First-ever electric car has sold in Atlanta for world record $104,000

A recent auction seemed to allow car enthusiasts to take a step back in time, thanks to an ancient electric car trying to find a new home.

First released just before the millennium, the cars have a very unique story surrounding how they came to be.

Now, over two decades after the last cars were known to be knocking about, one has resurfaced in Atlanta.

However, the new owner has a task and a half on their hands.

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The electric car that did not stand the test of time

EVs are thought to be a modern concept, with many drivers now known to favor electric powertrains over gas-powered ones.

But the first electric car, the EV1, was all down to General Motors, and was actually brought to life in 1996.

There was a catch, though, the car was allegedly actually never sold, only leased – strange, right?

The EV1’s reign was short but sweet, with GM actually getting rid of all of the cars, apart from around 40.

Some of the cherished EVs were taken on by places that could showcase them, like museums; one example, though, found its way onto the auction block.

Showcased on Peak Auto Auctions, a 1997 EV1 was put up for a new owner to take on, but it came with a few glaring issues.

The vehicle looked a little worse for wear with a smashed windshield, but apart from the very obvious damage to the exterior, everything else was intact.

It reportedly didn’t actually come with a key, and it was unknown if the electric car started up at all.

The elements had clearly taken over, but hey, with a spruce up and some mechanical engineering, it could run once more.

The EV1 went for a record sum when the time came to find a new home

You may be wondering how one of the only known examples of the EV1 ended up feeling so sorry for itself.

Well, according to the Autopian, the car was actually classed as abandoned by the Clark Atlanta University Public Safety agency, and it was also classed as a ‘court order sale’.

GM Authority reported that the VIN V212 was supposedly originally delivered in Arizona, and it even held a record of the ‘Unofficial holder of EV1 high-altitude driving record (10,500 ft.)’.

Thanks to the extreme rarity of the car, it ended up being auctioned off for a mind-blowing $104,000.

Back in the reign of the EV1, it produced 137hp thanks to its powerful batteries,

So it turns out Tesla did have a predecessor after all, albeit one that’s almost extinct nowadays.

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