It may not be the snazziest-looking electric vehicle ever made, but the now-discontinued Chevy Spark EV could pack a punch. As E&E News related in their recent piece on Palo Alto EVs [pay-walled]:

[Ben Kaupp, sales manager of Boardwalk Chevrolet in Palo Alto] owns a dozen cars and loves speed. One of the fastest he’s ever had is the Chevy Spark, a wedge-shaped little electric hatchback that, “before they figured out that they really shouldn’t give them that much power,” could out-accelerate the 600-horsepower Corvette Z06, one of the fastest production cars GM has ever made.

Pretty impressive for a car that looks like the stunted child of a Fiat and a shopping cart. But like other unfortunate-looking early EVs (the Nissan LEAF being another), the electric drive performance is superb.

Of all the EV automakers, only Tesla figured out early that the vehicles needed to be sold based on performance and technology. With just a bit more styling, a car like the Chevy Spark EV could have been a contender.