It cost as much as a Mercedes, could only travel 79 miles, and was both the hero and villain of Hollywood. Only 10 years after it rolled into driveways, almost all were crushed. One remains operational … and its parked at The Smithsonian. A qualified antique, it’s still the car of the future.
On Earth Day in 1990, General Motors Chairman Roger Smith announced his company would put the Impact concept electric vehicle into production, in accord with California legislation that required automakers to sell zero emission vehicles as 10% of their fleet by 2003. Unfortunately, nobody knew how to actually produce a sellable version.
The Impact was not GM’s first electric car. It tested the XP512E city car in 1969 and co-developed the Lunar Rover. Back on Earth, GM entered Australia’s 1987 World Solar Challenge with the Sunraycer that covered 1,867 miles ahead of all competitors. The Sunraycer’s electrics underpinned both the Impact prototype and production-spec 1996 EV1, leased through Saturn retailers for $33,000 ($60,000 today).
