configuration, parked outside the university’s School of Engineering building.
WWU’s EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: disabled by GM, converted to range-extended hybrid by Western Washington University students
Status: owned by the Western Washington University Vehicle Research Institute, Bellingham, Washington
This EV1 caused a bit of a stir when, in December 2007, Western Washington University students – in collaboration with EV Bones in Mesa, Arizona, got the car running and subsequently took it out for a spin, with the videos of its test drive appearing on YouTube. GM responded sternly with a reminder not to do so again. According to Eric Leonhardt, the director of the WWU Vehicle Research Institute, the original proposal to GM from WWU was to add a range extender, and that “once we drive the car at a solar panel unveiling in California,” after which “GM requested that we no longer drive the car on public or private roads.” Leonhardt said the range extender is probably still in the car, as well as a lead-acid battery pack from an electric S-10, but “we haven’t operated it since GM requested that we not drive it. I am not sure if the batteries could be brought back to service.”
Leonhardt elaborated further on how GM disabled the car and how it was repaired:
I probably don’t remember all of the ways they disabled the vehicle. We had to resolve around 100 technical challenges to get it running again. Ours was the 41st one to be given out and I think they only intended to give out 40.
Some things I remember–the battery pack had been removed so EV Bones provided a lead-acid pack from a GM S10 electric truck. Several key wire harnesses had been cut so we had to rebuild those and determine where most of the wires went. We substituted a GM S10 electric truck motor controller for the EV1 motor controller. The EV1 motor controller had key electronic boards missing, I believe. This required running the motor “backwards” relative to the S10 pickup so that required swapping the three phase wires to the motor. There were some additional control boards that had been removed, so EV Bones was able to spoof the GM ordering system so we could obtain those parts. It was interesting because he could monitor the IP addresses of folks from GM Engineering who were trying to determine who had ordered their parts. At the time there was a record of roughly 10 electric drive transaxles and motor controllers available as parts in the GM parts system. I think I bought one transaxle and two controllers.
Since the lead acid pack came from the S10, it had to be reconfigured into the T shape of the EV1.
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University of Cincinnati’s EV1
VIN: V418
Drivetrain: disabled
Status: previously on display outside the Design Architecture Art and Planning lab at the University of Cincinnati. In early 2022, the University of Cincinnati donated it to Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, where it is reportedly on display in the lobby of the college’s automotive building.
One of two EV1s donated to the University of Cincinnati, it arrived there sometime prior to September 2005 and remained on display through at least November 2021. The other was stripped to its shell and sold with some parts via GovDeals.com in early 2020 for $21,511.
BYU’s EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: disabled by GM, rebuilt into an ultracapacitor EV
Status: owned by Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
Donated to Brigham Young University in late 2003, the EV1 underwent a transformation over the next year and a half into a drag car, posting quarter-mile times as low as 14.08 seconds with the use of an ultracapacitor bank and a two-speed transmission, according to a 2005 article in Y Magazine. John Wayland, the tinkerer behind the White Zombie electric drag racing Datsun, reportedly helped BYU’s team with the car’s construction.
OSU’s EV1
VIN: V278
Drivetrain: inverter disabled by GM
Status: parked outside of Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive Research, Columbus, Ohio
Ohio State’s Center for Automotive Research was one of the few institutions to figure out how to reverse GM’s disabling of the EV1’s inverter. It apparently didn’t remain running for long; parts from the EV1 went into other cars, including the university’s EcoCar Challenge entries.
Photo courtesy a Kettering student who wishes to remain anonymous
Kettering’s EV1
VIN: X556
Drivetrain: disabled – donated without a battery and some control modules
Status: on display at the Sloan Museum, Flint, Michigan
Kettering University received what may have been the very first donated EV1 in October 2001. In a press release announcing the donation, Kettering noted that it will serve as a testbed for both the mechanical engineering and electrical and computer engineering disciplines, with Craig Hoff from the former envisioning the installation of a fuel cell. In the years since, it appears to have gone into storage somewhere on campus and, aside from the lack of a battery, kept pristine before going on display at the Sloan Museum.
