this period was during the development of hybrid and electric vehicles by several automotive manufacturers trying to comply with california's zero-emission vehicle (zev) program, which required 2% of new vehicles sold or leased in the state to be zevs by the 1998 model year, and 10% by the 2003 model year. nimh batteries were used in small production runs of evs from toyota, honda, daimlerchrysler, and ford in 1997, and gm in 1999. in 1996, california pushed back its zev compliance requirement from 1998 to 2003, and required the sale of just 3,750 zevs between 1998 and 2001.