In the United Kingdom, electric vehicles were making headlines but, sadly, for all the wrong reasons. Although the much maligned Sinclair C5 is viewed as an object of derision in its home country, it was, until recently, one of the best-selling electric vehicles of all time. What is less well-known is that the C5 was […]
Bob King, of General Electric Global Research, had built his first battery car in 1972. Working with a Volkswagen chassis, a DC motor and lead-acid batteries, he built an electric car with a real-life range of 50 miles (80km). Since his daily commute to work was just 20 miles (32km) he could make it there
In 1979, the Middle East was thrown into chaos when Islamic revolution swept the Shah of Iran from power and replaced him with the Ayatollah Khomeini. Foreign oil-workers fled for their lives and Iran was forced to suspend oil exports, prompting a second oil crisis in less than ten years. Although Saudi Arabia and other
Back on earth, the 1973 oil crisis gave governments around the world a wake-up call, none more so than in America, the country that had embraced the car more whole-heartedly than any other. An oil embargo by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in retaliation against US support for Israel during the Yom
In 1967, the Governor of California, former actor turned politician Ronald Reagan, signed an act that established the California Air Resources Board, or CARB. The board’s job was to improve the state’s air quality by protecting the public from airborne contaminants. The automobile was directly in its sights. CARB’s other mandate was to examine and
Because of its size and population density, the UK was one of the first countries in the world to appreciate the damage unfettered automobile ownership could do to a small country. These fears came to a head in 1963 with the publication of the infamous Traffic in Towns report compiled by Professor Sir Colin Buchanan
Meanwhile, in Britain something of a silent revolution was taking place. A major post-war reconstruction phase saw new towns and prefabricated housing estates springing up across the country. To serve these concrete towns and housing developments, fleets of mobile shops and delivery vans were required. The Trojan Electrojan was a small battery-powered commercial van designed
According to the old joke, a customer walked into a Trabant dealer and asked if he could order a car with a two-tone paint job. ‘Well, why not also have a Blaupunkt radio and stereo tape player, or wait a little longer’, the saleman replied, ‘and you can have it with air-conditioning and antilock brakes,
Today’s Bentleys are some of the most lavish cars available, with a decades-long reputation as the pinnacle of the British motor car. The company’s founder, Walter Owen Bentley (known as “W.O.”), was an engineer who was concerned about engine performance and reliability when he began his own company in London in 1919. Born in 1888,
The Kilowatt project wasn’t the end of electric vehicles for Victor Wouk. He continued his research and came to the conclusion that batteries as a power source were not practical. Instead, he advocated a hybrid – electric motor and internal combustion engine – as the answer to America’s pressing pollution problems. Wouk’s chance came in