General Motors Would Have Been EV Leaders If They Made More EV1s, Says Tesla CEO Elon Musk

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk said there was a need for Tesla because General Motors GM didn’t make more of its electric EV1 vehicles from the late 90s.

What Happened: “I expected there would be an EV2, EV3, and so forth, and if they’d done that actually, there would be no need for Tesla,” Musk said. The CEO was speaking at the Viva Tech conference in France.

However, General Motors recalled all the vehicles, including the ones with customers, and crushed them in a junkyard ‘for reasons that aren’t clear,’ said Musk.  Customers loved the car so much that they held a candlelit vigil at the junkyard ‘like someone was getting killed,’ the CEO said.

“If somebody is holding a candlelit vigil for them because they love your product so much, maybe you should make more of it,” Musk said while adding that it still blows his mind that GM did it.

Musk said if General Motors had made more EV1s, they would have been the leaders in electric vehicles today. “But they didn’t, so there was need for Tesla.” When Tesla started, no big automakers or startups made EVs, Musk added.

Why It Matters: In the first quarter, Tesla delivered 422,875 units across geographies, while GM and its dealers delivered 603,208 vehicles in the U.S. alone. However, only about 20,000 of GM’s vehicles were EVs.

Earlier this month, GM CEO Mary Barra announced a collaboration with Tesla on a Twitter Spaces event with Musk. GM will integrate Tesla's NACS design into its EVs starting in 2025 and expects it to increase access to charging for GM's EV drivers at 12,000 Tesla superchargers across the U.S.

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