Ambitious Battery Electric Vehicles Ahead Of Their Time

One of the biggest emerging markets for electronic raw materials is electric vehicles, and there is a profound need for a complete supply chain to supply manufacturers with affordable batteries with high enough capacities to power daily drivers.

With increasing research, focus and investment in EV battery technology as the vehicles surge in sales, it is important to look at the almost-forgotten history that led to this point.

Before the Toyota Prius hybrid car in the late 1990s and the original Nissan Leaf in 2009, there were many ambitious EVs that were almost too ahead of their time, attempting to design around early limitations in battery technology with a wide range of results.

Here are some of the most ambitious.

Venturi Fétish 

The concept of the electric sports car is often credited to the Tesla Roadster, but four years before it was completed, the Monaco-based car manufacturer Venturi redesigned a petrol-powered concept car they had been designing to use a 180kW electric motor with a 54kWh battery.

Not only did this give the Fétish a range of over 200 miles albeit restricted to a top speed of 106 mph (later increased to 124 mph), it also made history as the first-ever electric sports car, making a small but noticeable impact to the perception of EVs that would become more critical the decade after its creation.

Sinclair C5

A capable short-distance vehicle whose reputation was arguably destroyed by ambition, the Sinclair C5 in 1985 was designed to revolutionise portable mobility but a mix of unfortunate technical issues during its launch, supply chain problems and the compromises that came with exploiting a loophole all contributed to its downfall.

Arguably the most ambitious of the late Sir Clive Sinclair’s inventions, the C5 was a personal mobility vehicle that was decades ahead of its time in some respects, but very much limited to the capabilities of mid-1980s battery technology.

With a limited top speed of 15 mph, a range of just over 18 miles and the ability to be driven by anyone without a helmet, the open-top C5 was criticised for being unsuited to the British climate at best and declared a death trap at worst.

It sold terribly and created a stigma in the UK surrounding electric cars that would last over a decade, although when similar microcars such as the Reva G-Wiz became popular, it was reappraised as being ahead of its time.

Enfield 8000

One of the first production EVs during a wave of interest in the wake of the 1970s oil crisis, the Enfield 8000, designed on the Isle of Wight, was amongst the first battery electric cars to display some potential as a short-distance city car.

Having been developed since the 1960s, it was early enough to avoid the rush to market that vehicles such as the Electrovette, the Zagato Zele and the Citicar attempted, all of which tried and failed to rethink commuter transport during a time when necessity drove invention most.

The Enfield had a top speed of 48 mph and a range of 40 miles thanks to a pair of lead-acid batteries, and might have had potential as a commuter car had Enfield’s owner Giannis Gouldandris not made the unusual decision to move production to Syros, an island near Greece where the car could not be sold.

This meant that the car was designed on the Isle of Wight, constructed in Greece and shipped back to the UK, increasing the price, hurting production and ultimately leading to the car being discontinued.

Despite this, it proved that a production electric car could be made and after just three years the Enfield was discontinued. 

Honda EV Plus

Remarkably, over a century of electric vehicle development involved the use of the same lead-acid battery technology that had been developed in the 19th century. The Enfield, the Sinclair C5 and even the first generation General Motors EV1 all used lead-acid batteries.

This would only change in 1997 with the limited release of the Honda EV Plus, which used Nickel Metal-Hydride (NiMH) batteries instead, which provided a greater power capacity by weight, making the concept of a full-sized EV far more viable.

Ultimately, whilst it was the battery power of the present and would ultimately be used for hybrid vehicles such as the Insight and the Toyota Prius, ultimately the following year’s Nissan Altra and its lithium-ion batteries would have a much further reaching impact.

Whilst described as failures by the companies who made them, the EV1, Altra EV and EV Plus were all vital vehicles that paved the way for the battery-powered motoring future.