The Enfield Thunderbolt: An electric car before its time(bbc.co.uk)
bbc.co.uk
The Enfield Thunderbolt: An electric car before its time
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25117784
7 comments
Once upon a time there was more electric vehicles in New York than petrol powered ones, it seems like every couple of decades people really have a crack at the issue of an electric car: http://jalopnik.com/5870808/how-a-new-york-taxi-company-kill...
The problems with electric cars have always been the same: volumetric power density, battery longevity, battery cost, charge time.
Today most of these issues are largely resolved and close to being non-issues. The next generation battery technology is likely to place electric storage ahead of gasoline in terms of power per unit volume.
The next challenge to electric vehicles is safety. Before electrics can reach penetrations in the range of millions of units in major markets they'll have to prove they are safe in such concentrations.
Today most of these issues are largely resolved and close to being non-issues. The next generation battery technology is likely to place electric storage ahead of gasoline in terms of power per unit volume.
The next challenge to electric vehicles is safety. Before electrics can reach penetrations in the range of millions of units in major markets they'll have to prove they are safe in such concentrations.
Imagine how much further forward EV tech would be if this had actually been mass produced back in the 70s.
Electric cars with lead-acid batteries date back almost to the beginning of automobiles. This is nothing really remarkable. Electrics in fact were quite competitive with internal combustion engine cars in the late 1800s/early 1900s because internal combustion engines and the transmissions/gearboxes they required were noisy and not very reliable or easy to use.
Many of the "modern" ideas about electric cars, including exchangeable batteries as an alternative to recharging, were available before 1920.
That all changed as internal combustion engines improved, and the convenience of longer range and ease of refueling won out.
Ultimately, the Thunderbolt had the same problems that electric cars have always had: Along with the modest range, the main deterrent was really the price," says enthusiast Peter Williams. "It was being offered at £2,600. Back then, for that sort of money, you could buy two Minis.
So: Expensive, and not very practical. Not much has changed.
Many of the "modern" ideas about electric cars, including exchangeable batteries as an alternative to recharging, were available before 1920.
That all changed as internal combustion engines improved, and the convenience of longer range and ease of refueling won out.
Ultimately, the Thunderbolt had the same problems that electric cars have always had: Along with the modest range, the main deterrent was really the price," says enthusiast Peter Williams. "It was being offered at £2,600. Back then, for that sort of money, you could buy two Minis.
So: Expensive, and not very practical. Not much has changed.
This is almost exactly what I thought - and just say me that EVs are not possible/practical, this was made in 70s, now think about the things that are possible now that was not even possible then for car producers.
Electric cars were always unpopular with big auto manufacturers and the oils producers and that probably never allowed them to grow up alongside their smell cousins. Just looking at this little car imagine where we would be if it had started a real push in the 1970s.
I doubt Big Oil had to work too hard to kill this car, given it was more than twice the price of a Mini, and had poor range compared to an ICE motor.