As Volvo announces an electric future, MARION MCMULLEN recalls some early attempts to ditch diesel and petrol cars
THE future of road travel is rapidly changing and car giant Volvo has announced all of its new cars will have an electric motor. The Swedish manufacturer says it will only be selling pure electric cars or hybrids combining electric and conventional engines by 2019 and aims to have a million electrified cars on the road by 2025.
France last week also pledged to ban sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2040.
There have been numerous attempts over the decades to find the perfect electric car.
The 1912 Baker Motor Van was fitted with solar panels to the roof and the car was steered by a driver from a rear seat using a tiller. It had no clutch, no gears and no petrol to run short of.
An early drawback was that the cell needed eight hours of continuous sunshine to charge the car batteries... not something you can always rely on with the British weather.
Traffic wardens in Blackpool were unsure whether to issue tickets or not when small electric cars appeared at the seaside resort in 1969 as part of a test-drive experiment.
Motor-loving Lord Montagu of Beaulieu was presented with an electric delivery van by the directors of Harrods in 1970 and the E Registration Enfield 8000 in 1973 was the first electric car to go into production since the Second World War.
Geoffrey Rippon, Minister of the Environment, took delivery of a new electric-powered Mini the same year and his first official trip in the chauffeur-driven Mini Traveller was to Downing Street to see Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. She apparently arrived in a large limousine and paused for a moment when she saw the Mini arriving at Number 10.
John de Grunchy produced one of the first hybrid cars back in 1974. He claimed his car gave upwards of 150 miles to the gallon by combining petrol and battery power. His prototype, called Petelec, was based on a Fiat 500 car and used four heavy duty 12-volt car batteries in conjunction with a three-horse power garden rotovator engine.
Electric car trials in England in 1979 attracted motors of all shapes and sizes. Cliff Peskett, of Carshalton College Further Education Mechanical Electronic Department, and his co-inventor John Bater, from Brighton, entered the contest with their cone-pointed electronically powered vehicle. The Lucas Electrathon race was held at Donington Park, but Cliff and John