It may be finally time for everyone to accept that the electric vehicle is going to be a big part of the future, if you hadn’t already. As more and more manufacturers commit to the majority or all of their portfolio being EVs in the next few years, and the charging infrastructure continues to improve, the inevitable dominance of the EV market isn’t far away.
It might feel like a fairly recent phenomenon seeing EVs everywhere, but their first semi-success was entering the market way back around 2010 with the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi i-MiEV platform. However, there were several attempts to bring EVs to the mass market before this and, as you may have guessed, they weren’t so successful. That’s not to say that they weren’t good, the world just wasn’t ready for them… some were also dreadful. So, let’s have a look at some of the most interesting failed EV attempts.
Zagato Zele
The world was introduced to one of the cutest car designs ever at the 1972 Geneva Motor Show. I mean just look at it. How can you not fall in love with it? It even had a name that could have been given to the most beautiful cars in the world: Zagato Zele. It just rolls off the tongue. Unfortunately, the public added a few more Z’s to the situation as it was completely slept on.
This little thing should have been a massive success, especially in the cities of Italy. It’s even more surprising when you throw the 1973 oil crisis into the mix. One thing we can’t predict is human behaviour and its lack of giving a damn. Maybe if they’d have marketed the Zele as a rear-wheel-drive, rear-engined, two-door Zagato weighing only 495kg, and omitted the 30mph top speed, it would have succeeded.
General Motors EV1
The EV1 was a really ambitious project by General Motors. It’s exactly how you’d imagine a ‘90s fully-electric vehicle to look like. The swooping aerodynamic vision of the future. The concept first saw the light of day in 1990, but it wouldn’t be until 1997 that we’d have a road-going production car. This was a time where GM were producing cars like the GMC Syclone which was pretty much the polar opposite of the EV1.
Powered by a three-phase induction AC motor driven by a 16.3kWh lead-acid battery, the EV1’s charging time was 15 hours and had a range of 79 miles. That’s not too shabby considering that it was 13 years before any serious mass-produced EV had arrived on the market. It had a 0-60mph time of less than nine seconds.
This really was a case of the right car at the wrong time as it was met with some serious protests from GM fans. How dare they try to make a sustainable future? There was a wider positive reaction to the car, but the losses on each car and added loyal customer protests led to GM discontinuing the EV1. However, despite their best efforts, one famous customer and director of The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola, made GM an offer they couldn’t refuse by hiding his and ended up being able to keep it.
Lucas Electric Taxi
The new electric London taxis by LEVC are just perfect tools for the job. It makes sense for a vehicle that covers the ground that a London taxi does to be fully electric. The current models have a range of around 187 miles which covers a lot of ground in the capital. However, rewinding the clock once more to the ‘70s and we had an electric taxi prototype that had a range of 100 miles.
The Ogle-designed Lucas Electric Taxi was displayed at the London Motor Show in Earls Court way back in 1977 and immediately looks like it should be a taxi from across the pond. The 100-mile range is impressive and it has a 55mph top speed, which are speeds the streets of London has never seen. One of the quirks of the Lucas was a battery that could be swapped out, so you could always have one on charge and never have the recharge downtime.
Lightning GT
Now this is a weird one. Not the design or performance, but the car’s lifespan. I’ll come onto that in a sec. Firstly, the car itself. The Lightning GT looks, sounds and feels like a Grand Theft Auto attempt at the typical British grand tourer. It has subtle Jaguar XK and Aston Martin DB7 vibes with performance that outdoes them both. A top speed of 185mph and a 0-60mph time of less than four seconds puts it firmly in the supercar territory. A fully charged battery will give a range of 200 miles and only takes 2.5 hours to charge. Impressive stuff for 2008.
However, that’s where the lifespan of the Lightning GT comes into play. It was obviously not a success as you won’t find one on the road. After its initial appearance at the 2008 British International Motor Show there was a decent amount of interest in the concept, but it never got the investment it required. This has led to the last six or seven years of its life being a little weird. The Lightning website looks pretty contemporary and even features a video at our very own Goodwood circuit. Its presence at a few more motor shows in 2014 and 2016 didn’t result in any success and the car now features in Gaydon at the British Motor Museum. So… yeah.
Nissan Altra
Nearly all current EVs use lithium-ion batteries, which has been the standard since lead-acid batteries were overthrown in the early 2010s. However, the first use of lithium-ion batteries was in the incredibly rare Nissan Altra. Calling the Altra a failure is a little harsh as Nissan never intended to put it into mass production. One of the lessons they learnt from the Altra experiment was that an electric car needs to stand out from the crowd, and that simply having an existing and frankly boring design with an electric motor would not be successful.
All of these learnings would eventually be used in the Nissan Leaf which, while still a little boring, managed to be quite the success. So, I don’t think I’m making too big a statement by saying that the Altra is one of the most important cars of the 21st Century… It’s also dull and ugly.