General Motors CEO Mary Barra recently acknowledged that federal fuel efficiency standards were set so aggressively under the Biden administration that her company would have been forced to scale back production of internal combustion engine vehicles just to stay compliant.

More: GM’s CEO Defended Tesla And Musk To Biden, But The Snub Happened Anyway

Barra shared this during a conversation at a high-profile industry conference hosted by The New York Times, where she discussed the internal pressures major automakers face under the current regulatory environment.

Timing matters, of course, as her comments came shortly after President Donald Trump confirmed that fuel efficiency standards are being rolled back, reducing the pressure on automakers to build EVs and providing them with more flexibility to manufacture and sell more combustion-powered models.

“Had to Start Shutting Down Plants”

Under the Biden-era rules, automakers would have been required to reach a fleet-wide fuel economy average of 50 miles per gallon by 2031. According to Bloomberg, achieving that would have meant electric vehicles making up more than half of all sales by that point.

Read: GM CEO Says EV Shift To Happen “Over Decades”

If GM couldn’t meet those benchmarks, and if the administration didn’t revise the rules to reflect market realities, Barra claims that the company would have had little choice but to curtail sales of its gasoline-powered lineup.

She added that internal forecasts indicated the company would have “had to start shutting down plants” if its EV sales didn’t grow quickly enough.

Barra also touched on several other topics with Andrew Ross Sorkin, the interviewer and the founder and editor at large of DealBook. At one point, he asked her about GM flip-flopping in supporting policies during the first Trump administration, again when Joe Biden was elected, and once more after Trump returned to the White House in January.

Bending The Knee Or Business As Usual?

Barra responded by framing GM’s approach as pragmatic, not political. The company, she said, wants to build vehicles people want to buy, and it simply has to work within the regulatory frameworks set by whoever is in office.

Also: Ford’s CEO Applauds Trump’s CAFE Rollback, Says They Were Forced Into EVs

Now, thanks to the rollback of CAFE standards, it will have the freedom to better manufacturer vehicles based on what their customers want, rather than simply what they must build to meet regulatory requirements.

How this will impact the American car industry remains to be seen, but if those rules remain in place in the future, we don’t expect to see EVs accounting for a significant share of the market any time soon.

In 1969, the automotive world was a study in contrasts. Two concept cars, each wearing the same 512 badge yet conceived on opposite sides of the globe, were redefining what “experimental” could mean.

One was the competition-inspired V12-powered Ferrari 512 S Berlinetta Speciale, a supercar wedge that pre-dated the Lamborghini Countach concept by two years and looked like it could break the sound barrier. The other was a tiny orange ball of an EV from GM that could barely break the speed limit outside a school.

Related: GM Quietly Plots A Family Of Low-Cost EVs After New Bolt

We’ve taken a look at GM’s 512 Electric Experimental before, but the automaker has really jumped on the modern EV trend since then and has a new Chevy Bolt out for 2027, so the time feels right to throw the spotlight on it again.

How Small Is Small?

Designed strictly for urban duties and part of an entire family of experimental GM microcars displayed at the Transpo ’72 trade show that used a mix of electric, petrol and hybrid engines, the 512E was every bit as tiny as it looks in these pictures.

Measuring just 86.3 inches (2,190 mm) long and 56 inches (1,420 mm) wide, it was an incredible foot (300 mm) shorter than an original Smart ForTwo and 3 inches (75 mm) narrower.

Access to its two seats was through a weird combination of a lift-up canopy that makes it look like a helmet with the visor up and side-hinged front door that reminds us of one of those grandma bathtubs for the mobility impaired.

Tiny wheels are pushed into each corner and wear fat rubber, like the kind of thing you’d see on tuned Mini in 1969.

The wraparound canopy must make for excellent visibility, though even if it had A-pillars like elephants legs you’d have plenty of time to look around them.

Slow And Steady Power

The top speed is just 30 mph and it takes 12 seconds to get there, which sounds terrible until you remember that the Citroen Ami, the modern incarnation of this very idea, is also restricted to a similar speed (28 mph / 45 kmh).

More: Secret Corvette Prototype GM Never Wanted You To See Is Going To Auction

Citroen quotes a 47-mile range, which the 512E beats by 11 miles (though certainly measured differently), but the Ami can be fully charged in four hours compared with seven hours for the GM satsuma.

Where they differ most, of course, is in the design of the batteries providing those range miles. Like all modern EVs, the Ami uses lithium ion batteries, whereas the 512E relies on old-fashioned lead-acid packs from Delco-Remy.

The fiberglass-bodied GM car is still surprisingly light at 1,250 lbs (567 kg), though the Ami is lighter still at 1,065 lbs (483 kg).

The 512E project didn’t put a tiny EV in Chevy showrooms during the 1970s or 1980s, but the fact that GM unveiled the Impact EV concept, and put it into production as the EV1 six years later, proved that it hadn’t given up on the idea of small electric cars.

Half a century later, GM is still in that game, this time with the upcoming 2027 Bolt, though one can’t help but wonder how much more fun it’d be with a flip-up canopy and a hint of that 1970s optimism.

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