The EV1 and Tesla

 In the early days of the automobile, electric drive trains were almost as popular as petrol ones.  The problem was that the batteries then were lead-acid, which are not nearly as energy dense as lithium-ion batteries.

Comparing the two chemistries side-by-side, lithium ion achieves an energy density of 125-600+ Wh/L versus 50-90 Wh/L for lead acid batteries. In other words, if you were to drive the same distance using each type of batteries in an identical vehicle, the lead acid battery could take up to 10 times the volume that the lithium ion would, and it’s also heavier. (Source)

So GM's EV1 was an experiment.   It was powered by lead-acid batteries, and its range was limited to 60-80 miles (100- 130 km).  This video from the BBC gives a brief history of its development, with optimistic videos from the early 1990s.

 

GM stopped selling the EV1 in 1999, and cancelled all the leases after 2002.  Sales had been limited, and the company did not think battery technology was advancing fast enough to justify the extension of the program.  The whole story is complicated; read the Wikipedia article about it.  There were many within GM who opposed its development and extension, and there were many dealerships who were hostile, because EV1 had so few mechanical parts compared to petrol cars.

As Wikipedia says: 

The EV1's discontinuation remains controversial, with electric car enthusiasts, environmental interest groups and former EV1 lessees accusing GM of self-sabotaging its electric car program to avoid potential losses in spare parts sales (sales forced by government regulations), while also blaming the oil industry for conspiring to keep electric cars off the road.  

Critics of GM and proponents of electric vehicles claim that GM feared the emergence of electrical vehicle technology because the cars might cut into their profitable spare parts market, as electric cars have far fewer moving parts than combustion vehicles. Critics further charged that when CARB, in response to the EV1, mandated that electric vehicles make up a certain percentage of all automakers' sales, GM came to fear that the EV1 might encourage unwanted regulation in other states. GM, which was also joined by other automakers, battled against CARB regulations, going as far as to sue CARB in federal court.

Was it a dismal failure?  No.  A noble one.  Because it led the CARB (California Air Resources Board) to mandate electric cars, and this in turn led to Toyota developing the first hybrid, the Prius, in 1997.   Also GM's withdrawal of the EV1 and the rather vindictive crushing of all models, led to the founding of Tesla.  Musk tweeted in 2017:

Few people know that we started Tesla when GM forcibly recalled all electric cars from customers in 2003 & then crushed them in a junkyard.  [This] was done against the will of their owners, who held a candlelight vigil all night to protest the death of their cars. Since big car companies were killing their EV programs, the only chance was to create an EV company, even tho it was almost certain to fail.

Although Musk was extremely influential in its development, Tesla was actually started by two engineers in Silicon Valley who wanted to prove that electric cars could be successful after GM cancelled the EV1 program:

Elon Musk may be the CEO of Tesla but he didn’t actually start the company. Tesla was founded in 2003 by two Silicon Valley engineers, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. They wanted to prove that electric cars could be better than gasoline-powered cars. Although Tesla Motors was incorporated on July 1st of 2003, the seeds of the company go back to 1990 when both founders met.

Eberhard’s passion for cars was kindled after he went through a divorce and wanted to buy a sports car but he couldn’t buy a car that only got 18 miles to the gallon. The arguments for global warming were becoming undeniable.

This decision fueled his interest to begin research on high performance electric vehicles which didn’t quite exist at the time. Eberhard went through every power source you can think of. Eberhard soon discovered that electric cars were the most efficient. Further research led him to an electric car hobbyist community where he met AC Propulsion – a boutique electric car maker. What was even more interesting was the fact that the company had a superfast electric sports car called TZero. The TZero proved to Eberhard that an electric car didn’t have to be slow, he invested in the company with the hopes of obtaining a copy of the car. Eberhard even thought of joining forces with the company to build a production level electric car rather than a hobbyist vehicle.

Sadly he soon discovered that his ambitions were not in sync with the culture of the firm. At this point Eberhard considered launching his own company. By 2003 Tarpenning and Eberhard knew that they wanted to start an electric car company, starting with a two-seater sports car with an induction motor and lithium ion batteries. Eberhard wanted to give credit to the man who patented the AC induction motor, Nikola Tesla. Tesla was a 19th century inventor and his work led to the discovery of alternating current which is a primary way of transmitting electricity today.

On July 1st 2003, the company was incorporated and by August they moved into the company’s first office building in Menlo Park, California. By fall of 2003, Eberhard and Tarpenning started refining their idea in a bid to make formal pitches to investors. The first round of funding came from family, friends and a handful of venture capitalists. The investments were small because there was no one to lead the round.

Earlier in 2001 Tarpenning had dragged his friend Eberhard to see PayPal co-founder Elon Musk to speak at a Mars Society conference at Stanford. They introduced themselves and didn’t reach out until late March 2004. Elon was interested in the idea and in April 2004 the paperwork of their partnership was finalized.

Musk went on to lead a $7.5 million round in 2004 and became the chairman of the board. In 2006 the company unveiled the prototype of its Tesla Roadster which entered production in 2008. The Roadster Tesla brought something entirely new to the car industry, the electric car was produced with specs that could meet consumer needs. The first model could travel 250 miles on a single battery, its acceleration and speed were also at par with other consumer level sports cars.The story of Tesla is still being written but it all started with the curiosity of two engineers – Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.  (Source)

Here's a fascinating video about the founding of  Tesla:

 

As they say, the rest is history.  

I wonder just how much GM  regrets cancelling the EV1.  There wouldn't be a Tesla if they hadn't--there wouldn't be an electric car industry without Tesla, as the second video makes clear--and now Tesla's a formidable competitor, and Musk is a multi-billionaire.