GM's EV1 represented a genuinely visionary bet by the automaker — the first mass-market electric vehicle produced by an American manufacturer. Sadly, the company ultimately ended the program, both literally and figuratively. Production numbers were small, and when the leased cars came back, most were crushed, leaving very few survivors — though not zero.
Turning up in a junkyard late last year and subsequently placed at auction, a green 1997 EV1 had sat unclaimed long enough to be classified as an abandoned vehicle. That legal status meant it could be legally purchased at auction and titled.
The final hammer price was a jaw-dropping $104,000 — Corvette Grand Sport territory for something that neither runs nor has an intact windshield, since someone had thrown a brick through it. It takes the same kind of optimism GM's engineers brought to the project back in the mid-1990s.
The buyer is Billy Caruso, an Apple employee who already owns a small collection of resurrected early electric vehicles. With nearly a dozen quirky 1990s EVs under his belt — and appropriately, a Bolt as his everyday driver — securing an EV1 for his collection is essentially the Holy Grail. Still, getting the car back into shape would demand more than enthusiasm.
That's where mechanic and YouTube creator Jared Pink enters the story. Pink, who runs The Questionable Garage channel, had crossed paths with Caruso on a previous battery-electric S10 build. The two partnered up and started disassembling the EV1 — and then General Motors reached out on its own.
Being the only EV1 known to carry a private title, Caruso's chassis No. 212 had caught the eye of GM leadership. The automaker welcomed Caruso, Pink, and their crew to Detroit, unlocked its archives, and supplied hard-to-source OEM components — including a replacement for the brick-damaged windshield.
The level of factory backing is extraordinary for a private restoration project, and it dramatically improves the odds of success. Water damage from years of outdoor exposure means chassis No. 212 faces considerable work before it can return to the road. But with original schematics, replacement parts, and engineering knowledge supplied by GM, the task is far more manageable.
This marks something of a reversal for GM, which had originally killed the EV1 program in 2003. Over the following decades, as electric vehicles went from curiosity to commonplace, vehicles like Caruso's have come to represent a legacy deserving preservation. After all, the current Hummer EV — a massive battery-powered truck — can trace its conceptual lineage back to this small, unusual pioneer.
The Questionable Garage team uploaded a video just a couple of weeks ago showing a fresh shipment of parts arriving from GM, so the project is still actively underway. But before long, a green EV1 should be back on California roads — a rolling reminder of the 1990s' electrified ambitions.
