The EV1 was the first electric car produced by General Motors in the United States. The experimental cars were the only vehicles in the history of the company to bear the "General Motors" badge. GM leased about 800 EV1 cars with the proviso that after the three-year leases were up, the cars reverted to the company. They were only available in California and Arizona and could only be serviced at designated Saturn dealers. The first generation EV1s used lead-acid battery batteries in 1996 (as model year 1997) and a second generation batch with nickel metal hydride batteries in 1999. As cars came off lease, they were refurbished and upgraded to second generation. GM spent more than $1 billion developing and marketing the EV1, but the company decided that it could not sell the car in enough quantities to make the EV1 profitable. The program was stopped in 2003.

When the EV1 program came to an end, the cars were put into storage at a facility in Burbank, California. GM donated a number of EV1s to colleges and universities for engineering students, and to several museums, including the Smithsonian Institution. In March 2005, the last 78 in storage were transferred to the GM Desert Proving Grounds in Mesa, Arizona, for "final disposition", crushing and recycling, despite an outcry and public protests. Over 100 people offered to purchase the electric cars, but GM refused, citing lack of availability for the cars' unique parts for repairs and potential liability claims. The electric-car experiment was not a failure, according to a GM spokesperson, although they were doomed when the expected breakthrough in battery technology never materialized to give the cars greater range between rechargings[1].

The cars got 55 to 95 miles (90 to 150 km) per charge on lead-acid batteries and 75 to 130 miles (120 to 210 km) on a charge with nickel-metal hydride batteries. Recharging took as much as eight hours for a full charge. The battery pack consisted of 26 12-volt lead-acid batteries holding 67.3 MJ of energy or 26 13.2-volt nickel-metal hydride batteries which held 95 MJ of energy.

A modified EV1 prototype set a land speed record for electric vehicles going 183 mph (295 km/h) in 1994.

The price for the car used to compute lease payments was $33,995 to $43,995, which made for lease payments of $299 to over $574 per month. Price also depended on available state refunds. The cost for the electricity used to power the car was computed to be 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of the equivalent amount of gasoline.