When saw this today I thought the owner was just having a joke with the green EV numberplate tag that immediately caught my eye.
But then I saw the ‘Electric’ decal on the side I thought it might still be a joke related to that. After all it was quite common for (especially French) cars in the 90s to have quirky trim levels; Wave/Surf/Excite/Elation/etc https://autoshite.com/topic/54842-ridiculous-trim-designations/). Even Fiat had a Fiat 500 ‘Diesel’, which only came in Petrol.
But then on closer look, I couldn’t see an exhaust and there was a awkwardly placed flap on the front wing, so I thought it was a passion project type EV conversion. The 106 chassis is really fun little go kart after all. And if someone had the money and the will, why not.
I figured that there might be some information about it online if that was the case. Certainly someone with that dedication would have to have a deep passion, and they might have documented or made a forum post about it.
Nah, it’s actually a factory option. PSA apparently decided to offer a battery EV all the way back in 1996. https://www.car.info/en-se/peugeot/106/106-3-door-eletric-11153757/specs
I mean, with 15hp you’ll be struggling to even worry the skin on your rice pudding.
Absolutely love seeing things like this.
GM probably lost tens of thousands of dollars (maybe even hundreds of thousands of dollars) on every EV1 they built. It was a great first effort to see what could have been built at the time, but it was never a viable product to sell.
GM’s Chevy Bolt EV right now is much loved as well and it has specs that far, far exceeded anything the EV1 offered.
…and GM discontinued the Bolt as well, despite solid sales & demand, because they were also losing money on each unit sold.
They also said the Bolt is coming back in like 2 years as an Ultium vehicle which should make it even better still.
GM probably lost $XX,000 on each EV1.
They are probably losing $X,000 on early current Bolt EV.
Their move to Ultium will probably either break ev3n or actually turn a profit in the Ultium Bolt.
Oh, that’s cool. I’ll keep an eye out then! I used to have a Volt and a Bolt and I really liked them.
*had. RIP to a real one.