GM Impact Concept
At the 1990 Los Angeles Auto Show, GM chairman Roger Smith demonstrated the Impact, a battery electric concept car. Developed by the electric vehicle company AeroVironment, the Impact featured design knowledge gained from GM's success in the 1987 World Solar Challenge - a trans-Australian race for solar-powered cars, which the automaker's Sunraycer won.
In 1990, the California Air Resources Board enacted a mandate, stating that the seven leading automakers marketing vehicles in the US must produce and sell zero-emissions vehicles to maintain access to the California market. The battery electric Impact prototype largely inspired the design of the production EV1. GM began manufacturing the car in 1996. In its initial stages of production, most of them were leased to consumers in California, Arizona, and Georgia.
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