The jet age was upon us. Radio magnates, vacuum cleaner industrialists, and battery manufacturing cabals pooled their vast economic resources. Top electrical engineer Victor Wouk and Pulitzer Prize winning chemist Linus Pauling were put on the job. French automaker Renault was called in for their expertise. From this global effort sprang a compact electric automobile with a top speed of 60 miles per hour, and a range of over 60 miles on a single charge of its dozen sequential batteries. These pioneering Henney Kilowatt cars were sold in small numbers for brief time – from 1959 to 1961.
It could have been a Franco-American variant of the Previa Effect that caused vacationing top fuel drag racer Brendan Murry to drop his bicycle and snap a few shots of this maroon car, which bears close resemblance to a Renault Dauphine. While Key West, Florida seems as likely a place as any to spot a a Dauphine, this one is only partially French. The compact maroon sedan started life as an engineless Renault, but is actually a Henney Kilowatt! Somewhere south of 100 of these electric runabouts were ever sold, making the chances of seeing one parked in a driveway as likely as winning the Moldovan lottery.
Thanks to AA/Fuel drag racer Brendan Murry for getting the shots. More here about the Henney Kilowatt.
So appropriately purple and white. I feel like I might be tripping, oh wait, it’s a Henry Kilowatt.