The GM EV1 was dead on arrival

In 1990, GM showed off an electric car concept called the Impact. GM’s CEO Roger Smith surprised everyone when he announced a production version of the Impact. This move may have had an influence on the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Later that year, CARB mandated that two percent of all cars sold in the state by 1998 needed to be zero emissions vehicles. The main flaw with electric cars is the batteries. The first EV1 used lead acid batteries. A kilogram of lead acid battery contains only 0.4 percent the energy contained in a kilogram of gasoline. Even a lithium ion battery can only store 1.2 percent the energy that gasoline can. This puts electric cars on a huge energy to weight disadvantage to gasoline powered cars. Engineers at GM knew of this disadvantage. They wanted to install a gas turbine engine to charge the batteries. This kind of electric and gas power train is what GM is currently working on with the Chevy Volt. A hybrid setup like that, would overcome the poor energy density of the lead acid batteries. The emissions for the car would be tiny, but the CARB mandate insisted on zero emissions. The downfall of the EV1 was the energy density of its batteries.

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Source Motor Trend