GM EV1 Electric Vehicle
The first EV that got me hooked on electric was the GM EV1 electric vehicle. Â While I was reading up on my book Build Your Own Electric Vehicle and hearing the recent debate on MSNBC about energy, plus today is the day that General Motors will be going to their initial public offering after being basically bought out by the taxpayers of the United States.
Here is that excerpt:
Leading up to the 1990s, General Motors warmed to the EVs through a series of events. First, GM decided to enter the 1987 Australian World Solar Challenge, a project champtioned from within the Howard Wilson, then vice President of Hughes. They turned for help to a little company called AeroVironment, founded by Paul MacCready. MacCready had already won prizes from the longest-human powered flight with his extremely lightweight and efficient planes that crossed the English Channel but in 1979 created the “Solar Challenger” that flew 163 miles from Paris to the English Coast in 1981.
AeroVironment helped create the GM EV1 Electric VehicleÂ
Aerovironment was now given the ultimate challenge from GM-creating a vehicle capable of going 1,900 miles across the Australian outback on solar power only!!!
Well, they did it alright!! In fact, GM’s winning “Sunraycer” beat the competition by 2/12 days, proving what was possible with electric drive.
In fact, here are the specs”
Range: 120 miles
Top Speed: 75 miles per hour
Power Train (what really won the race) 2 motors @ 54 hp AC DRIVE
Battery Pack: Lead Acid
Curb Weight: 2,200 lbs
It can happen!!!
From Sunraycer to the EV1
What makes this story so important is that General Motors did not simply build an interesting solar experiment and walk away.
The technology moved forward.
In 1987, GM worked with AeroVironment and other partners to create the Sunraycer for the first World Solar Challenge in Australia. The lightweight solar-electric vehicle crossed roughly 1,950 miles from Darwin to Adelaide and won decisively. More importantly, engineers learned valuable lessons about aerodynamics, batteries, energy management and electric propulsion.Â
Those lessons helped produce the GM Impact.
GM unveiled the Impact concept at the 1990 Los Angeles Auto Show. It used 32 rechargeable lead-acid batteries and incorporated technical and aerodynamic knowledge developed through the Sunraycer program.Â
Then came the GM EV1 electric vehicle.
That progression matters because it shows that Sunraycer was not simply a publicity exercise. It helped create a technological path toward a practical electric automobile.
The EV1 Showed What GM Could Do
The EV1 reached customers in the 1990s and became one of the defining electric cars of its era.
According to Smithsonian records, GM built 1,117 EV1s. The cars were primarily leased to drivers in California, Arizona and Georgia. The EV1 also incorporated significant advances in aerodynamics, electric propulsion, electronic controls and regenerative braking.Â
Think about the timing.
This happened decades before today’s widespread DC fast-charging networks. Lithium-ion batteries had not yet transformed the automobile industry. There were no Tesla Superchargers lining interstate highways. Public charging remained extremely limited.
Yet GM had already demonstrated that a major American automaker could design an electric vehicle from the ground up.
That’s what makes this history so fascinating.
GM wasn’t chasing the electric-car revolution.
For a brief period, GM was helping invent it.
The Real Legacy of the GM Sunraycer
The Sunraycer deserves more attention in EV history because its influence extended far beyond one race.
Its engineers learned how vehicle weight, aerodynamics, driver behavior, battery capacity and energy consumption interacted. According to the Smithsonian, knowledge developed through Sunraycer flowed into the Impact and ultimately the EV1. Technologies developed through these programs also contributed to later work involving rapid charging and electric-vehicle power systems.Â
That is how innovation usually works.
One experimental vehicle leads to another.
A racing project teaches engineers how to squeeze more miles from every watt. Those lessons influence a prototype. The prototype eventually influences a production vehicle.
Suddenly, something that looked futuristic becomes transportation.
Why Didn’t GM Keep Pushing?
That remains the question hanging over this history.
GM eventually ended the EV1 program. Because the vehicles were leased rather than sold, the company was able to recall them when leases expired. Most were subsequently destroyed, while some survived in museums and educational institutions.Â
The decision remains controversial among EV enthusiasts.
However, the engineering achievement should not disappear behind that controversy.
GM had already demonstrated many of the principles that define today’s electric vehicles: aerodynamic efficiency, sophisticated electronic controls, regenerative braking and purpose-built electric propulsion.
Moreover, the company had traced part of that technological lineage all the way back to a solar-powered race car.
Today’s EV Industry Proves the Original Idea
Looking back from 2026 makes the Sunraycer story even more remarkable.
Battery-electric vehicles are now part of the mainstream automotive industry. Charging networks continue expanding. Battery technology has improved dramatically, while electric motors and power electronics have become increasingly sophisticated.
GM itself now openly describes the EV1 as an important part of its electric history. In 2026, the company even became involved in an effort to help restore a surviving EV1, three decades after the vehicle’s introduction.Â
That brings the story almost full circle.
The company that helped demonstrate solar-electric transportation in the 1980s and purpose-built battery-electric transportation in the 1990s is again building electric vehicles.
The technology changed.
The batteries changed.
The charging infrastructure changed.
But the fundamental idea did not.
Conclusion: GM Already Proved It Could Imagine the Future
The title of this original Green Living Guy story asked a simple question: If General Motors could build an extraordinary solar-electric vehicle decades ago, why couldn’t it do it again?
History provides part of the answer.
GM’s Sunraycer wasn’t designed to become a family car. Instead, it became something arguably more important: a rolling laboratory.
It proved that efficiency mattered. It demonstrated what engineers could accomplish by combining lightweight construction, extreme aerodynamics, solar energy and electric propulsion. Then those lessons helped move GM toward the Impact and eventually the EV1.Â
So the lesson isn’t that every future automobile needs solar panels covering its roof.
The bigger lesson is about ambition.
Transportation breakthroughs happen when manufacturers are willing to experiment before the market is completely ready. They happen when engineers receive the freedom to rethink assumptions about how a vehicle should be powered, shaped and operated.
Sunraycer did exactly that.
More than three decades later, its message still feels remarkably current.
Build the experiment. Learn from it. Improve it. Then bring the technology to everyone.
Sources
- Smithsonian Institution — General Motors Sunraycer
https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_1299505 - Smithsonian Institution — General Motors EV1 Records
https://sova.si.edu/record/nmah.ac.0912 - General Motors Heritage Collection — 1990 Impact Experimental
https://www.gm.com/heritage/collection/gm-concept/1990-impact-experimental
