Offer Letter to GM "I want to buy an EV1"

We have received more requests to buy an EV1 than the number of cars GM still has available. Each hopeful owner has offered to buy an existing, used EV1 for $24,761, and is waiving any rights to Federally mandated support for replacement parts, and relieve GM of any warranty or liability.

EV1 Buyer

123 Main Street

Anytown, CA 12345

Mr. Richard Wagoner, Jr.

General Motors

300 Renaissance Center

Detroit, MI 48265-3000                                                February 26, 2005

Dear Mr. Wagoner,

General Motors led the market in electric vehicle technology when it developed the EV1, and the public responded to your product with overwhelming support. Not only did General Motors successfully lease every vehicle it made available in the limited market of California and Arizona, but there was a waiting list of people who were willing to wait an unspecified amount of time to lease an EV1. Rather than greet this enthusiasm by building more cars, you have instead ignored the waiting lists and collected vehicles from loyal EV1 drivers, only to send them to be crushed.

As you are no doubt aware, there are currently 77 vehicles being kept at the General Motors Training facility in Burbank, California. These last few cars are being watched over by a group of EV drivers and supporters from across California who are passionate about having the choice to drive non-polluting vehicles. This is not an issue isolated to electric vehicle enthusiasts; it is an issue concerning people. People who would like to breathe clean air, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and lessen the output of greenhouse gasses.  It is an issue about people who are willing and indeed, have been trying desperately, to purchase a General Motors product in order to accomplish these goals. It is also an issue about people who have given you up to $13,000 in their tax dollars for incentives on each leased EV1. These public funds (and millions more in infrastructure and legislation funding) were certainly provided in anticipation of putting zero-pollution cars on the road for the life of the vehicle, and not with the intention that they be taken back and crushed after a fraction of that time. Appropriately enough, General Motors designated Saturn to market the EV1 nine years ago; I now urge you to follow through on Saturn’s motto, and put “people first.”

I would like to purchase one of the remaining Gen II NiMH EV1s for the residual value of $24,761.60 that General Motors assigned to a NiMH battery-equipped vehicle, in the original GMAC lease. In association with this offer, I am prepared to release General Motors of all warranty, parts, and roadside service obligations, and release General Motors of all liability associated with the vehicle. I would like simply to have the opportunity to return the EV1 to its rightful place - on the road.

Respectfully,

EV1 Buyer

cc:  Mr. Bob Purcell, GMATV

      Mr. Ken Stewart, GMATV

      Ms. Jill Banaszynski, GMATV