http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2013/2/4/Horrible-Small-Cars-Vanguard-CitiCar-7712801/
[images] Horrible Small Cars: Vanguard CitiCar
by Jacob Joseph Feb 04 2013
[images
http://cdn.carbuzz.com/images2/240000/6000/0/246030.jpg
Vanguard CitiCar
http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2013/2/4/Horrible-Small-Cars-Vanguard-CitiCar-7712801/pictures/
Photo Gallery - Horrible Small Cars: Vanguard CitiCar
]
The old Vanguard CitiCar was nothing more than a wedge-shaped golf cart
that
people were expected to embrace due to the oil crisis. Their self-resepct
told them otherwise.
Did you know there was an American-made electric car which sold thousands
of
units some 22 years before GM built the EV-1? The reason you might not is
because vehicles which so obviously fail all on their own can't have
elaborate conspiracy theories built around them, but the CitiCar really
did
happen. It was actually a pretty logical response to the energy crisis,
but
it could only barely be considered a car at all. Electric cars aren't so
new
as popular opinion might have you believe. In fact, they weren't even new
when the CitiCar was built.
A prototype electric car was built as far back as 1828, with the
invention
of rechargeable batteries in 1856 making the idea much more viable. The
first proper four-wheeled electric car was built in 1888 in Germany, and
the
first four-wheeled vehicle to break the 100 km/h (62mph) barrier was an
electric car in 1899. Interest would continue to pick up, and the first
order for commercially-produced electric cars came in 1897, when a whole
fleet of electric taxis for New York City were ordered from the Electric
Carriage and Wagon Company. Detroit Electric would build electric cars
for
the general public well into the Thirties.
The Hartford Electric Light Company would even come up with a battery
swapping system. EV battery swapping has come back, and is currently
failing
in the form of Better Place, a company which is simply hemorrhaging
money.
But in those early days, without environmental concerns or fuel shortages
to
buoy sales, the electric car would lose out to gasoline, disappearing for
several decades. The energy crisis in the Seventies would lead some
people
if maybe there was a better way to get around. So a small company in
Sebring, Florida known as Sebring-Vanguard would build a (very) small EV
for
commuters in 1974.
The car wasn't really meant to replace your regular car, but rather to
serve
as a commuter vehicle, allowing you to save your regular car, and the
fuel
in its tank, for more important functions. The wedge-shaped vehicle was
rather unapologetically inspired by the golf cart, being little more than
an
enclosed version of the vehicle. Early models had 6 6v lead-acid
batteries
connected to a motor which produced 3.5 horsepower. You might think that
such a small car would be light enough that the 3.5 horsepower might not
be
so terrible, but as with an EV, the heavy batteries hindered performance.
The car would end up weighing 1,300lbs, and that mean the 9-horsepower
and
1,200lb Citroen 2CV was a veritable drag car by comparison. Top speed in
these cars was 25mph, and it is frankly impressive that they sold a
single
unit. Later models would use eight batteries and bump horsepower up to 6.
The top speed was therefore increased to 45mph, which is more or less
enough
for most in-city non-highway driving. The range was about 40 miles, and
the
car could be fully charged from a 110v socket in about 8 hours. The
CitiCar
was built only until 1977, its short life being attributed to the fact
that
the energy crisis wasn't really so bad as to make people actually want to
drive such a thing.
But it would nonetheless be reborn in 1979, when the car's plans were
bought
by a company called Commuter Vehicles, with the name being changed to the
Comuta-Car. This would also be joined by the Comuta-Van, a larger vehicle
based on the original, with a bigger van-ish body, more battery power and
a
12 horsepower motor. This venture would last only until 1982, but the
total
sales for Vanguard/Commuter electric vehicles would reach a total of
about
4,400 units. The car was never going to sell in terribly big numbers, but
it
did have a pretty good run for something so amazingly primitive.
Yet you still hardly ever hear about it from EV proponents, although it's
not difficult to see why. It was a glorified golf cart which must have
been
absolutely miserable to drive in actual traffic. What's more, its mere
existence counters the story the electric car was being "killed" by big
oil.
It wasn't, it just sucked.
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