Electric Rebirth

Electric cars are quiet, relatively un-polluting, and in theory can be as much as $500 a year cheaper to operate than conventional gasoline-burners. They also are generally heavier, slower and, most important, can run only 50 miles or so before they must be recharged. So far, those drawbacks have been fatal to the development of any large market. Since the early 1900s, the electric vehicle has been limited to such specialty uses as the beetle-like golf carts that purr around the nation's fairways. Now that recent gasoline shortages have forced Americans to take a second look at their cars, at least four companies are gearing up for another try at developing a broader market. Before the year is out they will start manufacturing the first over-the-road electric cars produced in the U.S. in decades.

Sebring-Vanguard, Inc., of Sebring, Fla., hopes to be first out. It has beefed up a four-wheel golf-cart chassis, bolted on a snub-nosed auto body, and named the resulting vehicle CitiCar. Four prototypes are presently scooting around at speeds of up to 30 m.p.h. over distances of 50 miles before needing a seven-hour recharge from household current. The car seats two people and consumes a little more than 1 kw-h per mile (cost: about 2 1/2-c- at current utility rates in Florida). Twenty-five hundred CitiCars are expected to come off the assembly line by year's end from a plant smaller than a football field. The suggested retail price will be a competitive $2,086. Eager customers have already plunked down $20,000 in orders for the cars. Electromotion, of Bedford, Mass., has already produced 50 electric cars that can be purchased for between $4,000 and $8,500 and will maintain a 40-m.p.h. speed for about 45 miles.

Taking a different tack, Electric Fuel Propulsion, Inc., of Ferndale, Mich., has designed the Thunderbolt, which uses a more powerful and longer lasting battery system than other electrics, enabling it to travel almost twice as far between recharges at speeds of up to 70 m.p.h. Complete recharging takes about 90 minutes (special equipment and electric lines are necessary) and costs approximately 1-c- per mile. Most important, the Thunderbolt uses the body and other parts of standard-production Detroit automobiles, mounted on top of a special heavy-duty chassis. Main drawback: the price is a Cadillac-like $7,500.

EVI, Inc., of Sterling, Mich., is taking another approach to the electric vehicle market. Aiming at retirement communities, for which it already produces a bicycle-type two-passenger pedal car, EVI plans to manufacture an electric version starting next fall. The Electric Powered Vehicle will be three-wheeled, travel at 25 m.p.h. for up to 45 miles between recharges, and cost under $1,200.

Whether these four small companies' efforts to produce an over-the-road electric car will succeed remains to be seen. In any case, their attempts will be closely watched. A host of large companies, including Otis Elevator, Westinghouse, several electric utilities and the big automakers, are waiting in the wings, ready to produce their own electric cars when--and if--a smaller pioneer proves that the market is there.

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