Henney Kilowatt Car

[Dover]

Introduced for the 1959 model year, the Henney Kilowatt was the world's first modern (transistor-regulated) electric car <1>. The Kilowatt was a predecessor to more recent battery electric vehicles such as the General Motors EV1. The electric propulsion technology developed for the Henney Kilowatt also contributed to the development of modern electric hybrid vehicles<2> which use a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine in addition to an electric propulsion system.

The Henney Kilowatt was a project of National Union Electric Company, a conglomerate including Emerson Radio, and Henney Motor Company, which had purchased Eureka Williams in 1953. The project was initiated by C. Russell Feldmann <3>, president of National Union Electric Company and the Eureka Williams Company. To build the electric cars, he employed the services of the Henney Motor Company coachwork division of Canastota, New York. Henney had been building custom coaches since 1868 and was a well-recognized name in the automotive industry because of its affiliation with the Packard Automobile Company. Henney produced thousands of custom built limousines, ambulances, and hearses (most of them built on Packard chassis), before being contracted 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. (In 1974, National Union Electric was purchased by AB Electrolux of Sweden .)

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henney_Kilowatt


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[Dover]

1. One of the few Henney owners is in Austin, Tx. (article)

Aaron Choate, owner of 1961 Henney Kilowatt Electric car -

A lot of people think that the electric car is been something that has been worked on recently and something that would require expensive materials to build and produce, but the fact of the matter is that electric cars were something that were vying for the public’s interest even back when Ford was producing the model A Fords. At the same time there were things like the Detroit Electric.

Aaron has done some research to find out more about his 1961 electric vehicle.

The Henney Coach Company decided they were going to import vehicles from Renault. This is a Renault Dauphine body from 1959, and they imported it as a glider and they produced an electric car from that and sold it as a Henney Kilowatt.

Electric cars are possible, electric cars are here and for a lot of people electric cars may actually be a solution for your transportation needs.

Unlike hybrid vehicles, electric cars run solely on batteries that can be charged overnight.

Aaron Choate -

This car plugs in to a 110 outlet. Just like any outlet in your house. If you wanted to charge faster, there are chargers that will work on dryer outlets that will charge much faster than this one will.

This is an example of an older car, but a lot of members in our group have worked on cars that are more recent. For example Mark Farver, our chapter president, has converted a Toyota MR2 to an electric car. We have a member, Christopher Robison, who is working on an Isuzu Hombre. He’s calling it the OHMbre.

We’re excited by the fact that any charging infrastructure that is put into place to support the plug-in hybrids could also be if it’s designed to support us, be made so that we can plug into it as well as battery electric vehicles....>

http://www.klru.org/austinnow/archives/oil/index.asp

[FogerRox]

2. I thpought that car looked familiar... Renault Dauphine

1958 Renault Dauphine




1959 Henney Kilowatt