1979 GE-Chrysler Electric Test Vehicle-1 Up For Sale On eBay1979 GE-Chrysler Electric Test Vehicle-1 Up For Sale On eBay

If you’re creating a mass-market electric car, it makes a degree of sense to use a mass-market platform.
That’s why you’ll find some Versa sitting under the Leaf and rather a lot of Focus in Ford’s Focus Electric. Dig hard enough, and even the Chevy Volt has similarities with other GM products–it’s built around GM’s Delta II platform, also used under Chevy Cruzes and Buick Veranos.
Under this 1979 GE and Chrysler Electric Test Vehicle-1 (ETV-1) you’ll find Chrysler’s ubiquitous “K-car” platform, on which Plymouth Reliants and Dodge 400s were based, among others.
Hardly auspicious beginnings, but as an electric car the ETV-1 for sale on eBay (spotted by Bring A Trailer) does have a unique selling point.
Unfortunately, like many historic electric vehicles we’ve seen up for sale, time has not been kind to the ETV-1.
It currently features a Siemens electric motor of undisclosed output, and batteries are notable only by their absence. Originally, it would have been fitted with a GE motor and used lead-acid batteries–and according to GE itself it was the first ground-up modern day electric vehicle design.
The car’s interior is swathed in a fetching and very 70s shade of red. Aside from the usual K-car layout you’ll find a few unique gauges here and there and an ominous-looking red button on the dash–common in many prototype vehicles as a universal power kill switch.
As 1970s K-cars go, the ETV-1 is quite attractive. There’s a hint of Isuzu Piazza in there, a touch of early Mazda RX-7 and a few others thrown in for good measure. Compare it to its boxy kin though and aerodynamics is clearly the priority, with pop-up headlamps and a sharply cut-off tail.
Prior to landing in the hands of the current seller, it was displayed in the American Museum of Science & Energy, but now lies dormant as an unfinished project.
There’s no reserve on the auction, and a starting bid of $3,000. It’s unlikely to have much investment potential–at least in the short term–but we’d love to see someone giving another retro electric car a new lease of life.
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