General Motors Is Assisting with the Restoration of a Rare EV1

https://evinfo.net/2026/03/general-motors-is-assisting-with-the-restoration-of-an-1996-ev1/

31•betacollector64•2d ago

Comments

kotaKat•1h ago

In a way it feels like a sick and twisted joke that GM is willing to help with this, especially how they've been treating their current EV lineup.

BrightDrop's dead, the Bolt was loved and killed and brought back and killed again, they keep making questionable decisions with their infotainment and subscription models (no CarPlay, mandatory consumer Google Account and OnStar subscriptions), the best thing they even apparently sell right now has a Honda (re)badge on it...

InUrNetz•1h ago

The anti CarPlay stance is a real deal killer for me. I put an aftermarket radio in my Chevy Express to get CarPlay, and have a long history of Chevy, GMC, and Buick ownership, but this one blocks me from buying a new GM car.

wlesieutre•46m ago

Honda Prologue is an option if you really like the Ultium SUVs, sadly only a Blazer sized rebadge and no Equinox.

I do wonder what the outlook for that is now, they were supposed to be a shorter term bridge until Honda had their own EVs but Honda recently killed a bunch of EV plans so maybe the GM partnership sticks around a while?

fullstop•16m ago

I've been satisfied with Android Automotive on my Equinox EV. I did see that there are USB dongles which can allegedly add Android Auto to the car.

bluGill•12m ago

My blazer doesn't have android auto either... where are these usb things, I might be interested. I really want my phone to respond to 'ok google' not the car saying 'this needs a subscription'

bluGill•14m ago

I have a blazer ev without it and I agree it is the biggest negative. If I drove 8 hours a day their onstar is better, but if you use a car a reasonable amount it isn't worth a subscription (or setting everything up that is already in the phone)

sanex•1h ago

You've got it reversed. Honda is rebadging the equinox ev. GM.

kotaKat•1h ago

Yeah, and it's still the best thing GM can even build right now. It's an Equinox without GM's bullshit and even includes CarPlay in the package.

fullstop•17m ago

It's based on the Blazer, and is larger than an Equinox EV.

wlesieutre•45m ago

Actually a Blazer, not an Equinox

kccqzy•52m ago

GM’s Cadillac is doing alright with EVs: the Optiq, the Lyriq, the Vistiq are all selling well.

fullstop•20m ago

Equinox EV is also doing well.

sidewndr46•46m ago

Given GM's history with this vehicle, I'd assume any contact with them is an attempt to lay claim to ownership of the vehicle. There's no way I'd even communicate with them

mediumdave•9m ago

The Bolt will be back in 2027.

I'm a huge fan of the Bolt, and I love my 2019. It's a very practical car, and has surprisingly decent range.

twobitshifter•5m ago

I hadn’t heard that they killed the Bolt again! At least there is the 2027 model, which us starting to show up at dealers. With the Iran war, I expect much more interest in EVs right now, so this version of the Bolt may sell out fast.

nubinetwork•1h ago

I've been watching these videos, I'm honestly shocked about the complete 180 gm is pulling...

In the past, they would have wanted the motors disabled and the batteries incapacitated (if they weren't already, because half of them were trash), if they couldn't legally scare you into letting them scrap the car.

I kindof feel like there's some ulterior motive, like they want another museum piece for themselves, or sales are really hurting and they want to drum up some good will. Call me skeptical if you must, but they _really_ didn't want these on the road.

bluGill•16m ago

This is common for all cars of all makes. You want people to buy new ones so there is an areg where old cars are a liability. People buying new cars trade them in after three years, so you want some value left so they can afford that, but you want them to wear out in about 12 so that people have reason to keep buying more instead of keeping the old. Then after about 25 years it is a collectors car and you can be proud of the few left - they are not impacting new sales much (if any) and give people reason to dream about cars.

xp84•12m ago

I don’t think it was all that mysterious, or even sinister. The car was a compliance car, it was mandated by the state to exist, and was not at the time a profitable model. All of them were leased. When the mandate expired or whatever, selling the cars instead of taking them back would have meant supporting this very different car for a long time with parts and repair service. This would have been a huge headache, and not worth it by any measure. Yes, they could have attempted to make BEVs happen for the mass market in general, but every carmaker was free to do so and they all seemed to agree that it wasn’t a good risk until Tesla came years later and made that bet with the S and the 3. But that was 15 years of advancement later.

And GM could have crushed all of them, but apparently was proud enough of it and not afraid people would ‘discover its secrets’ and build a new EV, since they decided to just park a half dozen or whatever at schools for students to poke and prod at. I get that the optics of crushing them made them look like a villain from the “Captain Planet” cartoon, but it would have been foolish for them to do anything else.

rdtsc•44m ago

> As GM’s team put it: “EV1 set in motion everything we’re doing in electric right now”

Sounds line GM is taking credit for EV industry’s success after they recalled and sent to the crusher the very car model these people are trying to restore.

ezfe•21m ago

They’re taking credit for their own success? I don’t know how you can construe that to be the industry overall.

conception•16m ago

You mean Toyota and Tesla’s success? Let’s be real - the Prius and then Model S kickstarted the EV revolution.

mlhpdx•12m ago

If you read the history you’ll see the appropriate word is “restarted” the EV revolution. It was on and off again in a slow march to the point that allowed Tesla to exist. I’m not diminishing the role Tesla played, but it has to be taken in context. They stood on shoulders.

bluGill•11m ago

Those were important too, but the ev1 started that modern ev.

rdtsc•15m ago

Right before that in the paragraph:

> The EV1 introduced technologies that remain foundational to modern EVs

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Jazz CRJ9 at New York on Mar 22nd 2026, collision with fire truck on runway

Fyn: An uv fork with new features, bug fixes, stripped telemetry

The way CTRL-C in Postgres CLI cancels queries is incredibly hack-y

Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

An Unsolicited Guide to Being a Researcher [pdf]

Dataframe 1.0.0.0

Flash-MoE: Running a 397B Parameter Model on a Laptop

You are not your job

Walmart: ChatGPT checkout converted 3x worse than website

GoGoGrandparent (YC S16) is hiring Back end Engineers

What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

The LCA problem revisited [pdf]

GrapheneOS will remain usable by anyone without requiring personal information

Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

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Ordered dithering with arbitrary or irregular colour palettes (2023)

General Motors Is Assisting with the Restoration of a Rare EV1

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