Talk about a discontinued product: When General Motors' EV1 electric car was withdrawn from the market in 2003, the company took back all of the vehicles and crushed most of them.

GM introduced the EV1 in 1996 in response to a looming California requirement that all major carmakers doing business in that state offer zero-emission vehicles. GM's aim was to use the EV1 to test the feasibility of electric cars in a real-world setting, and to that end it leased them to a select group of consumers in California and Arizona.

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Despite waiting lists of would-be lessees and positive feedback from those driving the cars, GM canceled the EV1 program after California dropped its zero-emissions mandate.

Continued: A cola difference you could see (through)