According to a student at Kettering, it indeed has not been used for anything since Kettering received it. “The batteries were taken out and it looks like battery control modules were also taken out,” he wrote. “Everything else seems to be there.”
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MSU’s EV1
VIN: V116
Drivetrain: disabled
Status: destroyed
Initially donated to Michigan State University in West Lansing, Michigan, then sent on to Lansing Community College sometime prior to 2012. It was reportedly crushed several years ago.
Tulsa Tech’s EV1
VIN: V113
Drivetrain: batteries removed by GM
Status: on display at the Heart of Route 66 Museum, Sapulpa, Oklahoma
Long-stored by Tulsa Tech at its Broken Arrow campus, the EV1 recently made its way to the Heart of Route 66 Museum with the assistance of the Oklahoma Electric Auto Association. It was also displayed at the 2020 Fully Charged Live Show in Austin, Texas, shortly after it was reunited with Chelsea Sexton for the above video.
Atlanta parking garage EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: disabled
Status: owned by Morehouse University, Atlanta, Georgia
This red EV1 made headlines in 2019 after it was “rediscovered” in an Atlanta parking garage, covered in dust and sitting on four flat tires. It has reportedly since been removed from that parking garage, with some claiming GM itself reclaimed the car.
Missouri S&T’s EV1
VIN: V162
Drivetrain: replacement DC motor, replacement lead-acid batteries
Status: parked at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri
As Jalopnik reported back in 2013, the green EV1 that people keep spotting on the campus of the Missouri University of Science and Technology was also made to run, though with non-stock EV parts, and with the goal of creating an autonomous (or, at least, semi-autonomous) car.
Tuskegee’s EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: controllers removed
Status: privately owned
Initially donated to Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama, this red example is now reportedly privately owned.
Photo by David Frownfelter
Mott’s EV1
VIN: V256
Drivetrain: disabled
Status: owned by Mott Community College, Flint, Michigan. Currently on display in its Technology Center building.
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Penn State’s EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: disabled
Status: owned by Penn State University’s Hybrid and Hydrogen Vehicle Research Laboratory
Cornell’s EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: disabled
Status: destroyed
Initially donated to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, this red example has reportedly been crushed since.
Loyola Marymount’s EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: disabled
Status: missing
Initially donated to Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, this green example has reportedly gone missing since.
Screenshot dated May 2017 of the Berkeley EV1
Berkeley’s EV1
VIN: V182
Drivetrain: disabled
Status: stolen
Initially donated to the University of California Berkeley, where the plan was to install “lithium fuel cells,” this blue/silver example was reportedly left neglected for 15 years at Richmond Field Station, then stolen sometime between April and June of 2018.
Prairie View A&M’s EV1
VIN: unknown
Drivetrain: unknown
Status: located at Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, Texas
From the photos posted to Reddit, this red example appears to be parked outside and left to the elements.
National Electric Vehicle Experimental and Demonstration Area’s EV1 (green)
VIN: V614
Drivetrain: believed operational
Status: owned by China’s National Electric Vehicle Experimental and Demonstration Area
According to China Car History, GM supplied as many as five EV1s to NEVEDA for testing, with some going to China’s Nan’ao Island for a wind-power demonstration project. GM officials even reportedly assisted NEVEDA personnel with swapping the original lead-acids for Panasonic batteries, possibly lithium-ion. While the testing period ended in 2003, two of the EV1s have been spotted in the NEVEDA garage as recently as 2018 wearing license plates that may or may not have been kept current. There is no record to say that the cars were disabled as with the university and museum cars, and evidence of a punctured tire on the green one seems to suggest it remains operational.
National Electric Vehicle Experimental and Demonstration Area’s EV1 (silver)
VIN: V386
Drivetrain: unknown
Status: owned by China’s National Electric Vehicle Experimental and Demonstration Area
Research by China Car History indicates the silver NEVEDA car was marked as destroyed in 2005, which is obviously not the case, given that it was photographed along with the green NEVEDA car in 2018.
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