"Better Things are Electric"

Sir,

I wish I could assure your readers that manufacturing members of my association are about to produce an electric sports car with an electrifying performance and quite independent of the current fuel problems. There is, of course, the Enfield 8000 electric passenger commuter car with its 50-mile range and 40 m.p.h., now going into production.

If any of your readers are associated with goods transportation then the best way to reduce our present troubles—and put off the evil day when world oil supplies dry up—is to try and encourage the use of electric goods vehicles. In city and urban areas where speeds are legally restricted to 30/40 m.p.h., there must be thousands of vans and trucks which have a daily mileage not exceeding 50 and it is in this sphere that “electrics” fully meet the bill; especially so where vehicles have frequent stops and starts. After all they improve the environment, cause no pollution, are very quiet, extremely easy to drive (two pedals—stop and go) and show some very substantial savings in running cost. There are no ignition or starting problems, very little maintenance and, like a good horse—put into the stable at night and fed with a few units of electricity—redevelop their full horsepower for the next morning.

If anyone has any lingering doubts, then the retail milk industry’s experience over many, many years should dispel them. Delivery dates from some manufacturers of battery-electric transports are now as good as those offered by the traditional motor industry.

Not for nothing did the Electricity Supply Industry adopt the slogan, “Better Things are Electric”.

London SWI W. G. Nottage, C.Eng. MIEE, Press Officer, The Electric Vehicle Association of Great Britain