
The Enfield Thunderbolt: An electric car before its time - jmorf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25117784
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nicholassmith
Once upon a time there was more electric vehicles in New York than petrol
powered ones, it seems like every couple of decades people really have a crack
at the issue of an electric car: [http://jalopnik.com/5870808/how-a-new-york-
taxi-company-kill...](http://jalopnik.com/5870808/how-a-new-york-taxi-company-
killed-the-electric-car-in-1900)

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robomartin
The problems with electric cars have always been the same: volumetric power
density, battery longevity, battery cost, charge time.

Today most of these issues are largely resolved and close to being non-issues.
The next generation battery technology is likely to place electric storage
ahead of gasoline in terms of power per unit volume.

The next challenge to electric vehicles is safety. Before electrics can reach
penetrations in the range of millions of units in major markets they'll have
to prove they are safe in such concentrations.

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dan1234
Imagine how much further forward EV tech would be if this had actually been
mass produced back in the 70s.

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ams6110
Electric cars with lead-acid batteries date back almost to the beginning of
automobiles. This is nothing really remarkable. Electrics in fact were quite
competitive with internal combustion engine cars in the late 1800s/early 1900s
because internal combustion engines and the transmissions/gearboxes they
required were noisy and not very reliable or easy to use.

Many of the "modern" ideas about electric cars, including exchangeable
batteries as an alternative to recharging, were available before 1920.

That all changed as internal combustion engines improved, and the convenience
of longer range and ease of refueling won out.

Ultimately, the Thunderbolt had the same problems that electric cars have
always had: _Along with the modest range, the main deterrent was really the
price, " says enthusiast Peter Williams. "It was being offered at £2,600. Back
then, for that sort of money, you could buy two Minis._

So: Expensive, and not very practical. Not much has changed.

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coldcode
Electric cars were always unpopular with big auto manufacturers and the oils
producers and that probably never allowed them to grow up alongside their
smell cousins. Just looking at this little car imagine where we would be if it
had started a real push in the 1970s.

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nmeofthestate
I doubt Big Oil had to work too hard to kill this car, given it was more than
twice the price of a Mini, and had poor range compared to an ICE motor.

