Before Tesla... 1960s/70s Electric Cars (EVs Part 1)

(music) You may not believe it, but the '60s and '70s were a hotbed of innovation in

electric

car design. Environmental and political events collided, causing people to question our reliance on the internal combustion engine and think about alternatives. So why was so much effort put into

electric

cars

when so few people bought them, and how close did we come to perfecting hybrid and EV technology? Let's find out! (music) There have been electric

cars

almost as long as cars have existed. They didn't need the arm-breaking starter handle, and were a quiet, enjoyable way to get from A to B.

They were soon surpassing the internal combustion engine, breaking the land speed record in 1898 and becoming the first automobile. . at a devastating speed of 60 mph! But the low price of gasoline and the additional range sent the electric car to the scrapyard. First up is the Henney Kilowatt, launched back in 1959. Although it was an American car, it used many body

part

s from the very French Renault Dauphine. The project was funded by the National Union Electric Company, which also produced Exide batteries and was interested in finding new ways to use them. With adjustments, the 1960 model had a top speed of around 60 mph and a range of more than 60 miles.

Although 100 cars were built or semi-built, only 47 were sold, many of them to electrical service companies. One of the first electric cars of the modern era came from an unexpected place: Detroit in 1966. But the rationale for the Electrovair II wasn't to save money on gasoline, not when it seemed cheaper than water in the US in the

1960s

. This was to help with air pollution, which was becoming a hot topic,

part

icularly in Los Angeles. Clean air legislation provided funding for auto companies to invest in electric vehicle technology, and big auto companies were happy to use it. The Electrovair II would use the Corvair as a starting point.

It was GM's lightest vehicle and the rear-mounted engine could be easily removed and swapped for an engine to drive the rear wheels. Best of all, GM had a bunch of them on hand after Ralph Nader killed sales by exposing the car as essentially a death trap. The Electrovair II was strictly a concept, based, as you may have guessed, on the Electrovair I. It would use silver-zinc batteries, a byproduct of military spending. They were three times lighter than lead-acid batteries and much smaller. But even with those lightweight batteries, it was still heavier than the gasoline-powered Corvair, and those special silver-zinc batteries were expensive and only lasted 100 charges.

Acceleration was similar to that of its gasoline-powered brother. It would go 80 mph and have a range of 80 miles if driven carefully and would take 6 hours to recharge. But those batteries still took up a lot of space: they completely took up the front trunk and left no room for luggage! But GM was not naive. They realized that this was not something that could be brought to production and that they had to wait for better battery technology. With a drop in aircraft orders, the Scottish Aviation company launched its version of the electric car in 1966 as the "Scamp". With the Government concerned that rapid growth in car ownership would lead to congestion and pollution, and with the backing of the Electricity Board, they created a small microcar with a fiberglass body and 4 48V batteries.

But their test Roadworthiness was a disaster with a delicate suspension that would collapse at any moment, and a boot door that opened during the test and the spare wheel fell off! Barely discouraged, they got none other than Stirling Moss to prove it, but with a top speed of 36 mph and a range of 18 miles and a high projected purchase cost, it wasn't going to attract any attention. AMC was also thinking about reducing air pollution with its Amitron in 1967. They also realized that lead-acid batteries were too heavy, so their concept would use nickel-cadmium and lithium batteries, raising the weight of 907 kg with lead-acid batteries at only 91 kg.

Ni-Cad batteries would be used for acceleration, and lithium batteries would be used for sustained speeds. And the Amitron was one of the first cars to have regenerative braking. The combination of innovative batteries and regenerative braking gave the Amitron a 150-mile range that remains impressive today. AMC wanted to put the car into production, but the expense of cutting-edge batteries made it impossible. Ford UK, which looks like a small Nissan Cube, produced the tiny Comuta prototype. Half the length of the Ford Cortina, it was still possible to shoehorn four people inside. It had a range of 60 kilometers and a speed of 40 km/h, but like all cars with lead-acid batteries, it suffered terrible acceleration.

But in 1967 there was interest from all the car companies, and BMC commissioned the Mini's creator, Alec Issigonis, to come up with an electric car of its own. That same year, the UK Electric Vehicle Association published a press release. They were proud to announce that the UK had more electric vehicles on its roads than any other country. What they didn't make clear is that most of them were like that. The humble electric milk float has been around at least since the 1930s, and by the 1950s it had completely replaced horse-drawn milk floats. Electric vehicles were suitable for milk delivery.

