Ranking The Worst Electric Cars Ever Made

An electric car is supposed to be efficient & reliable and should not be produced just for the sake of it.

#10 GEM

The first vehicle to be manufactured by GEM in 1998 could only manage 20 mph.

It has the design of a golf cart despite having an off-road demeanor.

The car isn't functional, by any measure, and one can't help but wonder why it was produced for more than a decade.

It's hard trying to decipher even a single reason why anyone would buy the GEM.

Don't be surprised when the car becomes a rare collectible when a famous person buys it.

Some companies and airports use it for light transport.

#9 Volpe Car

The Volpe car is the smallest electric car ever built. The car can fit inside an elevator because of its small size

There's no practicability when you look at the interior. It can barely accommodate a normal-size adult, and there's no room to put luggage. The size also poses a risk even for city driving as it's hard to see it when you're driving a mid-size sedan. The car was to be launched with a base price of $9,000.

It has scissor doors for effortless access and to make parking easier in tight spaces.

The instrumental panel found in the interior is the same one with that of a motorcycle. It has a top speed of 65 mph, which isn't bad for such a small electric vehicle.

#8 Miles

The Japanese are known for quality work, but the Miles was a big embarrassment to their honor.

"Miles" is a good name for an electric car, but it's still a disappointment when it comes to performance.

The company was founded in 2004 and became defunct in 2013 after filing for bankruptcy.

They offered four different kinds of electric vehicles that were primarily designed for very low speeds! The car was limited to a top speed of 25 mph.

Any company that's serious about producing electric cars for the masses should never offer such speeds.

The car had a starting price of $11,000, which is a big joke, given how little it offered in terms of comfort and performance.

#7 Gurgel Itaipu

Brazil is known for a lot of things, just not automobile manufacturing.

It's officially the ugliest electric vehicle to have come out of South America.

he car could manage 35 mph during the day and wasn't to be driven during the night because the headlights would consume all the energy. Not a lot of thought went into the engineering despite the Gurgel being an electric vehicle.

The car was also prone to stability issues, which made it a driving disaster on the road.

There are no official sales records of the car, and it's hard to estimate how many of them were sold.

#6 Peugeot Ion

Peugeot was also skeptical of the performance of the car and insists customers should lease it instead of buying.

This could be because of the high depreciating rates associated with the vehicle.

The Peugeot Ion is a different badge of the Citroen C-zero, but they share a lot of similarities.

The Peugeot Ion was designed to compete with the Mitsubishi iMiEV, which is an expensive electric car but is worth every dollar.

If you're ever stuck choosing between the Citroen C-Zero and the Peugeot Ion because you don't know the difference, we would strongly advise going for neither of them.

#5 Mahindra E2o

The name "Mahindra" sounds corny for an electric vehicle.

The car has a 75-mile range and can go from 0 to 50 in 18 seconds.

It's described as a modern hatchback built for the city dweller. It has all the tech that would make it an attractive electric vehicle.

You can operate the AC using your phone, which is great if you want to warm up your vehicle in the morning.

Despite borrowing the interior functionalities from Tesla, the Mahindra is still far off when it comes to performance.

The car was launched in the UK in 2016. 13 months later, the company had to recall all the vehicles and offered the full price of what their customers paid.

You surely don't need another reason not to buy the car.

#4 Corbin Sparrow

The Corbin Sparrow is one of the ugliest 3-wheelers ever made.

The car was originally designed to be used by Dominos Pizza for delivery.

It had a single passenger door and came in either a hatchback or a jellybean model.

It's very hard to tell the difference between the two because they both have a protruding roof.

The car could average a top speed of 70 mph, which was impressive for an electric car that was produced in 1999.

It had a range of 40 miles. The car wasn't practical in most cases, and the price tag wasn't justified. It's since become a collectible, some fetching up to $30,000 without taxes.

#3 Sinclair C5

The Sinclair C5 was a pet project for millionaire inventor Sir Clive Sinclair.

He was so convinced he was building the next big electric automobile company and spent a fortune.

He insisted the C5 should be called a 'vehicle' and not a car, despite it being a 3-wheeler.

The car was launched in 1985 to a not-so-pleased British press.

The launch was done hurriedly even when there were safety concerns with the C5.

The battery lacked weatherproofing, and the car could manage only 15 mph.

The car was dubbed as a 'post-war notorious example of failure.'

It's estimated that 5,000 units were sold because of ingenious marketing from the company.

Production was cut by 90% after the first year when the company couldn't realize the projected sales.

#2 Flybo

Flybo is a Chinese electric car that happened to find its way to the States.

Badly assembled parts and cheap materials have been used to produce the Flybo.

he parent company specializes in fuel cells and electric vehicles. The car has an attractive exterior, which might draw you to it, but the interior is a disaster.

The central dash has a dated infotainment system that you wouldn't expect in an electric car of its magnitude.

This car is an embarrassment, to say the least, and shouldn't even be in your consideration when you're looking for an electric car.

You might think it's a badly done knock-off, yet it's the real thing.

#1 GM EV1

All of them were recalled and crashed, which remains a controversial topic up to today.

It's unfortunate that the first electric to be produced for mass production is also on the list of the worst electric cars ever made.

It was produced from 1996 to 1999.

General Motors was encouraged to produce the EV1 after their concept car received a lot of praise.

The EVI drew heavily from their concept car, but the final output left a lot to be desired.

The ending of the GM EV1 was a sad one for the electric-car world.

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