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from the Atari-2600-E.T.-Video-Game-Recycling dept.
https://electrek.co/2025/11/19/gm-ev1-saved-from-crusher-going-driveable-again/
GM only leased the EV1, never sold any, and prevented almost anyone from keeping them when it killed the vehicle program.
The automaker ended up crushing the vast majority of them. While a few empty shells exist in museums, they are strictly prohibited from ever driving again. But a new project has surfaced involving what appears to be the only legally owned EV1 in private hands...
A handful were deactivated by removing critical parts and donated to universities and museums, but GM required the institutions to sign contracts ensuring the cars would never be reactivated.
Now, a couple of engineers and tinkerers on YouTube managed to get their hands on what could be a very unique EV1.
This specific EV1 (VIN #278) was donated to a university that eventually forgot about it. It was towed as an abandoned vehicle, impounded, and eventually sold at auction under a court order. That legal chain of events reportedly broke GM's restrictive ownership contract, making this possibly the only "unrestricted" EV1 in the wild, though I am hearing that there might be a handful of other, lower-profile ones out there.
It recently sold at auction for roughly $104,000.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday December 01, @03:16PM
Ohhh If you do want a conspiracy theory based on science and mechanics I have one:
They only made a couple and only ran them for a couple years while new, so AFAIK this never killed anyone IRL, HOWEVER they made it out of aluminum as light as humanly possible, and a couple more midwestern winters and they knew when designging it that in theory it could kill people on the highway when the frame cracks after a pothole or the suspension snaps off the frame in a turn etc. My totally made up theory is they intentionally built if to fall apart in X years to save weight and they do NOT need the legal liability of them going out and killing people ten years later and having to do a recall etc. Its just cheaper to crush them.
Alternately, they used NiMH batteries with known lifespan issues... Potassium hydroxide electrolyte plus aluminum frame is not going to end well and all batteries "eventually" leak. Ironically plain old steel plus KOH is sorta-stable-ish at least a lot more stable than KOH plus aluminum. KOH plus aluminum makes plenty of hydrogen, what could possibly go wrong with an electric vehicle streaming hydrogen as it corrodes itself LOL.
Essentially they did not want a sequel to "unsafe at any speed" to be written about them. Engineer them to fall apart at X years of use, its more responsible to crush them before X years than to make collectors happy.