Most routes were fairly short, allowing for cheap lead-acid batteries to be used and could be recharged daily at the base. They were quiet and useful at a time when people did not expect the noise of the engine first thing in the morning. A high top speed isn't important when you're carrying delicate milk bottles, but that didn't stop a Weetabix-sponsored milk float from setting a world speed record of 84 mph. Milk floats are becoming rarer as more people get their milk in supermarkets. Ironically, at a time when more and more electric cars are hitting the roads, the remaining milk floats are switching to petrol or diesel to speed up deliveries.

General Motors launched their new electric vision in 1969. They wanted to show the capabilities of their research team to create cars that ran on electricity, steam, or even nuclear energy. But it was these four prototypes, created a few years earlier, that grabbed the headlines. The yellow car used a small gasoline engine, as did the silver Sinclair C5-type low-slung three-wheeler, somehow billed as a commuter car! But the red and blue cars were more interesting. The red car was fully electric and had a range of 58 miles. The blue car was a hybrid that used a gasoline engine and electric power.

It would power the car to 10 mph on electricity, switching to use the gasoline engine at higher speeds. But like a modern hybrid, it would charge the batteries while the gasoline engine was running or idling. GM would recycle it as the larger XP-883 concept car around the same time. These cars were not intended to travel on normal roads. At a time when most American cars were the size and shape of a football field, these little cars would have been a death trap. GM imagined they would drive on their own specially created roads. As an idea, that is something impossible.

GM was testing the waters with new markets and seeing the rise in popularity of electric golf carts that would not only be used on the golf course, but also in the neighborhoods built near them. Golf carts had been around since the 1930s for disabled golfers, but had been gaining popularity among lazy golfers since the 1950s. They have been modified to become general-purpose Neighborhood Electric Vehicles and are today used in places such as airports. to transport people with walking difficulties, or by the police to move in urban areas. Also thinking about air pollution in North America, BMW created the 1602 E concept.

It had a range of 60 kilometers, a top speed of 100 km/h and used an early form of regenerative braking. When Munich held the Olympic Games in 1972, BMW publicly displayed the car and used it to support long-distance races such as the marathon. Probably the most famous electric car of the 70s is not what you imagine when you think of an electric car. In 1971, NASA launched a Saturn V to the moon, and neatly folded into the lunar lander was the all-electric LRV, or lunar roving vehicle. Two more were sent to the moon, where they covered an impressive 56 miles.

Power came from 2x 36V silver zinc potassium hydroxide batteries. Needless to say, they were not rechargeable! Each rover had a theoretical range of 57 miles in low lunar gravity. In the

1960s

, the focus was on using electricity to reduce air pollution, but with the oil crisis of 1973, electric cars were presented as a way to reduce our dependence on oil. Middle Eastern oil nations stopped exporting to many Western countries because of their alleged support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Within a few months, this quadrupled the price of gasoline and there were times when you couldn't even get it.

Enfield Automotive had tested the waters in 1969 with the Enfield 465 prototype, but they must have thought the timing was perfect when they launched the Enfield 8000 in 1973. The little car had a range of 55 miles (if going downhill!) and a top speed 48 mph! But it was tiny! With a wheelbase 8” shorter than a Mini, it looked like a Reliant Kitten that had been in the dryer too long. But that small size would make it a perfect city car. It was built on the Greek island of Syros, since its sponsor was a Greek millionaire. There were high hopes that this was the start of something big, and a Jeep style was produced for the car rental market on the Greek islands.

They hoped that the Electric Board charging subsidies would make it cheaper to operate, but since it cost the same price as a 3-liter Ford Capri and double the price of a Mini, only 120 were manufactured between 1973 and 1976. But one of those 120 was converted into something truly special. Jonny Smith discarded the old lead batteries and replaced them with modern technology to make it the fastest four-wheeled electric car. With an estimated top speed of 140 mph, it could hit 60 mph in less than 3 seconds! Italian coachbuilders Zagato had their own version of an electric car in 1974. They were famous for the Alfa Romeo Guilietta TZ and the Junior Z.

