At EVents when I tell the history of EVs to the public (just like what David just did), they look at me in disbelief (they can not even imagine today's media is easily manipulated to fit the agenda of who is paying them and to purge old news. But 'thanks to Google', the past is not dead:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=w51HAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Hf8MAAAAIBAJ&pg=2923,838306&dq=electric+swatch&hl=en Mar 6, 1994 ... Mercedes-Benz, Swatch to build small, electric car http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BN&p_theme=bn&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAF97B281720C25&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM MERCEDES TO BUILD 'SWATCHMOBILE' ... March 5, 1994 http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=WT&p_theme=wt&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB0F1535B51A7C7&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM May 26, 1995 ... Mercedes, Swatch get SMART ... the new car they plan to build together is to be known as the SMART car, not the Swatchmobile ... The Automaker's management got cold feet and did not make the EV available to the public (there may have been some Automaker to Automaker pressure not to because NiMH were controlled by GM/Chevron). A couple of years later after a lot of hybrid PR, they released a Europe-only ice version that at first was laughed at by the European media, but that stopped when Smart drivers attacked the media for being idiots 'This is a great car!'. http://www.economist.com/node/346112 Jul 29th 1999 ... One of the challengers on view is the Smart Car, by Daimler-Benz out of Swatch. This cross-bred machine, about half the size of an ordinary parking space, has sides that can be removed and replaced with panels of the owner's choice—the automotive watchband. Far-fetched? The manufacturers report with glee that some 50,000 consumers are driving them in Europe. ... The General Motors EV1 electric car looks like a sports car but makes far less noise—and it can cover about 140 miles (225km) per electric charge in the United States. {brucedp.150m.com} - On Tue, Feb 12, 2013, at 01:09 AM, EVDL Administrator wrote: > On 12 Feb 2013 at 0:11, brucedp5 wrote: > > > ... the ForTwo could almost have been born for electric power. > > It was. > > Its early-1990s origins lie in the Swatch Car, originally meant as an EV > - a > city car and grocery-getter with a space behind the seats just large > enough > for a case of beer. (Remember the mid-70s Honda Civic test, that the > cargo > area had to fit US grocery sacks standing up? Swatch's was a beer case.) > > Wikipedia says the Swatch Car was intended to have a hybrid drivetrain. > That is incorrect. It was to have been a pure BEV. (Somewhere I > probably > still have the EVDL discussion threads on this, if they weren't on the > 5.25" > floppies that I now can't read.) > > Daimler had quite a trial fitting an ICE and transaxle where the motor > had > been meant to go. > > So, Smart cars are finally returning to their roots. It only took 20 > years. - -- http://www.fastmail.fm - The professional email service _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
