On January 4, 1996, General Motors announced at the Greater
Los Angeles Auto Show it will build an electric car, dubbed
the EV1, to be launched in the fall of that year.

When it debuted ,the EV1 was made available to consumers
in just two states, Arizona and California, and for lease-only,
as GM considered the development of electric car technology
to be ongoing.

During its years in production, from 1996 to 1999, around 2,500
EV1s were produced in total. In late 2003, GM announced it was
pulling the plug on the EV1 program and wouldn’t renew any
leases.