The Saab EV-1, or Saab 900 Turbo EV-1, was developed by

Saab Saab or SAAB may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Saab AB, a Swedish aircraft, aerospace and defence company, still known as SAAB, and together with subsidiaries as Saab Group ** Datasaab, a former computer company, started as spin off from Saab ...

in 1985 as a fully functional and roadworthy future

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle or show vehicle) is a car made to showcase new styling or new technology. Concept cars are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not ...

, EV-1 stands for ´Experimental Vehicle One´. It was a wedge shaped 2 + 2

sports coupé A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and typically with two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the Fr ...

body style Governments and private organizations have developed car classification schemes that are used for various purposes including regulation, description, and categorization of cars. The International Standard ISO 3833-1977 ''Road vehicles – Type ...

based on the

Saab 900 The Saab 900 is a mid-sized automobile produced by Swedish manufacturer Saab from 1978 until 1998 in two generations: the first from 1978 to 1994, and the second from 1994 to 1998. The first-generation car was based on the Saab 99 chassis, ...

Turbo 16v. The body was steel and the roof all glass. The design was made by

Björn Envall Björn Erik Anders Envall (born 1942), is a Swedish retired automobile designer. He was head of the design department at Saab. He started his career in the 1960s at Saab as an apprentice under Sixten Sason, especially helping with the design of t ...

, and the metal work was done by Leif Mellberg included features such as a

solar power Solar power, also known as solar electricity, is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Solar panels use the photovoltaic effect to c ...

ed interior cooling fan, with 66

solar cell A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.

s mounted in the glass roof. This device cooled the car when parked in sunlight. The front and rear bumpers ( fenders) were designed to absorb impacts and revert to their original shape. They were made of

Aramid Aramid fibers, short for aromatic polyamide, are a class of heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibers. They are used in aerospace and military applications, for ballistic-rated bulletproof vest, body armor cloth, fabric and ballistic composites ...

fibre (

Twaron Twaron (a brand name of Teijin Aramid) is a para-aramid, high-performance yarn. It is a heat-resistant fibre, helps in ballistic protection and cut protection. Twaron was developed in the early 1970s by the Dutch company Akzo Nobel's division E ...

Kevlar Kevlar (para-aramid) is a strong, heat-resistant synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont in 1965, the high-strength material was first used commercially in the early 1970s as ...

) reinforced composites. The side doors featured

carbon-fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

side impact protection. Most of the parts were from the Saab 900 Turbo 16 and modified, but the seats came from a

Chevrolet Corvette The Chevrolet Corvette is a line of American two-door, two-seater sports cars manufactured and marketed by General Motors under the Chevrolet marque since 1953. Throughout eight generations, indicated sequentially as C1 to C8, the Corvette is not ...

. The

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...

was tuned to give 285 hp (213 kW). The top speed was and 0 to acceleration took 6.9 seconds. The speedometer lights only illuminate the area around the current speed; a modified version of this feature has been incorporated as standard on later production Saab models. The

windshield The windshield (American English and Canadian English) or windscreen (Commonwealth English) of an aircraft, car, bus, motorbike, truck, train, boat or streetcar is the front window, which provides visibility while protecting occupants from t ...

is wrap around and very deep and steeply inclined for the era, while the A-pillar has a much more vertical angle, providing excellent driver visibility. The EV-1 can be seen in the background of ''

Back to the Future Part II ''Back to the Future Part II'' is a 1989 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay by Bob Gale; both wrote the story. It is a sequel to the 1985 film ''Back to the Future'' and the second installment in the Back ...

''.

External links

EV-1
in "''The Saab Museum''"

in "''Back to the future II''".
EV-1
in "''Road & Track article 1985''". * mellbergscustom.com''". EV-1 Front-wheel-drive vehicles {{Saab Automobile