So, with their knowledge of designing elegant Italian cars, they designed this boxy thing. It's such a simple shape that it looked like someone designed it using Lego! The Zele ran on old lead acid batteries, giving it a range of 50 miles. The Zele had a spartan interior with a complicated 4-position gear selector and a 2-position pedal that could be used to select six forward and two reverse speeds. The Zele 2000 was equipped with a larger 2000 W motor that featured a boost switch that, once reached top speed, weakens the motor's magnetic fields in the field coils to produce less torque but a higher top speed. …30mph.

Despite selling it in the US as the Zagato Elcar, only 500 units were made and production ended in 1976. That same year, something of a car-sharing revolution was taking place in the Netherlands. Some Amsterdam residents wanted to reduce traffic, so they came up with the idea of ​​a car-sharing scheme, years before ZipCar. They called their project “Witcar” or “Whitecar” in English and used a fleet of 35 white and orange cars. The entire system was controlled by a PDP-11 minicomputer. The plan failed due to long recharging times for the cars, which meant there were few available when needed, and the cars were rarely where I wanted them as traffic tended to flow in the same direction, a problem that They have Boris bikes from London, which require large vans to get around. bikes during the day.

Back in the United States and hoping to profit from the oil crisis was CitiCar. Launched in 1974, it featured a simple triangular shape generously referred to as a coupe (or coupe, if you prefer). With a top speed of 60 km/h and a range of 64 km, the CitiCar was certainly limited to city use. The company was sold in 1977 and the car was renamed Comuta-Car until 1982. It was produced in Sebring, Florida and 4,444 cars were sold. Later in his life,Comically large bumpers were added to comply with US safety laws, although it is unlikely that the CitiCar could cause enough damage to other cars or pedestrians to justify its inclusion.

The Comuta-Van was also introduced for the US Postal Service as a delivery van. American Motors' version of the electric vehicle was the 1974 Electruck, based on the Jeep DJ. It used 2 27V lead-acid batteries and had a top speed of 33 mph with a range of 29 miles. 352 were also sold to the US Postal Service as delivery vans as a way to help reduce the city's pollution. As the fever of the oil crisis gripped the world, the desire for independence from the wills of the Middle Eastern countries and oil prices were expected to rise ever higher, the large American automobile companies produced new concepts to test the water with clients.

First out was GM with its third electric vehicle concept in 10 years, the Electrovette. GM removed the engine from a Chevrolet Chevette and installed old lead-acid batteries. Top speed was 55 mph with a range of 50 miles. GM had hopes of putting it into production in the '80s, and by the '90s 10% of cars would be electric. AMC tried again with the 1977 Electron. If you thought it was the same as the 1967 Amitron, you'd be right, although AMC hadn't spent the last 10 years idly. The updated Electron had side mirrors and a new exterior color! Because nothing says the '70s better than orange paint!

But Ni-Cad and lithium batteries had not gotten cheaper and worked as well as Amitron's original concept. In the late 1970s, Garrett, the turbocharger company, received sponsorship from the newly created Department of Energy to produce an experimental car. It used a normal series of lead-acid batteries, but used a novel flywheel concept to store energy during braking, a concept later championed and produced by the Williams Formula 1 team for applications such as London buses. But those lead acid batteries would still need to be replaced after just a few years. At Chrysler, again with the help of the Department of Energy, they were launching the remarkably similar looking ETV-1, with the help of General Electric.

It would feature regenerative braking, a top speed of 65 mph, and a range of 100 miles. It would also use a novel T-shaped battery that would be easily replaceable, the same concept tested by Tesla more than 30 years later. With the heavy weight of lead-acid batteries, the acceleration of electric cars was severely hampered, and with the space they took up, the cars were simply not practical. The 80s and 90s brought more electric vehicle developments, but the key ingredients to making a successful hybrid and electric vehicle were already there in the late 70s. Regenerative braking, hybrid motors and lithium batteries.

Toyota would include them in a winning hybrid package in the late '90s, but cheaper, lighter and smaller lithium-ion batteries would be needed in the next century to make all-electric vehicles a practical alternative. It takes a lot of time and effort to make these videos. To get early access to new videos or be featured in the credits, consider supporting me using the Patreon link below from just $1 or 80p a month and hit the subscribe button to get notified about new videos. Thanks for watching and see you in the next video!