that Tesla was started in response to GM's cancellation of the EV1 program. Fate of GM EV1s Some of the deactivated EV1s given to universities and engineering schools were reactivated, and driven on public roads. The institutions came under fire from General Motors for violating the agreements of the donation, which indicated that the cars not be "titled, licensed, nor driven on public highways" and could only be restored and showcased. In 2004, General Motors donated one of the first generation EV1s (serial number 660) to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. , it is displayed as part of the "America on the Move" exhibit at the National Museum of American History. This is the only existing EV1 not disabled, since the Smithsonian only accepts intact specimens. Approximately 20 units were donated to overseas institutions. However, apparently one or more EV1s did remain in private hands: In 2016, director Francis Ford Coppola showed off the EV1 in his collection on the TV show Jay Leno's Garage, though whether it is driveable is unclear. In 2019 a red EV1 was found inside a multistorey car park in Atlanta in a "barn find" state. This EV1 is more or less complete, save for a missing battery pack and drive unit. In 2022, an EV1 that had been sent out to Australia for evaluation was donated to the National Motor Museum, Birdwood, South Australia. Technology and design The decades before the release of the Impact and the EV1 had seen little in the way of development on the electric car front. The Henney Kilowatt, which ended production in 1961, was the last time a feasible production electric car of any sort had been released; GM's own Electrovair and Electrovette of 1966 and 1976, respectively, never reached production, amounting to little more than conceptual electric conversion kits for the automaker's popular gasoline models. Technical and production costs difficulties were blamed. In contrast to these cars, the EV1 was designed from the ground up to be an electric vehicle. It was not a conversion of an existing vehicle, nor did it share a drivetrain with another GM model, which contributed to its high development ($350 million) and production costs. The EV1 program was initially administered by a GM engineer named Kenneth Baker, who had been the lead on the Electrovette program in the 1970s. Configuration The EV1 was not only used to showcase the electric