Cars - Henney Kilowatt

Home > Listing Index > Cars > Henney Kilowatt

	Cars - Henney Kilowatt

Introduced for the 1959 model year, the Henney Kilowatt was the World's first modern (transistor regulated) electric car. The Henney Kilowatt was a joint project between National Union Electric Company and the Eureka Williams Company. National Union and Eureka Williams Company merged in 1960 to form the Eureka Williams Company. The project was initiated by B. L. England, president of National Union Electric Company and C. Russell Feldman, president of Eureka Williams Company. After the failure of the Henney Kilowatt project, Russell Feldman went on to become the founder of Motorola). To build the electric cars Mr. England and Mr. Feldman employed the services of the Henney Motor Company coachwork division of Conastoga, NY. Henney Motor Company had been building custom coaches since 1868 and was a well recognized name in the automotive industry because of their affiliation with the Packard Automobile Company. Henney produced thousands of custom built limosines, ambulances, and hearses (most of them built on Packard chasses), before being recruited by Mr. Feldman to begin the Kilowatt project. National Union Electric Company was also the producer of Exide Batteries - and naturally had a vested interest in shifting American automotive focus from fossil fuels to lead-cell batteries. Morrison McMullan Jr. - controller of Exide Batteries - was also a participant in the development of the Kilowatt.

The propulsion system was developed in consultation with Dr. Victor Wouk - then an electrical engineer at CalTech. Dr. Wouk is best known as the inventor of the electric hybrid car. Wouk recruited Dr. Lee DuBridge, then President of CalTech and Dr. Linus Pauling (the only person to have won two undivided Nobel Prizes) to assist in the assessment and development of the electronics. Wouk designed the necessary speed controller for the Kilowatt, although the controller was actually manufactured for the Kilowatts by Curtis Instruments. After researching the electrophysics underlying the propulsion system, Pauling determined that traditional lead batteries would not provide the power necessary to give the cars performance that could rival traditional gas powered cars. Pauling accurately predicted that the relative low top speed and the short range of the cars would make them impractical. An active proponent of eco-friendly cars (Pauling won the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize for his environmental efforts), Pauling was focused on making the car more practical before releasing it to the public. He recommended that the project be discontinued until the appropriate battery was available commercially. The electric propulsion system for the cars was designed and built by the Eureka Williams Company of Bloomington, IL. Eureka Williams went on to become the manufacturer of Eureka Vacuum Cleaners.

The Kilowatt was a predecessor to more recent battery electric vehicles like General Motors EV1. As opposed to modern electric-hybrids which use a gasoline-powered internal combusion engine in addition to an electric propulsion system; the Kilowatt used a transistor based electric propulsion system - designed in cooperation with Victor Wouk - that utilized a purpose-built electric motor made by General Electric. Henney Coachworks was contracted to build the chassis of the car from tooling and parts purchased from Renault. Many body panels and interior components of the car are virtually identical to the Renault Dauphine.

According to a French Renault Dauphine enthusiast website www.dauphstock.org, Renault sold 100 rolling chasses to Henney Coachworks for the project, but only 47 of the cars were ever built. An article in U.S. News & World Report (March 20, 1967) states that 35 of the Henney Kilowatts were purchased by Electric utilities in the United States. Company records show that there were 24 cars sold as 1959 models and 8 Kilowatts sold as 1960 models. It is unclear when the other 15 cars were produced, but records show that some of them may have been sold as 1961 or possibly 1962 models. The 1959 models all ran on a 36 volt system of 18 sequential 2 volt batteries. The 36 volt cars had a top speed of 40mph and could run appx 40 miles on a full charge. After realizing that the 36 volt system was impractical, the Kilowatt drivetrain was redesigned by Eureka Williams as a 72 volt system for the 1960 model year. It employed the use of 12 sequential 6 volt batteries.

The 72 volt models were much more practical than the 1959 36 volt models. The 1960 Kilowatt boasted a top speed of nearly 60 mph with a range of over 60 miles on a single charge. A total of eight cars were produced for the 1960 model year, but none of them were sold to the public because of the high manufacturing costs for the 72 volt system. Instead, all eight 1960 models went to the electric cooperatives who funded the development of the Kilowatt. The company continued promoting the Kilowatt in 1961 with hopes of securing enough prepaid orders to finish the remaining chassis components that had already been purchased from Renault. Unfortunately, few - if any - were sold in this manner.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Henney Kilowatt ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Henney Kilowatt; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay