SOLVED: WTH # 618 - 1998 General Motors EV1 CNG

[sixtee5cuda]

I will award one point to the person who provides year, make, and model of this unicorn:

[sixtee5cuda]

Up!

Once you put the pieces together, this could be an easy one.  Experts?

[thorax]

Japanese?

[sixtee5cuda]

The engine shown is from Japan.  The company that built this car is located in North America.

[SolanaBogon]

GM EV1?

[sixtee5cuda]

LOCKED for SolanaBogon

This car is absolutely a variation of the GM EV1.  Please provide more information about the model name of this EV1 specimen.

[SolanaBogon]

Converted to hybrid?

[sixtee5cuda]

This car is not a hybrid, although there were hybrid EV1 prototypes.

[sixtee5cuda]

Are you there SolanaBogon?  The puzzle is almost solved.

[SolanaBogon]

Yeah but you can unlock it if it's still locked.
With a quick search i haven't been able to identify it, and sadly I'm currently a bit too busy to do more deep research...

[sixtee5cuda]

UNLOCKED

Has another Expert found the solution?

[Johno]

A EV1 CNG, with CNG standing for compressed natural gas. The base unit is a Suzuki G10T 1.0 litre engine.

[sixtee5cuda]

And the point goes to Johno for the correct answer. 

Because there is so little information online about this specific car, Wikipedia used to indicate this was based on the extended, 4-seat chassis of the hybrid EV1 prototypes.  As this rare photo shows, the EV1 CNG is a 2-seater based on the standard EV1.