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The Enfield 8000 is a two-seater
The company had been incorporated into the Greek Neorion company, also owned by Goulandris, and production was transferred to Syros, the company having transformed into a new Greek company, Enfield-Neorion, headquartered in Piraeus. There have been many arguments regarding the reason why Mr. Goulandris decided to produce the car in Greece, including conspiracy theories. Thanos Lebesis, then General Manager of Enfield-Neorion, argues that Mr. Goulandris had thought that "the company was owned by Greeks, the car was designed by Greeks, so it should also be produced by Greeks". However, it could not be legally sold in Greece due to tax categorization issues connected with electric power, so production was exported to the United Kingdom. Enfield-Neorion developments included a "
Enfield 8000 is the first small electric car widely produced worldwide.Video of an Enfield 8000 ECC with modern electronics
* A Tale of Two Isles (2014) Documentary https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3838966/ Electric cars Syros Cyclades Cars introduced in 1973 {{Classicpow-auto-stub
The Enfield 8000 is a two-seater battery-electric
A battery electric vehicle (BEV), pure electric vehicle, only-electric vehicle, fully electric vehicle or all-electric vehicle is a type of electric vehicle (EV) that exclusively uses chemical energy stored in rechargeable battery packs, wi ...
city car, introduced in 1973 and developed in the United Kingdom by Isle of Wight company Enfield Automotive, owned by Greek millionaire Giannis Goulandris. The car was designed by a group of Greek and British engineers headed by Constantine Adraktas (Chairman and Managing Technical Director of Enfield) and production, immediately after its introduction, was moved to the Greek island of Syros. 120 cars were built in total, of which 65 were used by the Electricity Council and electricity board
Public electricity suppliers (PES) were the fourteen electricity companies created in Great Britain when the electricity market in the United Kingdom was privatised following the Electricity Act 1989. The Utilities Act 2000 subsequently split the ...
s in the south of England.
Powered by an electric motor and lead-acid batteries, the car has a top speed of around and a range of around . In ''Autocar'''s test in 1975 they found it had a usable range of . It could accelerate from 0 to in 1.6 seconds, in 4.7 seconds and in 15.7 seconds. Brakes are by drums front and back.
It has a ladder-type square section tube chassis frame with aluminium alloy body panels stretched over steel frames. It uses suspension parts from the Hillman Imp
The Hillman Imp is a small economy car that was made by the Rootes Group and its successor Chrysler Europe from 1963 until 1976. Revealed on 3 May 1963, after much advance publicity, it was the first British mass-produced car with the engine blo ...
, doors were adapted from the Mini and a rear axle
An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearing ...
derived from Reliant three-wheelers.
Neorion
The company had been incorporated into the Greek Neorion company, also owned by Goulandris, and production was transferred to Syros, the company having transformed into a new Greek company, Enfield-Neorion, headquartered in Piraeus. There have been many arguments regarding the reason why Mr. Goulandris decided to produce the car in Greece, including conspiracy theories. Thanos Lebesis, then General Manager of Enfield-Neorion, argues that Mr. Goulandris had thought that "the company was owned by Greeks, the car was designed by Greeks, so it should also be produced by Greeks". However, it could not be legally sold in Greece due to tax categorization issues connected with electric power, so production was exported to the United Kingdom. Enfield-Neorion developments included a "Jeep
Jeep is an American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with remaining assets, from its previous owner American Moto ...
" version aiming at the rent-a-car market in the Greek islands, but none could be sold locally.
"Flux Capacitor"
A highly customised Enfield 8000 named "Jonny's Flux Capacitor" was converted by Jonny Smith into a street-legal electric drag racer. which for a time claimed to be the world's fastest street legal electric vehicle.See also
* List of modern production plug-in electric vehicles *Scottish Aviation Scamp
The Scottish Aviation Scamp is a small concept electric city car that was designed between 1964 and 1966 by Scottish Aviation. The name was chosen as a contraction of SCottish (from Scottish Aviation) and AMP (for electric current).
Concept
T ...
References
External links
Enfield 8000 is the first small electric car widely produced worldwide.
* A Tale of Two Isles (2014) Documentary https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3838966/ Electric cars Syros Cyclades Cars introduced in 1973 {{Classicpow-auto-stub