Henney Kilowatt
Encyclopedia
Electric car
An electric car is an automobile which is propelled by electric motor, using electrical energy stored in batteries or another energy storage device. Electric cars were popular in the late-19th century and early 20th century, until advances in internal combustion engine technology and mass...
introduced in the United States for the 1959 model year.
Corporate funding
The Henney Kilowatt was a project of National Union Electric Company, a conglomerate including Emerson RadioEmerson Radio
Emerson Radio Corporation was founded in 1948. It is one of the United States’ largest volume consumer electronics distributors and has a recognized trademark in continuous use since 1912...
, and Henney Motor Company, which had purchased Eureka Williams in 1953. The project was initiated by C. Russell Feldmann , 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
Coachwork
Coachwork is the body of a horse-drawn coach or carriage, a motor vehicle , a railroad car or railway carriage. Usually reserved for bodies built on a separate chassis, rather than being of unitary or monocoque construction...
division of Canastota, New York
Canastota, New York
Canastota is a village located inside the Town of Lenox in Madison County, New York, United States. The population was 4,425 at the 2000 census.The Village of Canastota is in the south part of the Town of Lenox.- History :...
. 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
Packard
Packard was an American luxury-type automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana...
Automobile Company. Henney produced thousands of custom built limousine
Limousine
A limousine is a luxury sedan or saloon car, especially one with a lengthened wheelbase or driven by a chauffeur. The chassis of a limousine may have been extended by the manufacturer or by an independent coachbuilder. These are called "stretch" limousines and are traditionally black or white....
s, ambulance
Ambulance
An ambulance is a vehicle for transportation of sick or injured people to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury, and in some instances will also provide out of hospital medical care to the patient...
s, and hearse
Hearse
A hearse is a funerary vehicle used to carry a coffin from a church or funeral home to a cemetery. In the funeral trade, hearses are often called funeral coaches.-History:...
s (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 .)
Designers and developers
The propulsion system was developed in consultation with Victor WoukVictor Wouk
Victor Wouk was an American scientist and pioneer in the development of electric and hybrid vehicles.Victor Wouk, the brother of writer Herman Wouk, was born in New York City in 1919...
, then an electrical engineer at Caltech. Wouk is best known as one of the pioneers of hybrid electric cars
Hybrid electric vehicle
A hybrid electric vehicle is a type of hybrid vehicle and electric vehicle which combines a conventional internal combustion engine propulsion system with an electric propulsion system. The presence of the electric powertrain is intended to achieve either better fuel economy than a conventional...
. Wouk recruited Lee DuBridge, then President of Caltech, and Linus Pauling
Linus Pauling
Linus Carl Pauling was an American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, and educator. He was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists of the 20th century...
to assist in the assessment and development of the electronics . Although Pauling never did any active work on the project, DuBridge convened a group of Caltech experts to provide input. Wouk designed the necessary speed controller for the Kilowatt, although the controller was actually manufactured for the Kilowatts by Curtis Instruments. The electric propulsion system for the cars was designed and built by the Eureka Williams Company of Bloomington, Illinois
Bloomington, Illinois
Bloomington is a city in McLean County, Illinois, United States and the county seat. It is adjacent to Normal, Illinois, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area...
, manufacturer of Eureka Vacuum Cleaners. Henney Coachworks was contracted to build the chassis of the car from tooling and parts purchased from Renault
Renault
Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...
. Many body panels and interior components of the car are virtually identical to those of the Renault Dauphine
Renault Dauphine
Renault Dauphine is a rear-engined economy car manufactured by Renault in one body style — a three-box, four-door sedan — as the successor to the Renault 4CV, with over two million examples marketed worldwide during its production from 1956-1967....
.
Performance and technology
Although the Kilowatt is described by some sources as "the first transistor-based electric car" , the speed controller uses a combination of relays and diodes to switch the batteries and motor windings in different configurations for different speeds, not transistors .
Production and sales
According to the official Eureka Company corporate history profile there were a total of 100 Henney Kilowatts manufactured during the entire two year production run, but of those 100 cars only 47 were ever sold. A French Renault Dauphine enthusiast website also states that a total of 100 rolling chassis were prepared by Henney Coachworks for the project, but of those only 47 functional cars were actually completed. A March 20, 1967, article in U.S. News & World ReportU.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
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 to electric utilities as 36 volt 1959 models and 8 Kilowatts sold to utility companies as 72 volt 1960 models. From these and other sources, it is reasonable to conclude that fewer than 15 Henney electric cars were actually sold to the general public. Some of these cars may have been sold as 1961 models. 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 built. Few, if any, were sold in this manner. Although the 72 volt propulsion system introduced for the 1960 model year was substantially superior to the earlier 36 volt systems, Eureka Williams was unable to produce the 72-volt system cheaply enough or quickly enough to attain the targeted $3600 sales price.
Of the documented 32 Henney Kilowatts produced, it is estimated that there are between four and eight still in existence. The very first two Henney Kilowatts - the serial number 0001 car and the original prototype (serial number "EXPERIMENTAL") were stored by company executives for decades until being sold to a private U.S. automobile collector in the early 2000s. These two cars both have fewer than 500 miles (about 800 kilometres) and are impeccable examples of this historical vehicle. Additionally, there are at least two other documented "survivors" that are still driven periodically.
Significance
The Kilowatt has been called the world's first mass productionMass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
electric car
Electric car
An electric car is an automobile which is propelled by electric motor, using electrical energy stored in batteries or another energy storage device. Electric cars were popular in the late-19th century and early 20th century, until advances in internal combustion engine technology and mass...
, although early in the 20th century electric vehicles were produced in much larger numbers (thousands per year) by companies such as Detroit Electric
Detroit Electric
Detroit Electric was an automobile brand produced by the Anderson Electric Car Company in Detroit, Michigan. Nowadays, a Chinese British entrepreneur is leading Detroit Electric to develop affordable and high quality pure electric vehicles in mainland Europe...
and Milburn. Although electric cars outsold gasoline cars in 1900, , the introduction of the Kilowatt followed a period in which they had been out of favor.