The Humvee link, explained
The title pairs a military truck with a startup carmaker, and the connection is looser than it sounds. The Humvee (HMMWV) was developed for the U.S. military in the 1980s by AM General. A civilian version, the Hummer H1, went on sale in the early 1990s, and General Motors acquired the Hummer brand rights in 1999. The brand became a symbol of large, fuel-hungry vehicles. Decades later GM used the name again for an electric pickup truck and SUV, the Hummer EV, which began deliveries around 2021. Military researchers have also tested hybrid-electric versions of utility vehicles. So the Humvee belongs to the revival mainly as a contrast and as a brand that later turned electric, not as an early ancestor of the electric car.
Setting the stage in the 1990s
The modern revival started with policy and with a few demonstration vehicles. In 1990 General Motors showed a concept called the Impact, and the same year California’s air regulators adopted rules requiring carmakers to offer a share of zero-emission vehicles. Across the industry, companies began producing small numbers of electric cars. GM’s EV1 was launched in 1996 and made available by lease in parts of California and Arizona; a little over a thousand were built. Toyota, Honda and Ford also offered electric versions of existing models, such as the RAV4 EV, in limited numbers.
The programs were short-lived. Costs were high, batteries limited range, and the rules were later softened. Most leased vehicles were withdrawn and many were scrapped, a decision that drew criticism and was the subject of a 2006 documentary. The cars showed what was possible but not that a market existed.
Conversions and small companies
Alongside the carmakers, smaller groups worked on electric conversions, in which a conventional car was fitted with a battery and motor. Hobbyists did this for decades. A few companies, including AC Propulsion, built higher-performance electric prototypes in the early 2000s using lithium-ion cells. Accounts of how much this work influenced later startups vary, so it is safest to say it demonstrated that such a car was feasible.
Hybrids pave the way
In 1997 Toyota launched the Prius in Japan, and the car was sold abroad from 2000. By combining a gasoline engine with an electric motor and a battery, it let ordinary drivers use electric drive without changing how they fueled. Hybrids made batteries, power electronics and regenerative braking familiar and gave manufacturers experience building them at scale.
Startups arrive
Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, and Elon Musk joined as an early investor and chairman the following year. Its first product, the Roadster, began deliveries in 2008. It used thousands of small lithium-ion cells and a body based on a Lotus sports car. It sold in small numbers at a high price, but it showed that an electric car could be fast and desirable. The Model S followed in 2012 as a larger sedan with a longer range, and the Model 3 began deliveries in 2017 at a lower price point.
Tesla was not alone. Other startups tried, with mixed results, including Fisker, which built a plug-in hybrid called the Karma and later faced financial difficulty. Later arrivals included Rivian, whose first pickup truck began deliveries in 2021, and Lucid. In China, companies such as BYD and NIO grew quickly in the 2010s and 2020s.
Established makers return
Nissan launched the Leaf in late 2010, and it became one of the first mass-produced electric cars from a major carmaker sold worldwide. Chevrolet introduced the Volt, a plug-in hybrid, the same year. Over the following decade nearly every major manufacturer announced electric models, and many of them began building dedicated electric platforms rather than adapting gasoline designs. Factories had to change: battery packs are large and heavy, and the assembly line production methods developed for gasoline cars needed new steps and new suppliers.
What changed
Compared with the 1990s, the main differences were lithium-ion batteries, lower battery costs and a mix of government incentives and emissions rules. Cars also gained software that managed charging, navigation and updates. Automation enters the story as well, with industrial robots in battery and car plants and, separately, research on self-driving cars that some electric makers pursue.
Evaluating the winners and losers of this period is difficult because it is recent and companies’ fortunes change quickly. What the record does show is that the revival came from several directions at once: regulators, big manufacturers, hybrid pioneers and a handful of risk-taking startups. The Humvee simply marks the other end of the spectrum, a reminder of how far the average vehicle on the road has been moving toward electricity.