A piece of history. . .
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7278343421942684235
I find the Amectran EXAR-1 to be the most fascinating of all the past electric car efforts. It seems to wander back and forth across the lines that separate real promise, vaporware, and outright fraud. My intuition is that Ramirez was 100% sincere when he began his business to make an electric car, but he just didn't know when to give up.
Incidentally, the EXAR-1 prototype is still out there somewhere. (It's listed on the Austin EV marketplace website.) It's in sad shape, from what I've heard. The whole powertrain has been stripped out, and somebody had started to customize the body and then gave up halfway through. I'm told it's probably salvageable if anybody were to take an interest and was willing to expend the resources. It would be very cool to restore it and fit it with an updated electric powertrain. That would be a truly historical and one-of-a-kind EV.
I would be tempted to tackle it myself, if I hadn't already committed to getting a Tesla.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7278343421942684235
I find the Amectran EXAR-1 to be the most fascinating of all the past electric car efforts. It seems to wander back and forth across the lines that separate real promise, vaporware, and outright fraud. My intuition is that Ramirez was 100% sincere when he began his business to make an electric car, but he just didn't know when to give up.
Incidentally, the EXAR-1 prototype is still out there somewhere. (It's listed on the Austin EV marketplace website.) It's in sad shape, from what I've heard. The whole powertrain has been stripped out, and somebody had started to customize the body and then gave up halfway through. I'm told it's probably salvageable if anybody were to take an interest and was willing to expend the resources. It would be very cool to restore it and fit it with an updated electric powertrain. That would be a truly historical and one-of-a-kind EV.
I would be tempted to tackle it myself, if I hadn't already committed to getting a Tesla.