GM Bets on Electricity

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JANUARY 4, 1996

Los Angeles, California
29 years ago

On January 4, 1996, General Motors announced at the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show that it would build a fully electric car, the EV1, scheduled for release later that year.

The announcement marked a bold departure from conventional automotive thinking. At a time when gasoline reigned supreme, GM publicly committed to a future powered — at least in part — by electricity.

Though the EV1 would later become controversial, its debut signaled that electric vehicles were no longer a fringe idea, they were back in the conversation.

—— WHY THIS MATTERS ——

The EV1 was not the beginning of electric vehicles; it was their revival.

Electric cars had existed since the auto industry’s earliest days. In the early 20th century, the Columbia Runabout could travel 40 miles on a single charge at 15 mph and became a best-seller. Even Clara Ford, wife of Henry Ford, famously drove a 1914 Detroit Electric, capable of traveling up to 80 miles without recharging.

Gasoline ultimately won out, propelled by mass production and cheap oil. But the oil crises of the 1970s, combined with growing environmental awareness, reignited interest in electric propulsion. The EV1 emerged from this moment, a serious attempt by a major automaker to rethink transportation.

Though it never reached mass adoption, the EV1 laid conceptual groundwork for the electric revolution that would follow decades later.

—— THE TAKEAWAY ——

Innovation doesn’t always succeed the first time, but it rarely disappears.

GM’s EV1 reminds us that technological change often moves in cycles, shaped as much by economics and politics as by engineering. Sometimes, being early looks a lot like being wrong, until history catches up.

At Masters of Trivia, with our MOT utility token, we turn moments like this into interactive knowledge — tracing how today’s breakthroughs are built on yesterday’s unfinished ideas.

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