Originally published on EVANNEX.
By Charles Morris
We all know Tesla didn’t build the first electric vehicle. Electric vehicles have been around since the days of the horseless carriage. For better or worse, the gas engine soon gained supremacy, but over the years both major automakers and startups have experimented with electric vehicles, and some models have temporarily gone into production. Many may be surprised to learn that the best-selling electric vehicle in pre-Tesla US history was not made by one of the Big Three, but by a small Florida-based company.
The oil crisis of the 1970s sparked a brief interest in electric vehicles. A car salesman named Bob Beaumont designed an electric vehicle called the CitiCar and started a company called Sebring-Vanguard to build it.
The CitiCar was produced at the company’s Sebring, Florida facility between 1974 and 1977. It embodied the unfortunate stereotype that many people still have of electric vehicles. A tiny two-seater based on a club car golf cart that ran on eight 6-volt lead-acid batteries and had a plastic body. It had a top speed of 60 mph and a range of about 40 miles. Approximately 4,444 CitiCars and related models were produced, earning it the distinction of the Most Produced American Electric Vehicle until the Tesla Roadster received that title in 2011.
Ioanna Lykiardopoulou writes on The Next Web, recounting the history of the CitiCar and compiling a collection of rarely seen photos and video material.
| Original CitiCar footage from the factory and on the streets of Sebring, Florida (YouTube:British movie sound via AP archive) |
Several models of the CitiCar were offered during its short life. Classic Car History provides a detailed description of the different variants, including how to distinguish them (in case you come across an old CitiCar at the flea market).
The early SV / 36 had six 36-volt batteries and a 1.9 kWh motor (2.5 hp). The top speed was about 28 miles per hour and the range was about 35 miles. Shortly after its market launch, the CitiCar received an upgrade – the SV / 48 had eight batteries and a 2.6 kWh (3.5 hp) engine. The top speed was 38 miles per hour and the range was about 40 miles. In 1976, Sebring-Vanguard began building a new version, known as the Transitional or 1976 1/2 CitiCar, which had a much more powerful 4.5 kWh (6 hp) engine.
For comparison: Most modern electric vehicles use a 400-volt system (the Porsche Taycan and several upcoming models run on 800 volts). The latest Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus offers 306 horsepower and 553 miles of range.
The CitiCar was around $ 3,000, which was cheaper than the average gasoline car at the time, and it sold pretty well for a few years. However, when the energy crisis was over and gas prices fell again, demand collapsed and the company filed for bankruptcy in 1977. A company called Commuter Vehicles later bought most of the company’s assets, redesigned the vehicle, and renamed it ComutaCar. This was produced from 1979 to 1982.
In 1980 the company won an order with the US Postal Service to build 500 electric mail cars. At some point the contract was terminated and the dispute landed in federal court (40 years later, the USPS has still not committed to electrifying its fleet of antiques). According to Classic Car History, 367 Postal ComutaVans were built and some of them were sold to the public.
Today all versions of the CitiCar are rare birds, but there are still some out there and some may even roam the streets somewhere.
| This CitiCar was recently charged via J1772 at a public charging station next to a Tesla Model S (YouTube: Lewis Moten) |
As Ms. Lykiardopoulou notes, it took a crisis to inspire the invention of the CitiCar – the 1973-1974 Arab oil embargo and the brief period of energy insecurity that followed. The current spread of electric vehicles has its roots in the global climate crisis and was recently brought into full swing by the corona pandemic. In the always clear rear-view mirror, we can see that politics in the 1970s was short-sighted. The West made an uncomfortable peace with OPEC, and the US expanded domestic production of oil, gas and coal. A few decades later, this led to the chaos we find ourselves in today. Will the heads of state and government use a crisis this time to build a truly sustainable transport and energy economy? We will see.
Featured photo by Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0 license
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