
Sinclair C5 Electric Car (1985) - breck
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5
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sambeau
I once spent an unhappy day with one of these.

The battery ran out 30 minutes into my ride and I had to peddle it home. The
placement of the steering was uncomfortably low, my knees banged off the
front, the seat was curved so my back was bent, there were screw heads poking
through the seat back in line with my spine. I had to peddle extra hard as I
were turning the motor as well as the wheels.

I had blisters all down my back when I got home.

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snom380
Eevblog had a nice video about this, taking it for a test ride and looking at
the electronics:
[http://www.eevblog.com/2013/07/31/eevblog-501-sinclair-c5-el...](http://www.eevblog.com/2013/07/31/eevblog-501-sinclair-c5-electric-
car-teardown-test-drive/)

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InclinedPlane
Check out videos on youtube and you'll see why this never caught on, it's
basically a death trap that isn't suitable for sharing the road with cars.

[http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=c5+sinclair&page...](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=c5+sinclair&page=&utm_source=opensearch)

These days you're much better off just buying an electric scooter or
motorcycle or a modern electric automobile like a Tesla.

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michaelt
They sold 17,000 of them - for a death trap, would you expect them to have
zero deaths? Because [1] says there were zero deaths.

I put it to you the C5 is no stupider than a segway, and at one tenth the
cost.

[1]
[http://www.crashonline.org.uk/19/sinclar5.htm](http://www.crashonline.org.uk/19/sinclar5.htm)

~~~
InclinedPlane
How many have actually been used those? You don't see them on the roads which
would indicate very few of them actually in use.

Also, "no stupider than a segway" is not a selling point for anything.

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columbo
Would a more modern version be the pedal assist bikes? (
[http://www.amazon.com/Alation-Step-through-36v11Ah-
Samsung-B...](http://www.amazon.com/Alation-Step-through-36v11Ah-Samsung-
Battery/dp/B0097DJ458/ref=sr_1_1?s=cycling&ie=UTF8&qid=1377997910&sr=1-1) )

I've been thinking of getting one of these because they bridge some rules
about motorized vehicles: since you are still peddling you can take them on
bike trails, but since the assist kicks in there is almost no resistance
allowing you to maintain higher speeds...

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pkorzeniewski
What I find interesting about electric cars is that they are as old as petrol
cars and in the late 19th century they were actually more popular, just to be
left in shadow for the next 100 years. Now I'm waiting for the rebirth of
steam cars, you can't get more eco than that :)

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nawitus
This[1] is a cool drive & teardown video of the C5.

1\.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS6q27VOTOk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS6q27VOTOk)

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sambeau
It's worth pointing out the link to Micro Men on that page. Micro Men is a
very good fictionalisation of the Sinclair vs Acorn battle for the UK BBC
Micro contract.

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moocowduckquack
I'd prefer one of these -
[http://www.comotrikes.co.uk/](http://www.comotrikes.co.uk/)

edit - but maybe not for five grand

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pan69
Is this a car or a sit down scooter? Personally I don't see this as a car.

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bumblebeard
I think it was intended to replace a car, but legally it counts as an
electrically-assisted bicycle since it has pedals and such a small motor.

