GM's long road back to electric cars

The Electrovette was considered for serious production if gas prices went high enough to warrant it.

GM was seriously looking at bringing this car to market, he said. Displayed at auto shows in the mid- to late 1970s, the Electrovette was developed in case gas prices rose quickly to $2.50 a gallon, as GM economists expected. That would have been about $8, in today's prices.

At the time, GM said it expected to have electric cars in production by the mid-1980s and up to 10% of its sales could be from electric cars by the 1990s.

"We ran this for about three-plus years," said Berisa. "The $2.50 a gallon gas never happened."

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