I tend to look at the EV1 as an idea before its time in more ways than one. Was it a failure...it looked like one from the outside, but it taught them a lot. Th

I tend to look at the EV1 as an idea before its time in more ways than one. Was it a failure...it looked like one from the outside, but it taught them a lot. This is the type of behavior (moonshots/trying experiments/taking risks) that we know value in leading edge companies who are willing to develop or try things to learn. Tesla's roadster was largely in the same space in a lot of ways. The difference is the result, GM found that their target demographic wasn't there yet. In 97 and 99, GM had an enormous lead in vehicle sales and the risk they took was actually small, although they were made to pay for it in PR... If you look at Tesla and GM, the pivot is the difference...GM focused on the traditional consumer market and didn't see an opportunity to make it work. Likely based on the perfectly reasonable assumption that people are unlikely to pay for a luxury GM product at that point in time. Tesla learned from that and went at the markets in the other direction. I own a volt, I have talked about this before on here. It is my only car. I wouldn't own a Tesla as an only car, not yet. The Volt was probably something that the Tesla S made happen (I'm speaking metaphorically not temporally) but I think the Volt and the leaf and the prius made the Tesla 3 happen