The year 1963 was a roller coaster one for United States politics. First, George Wallace became Governor of Alabama on January 14. Then Martin Luther King was arrested on April 12 for ‘parading without a permit’. President John Kennedy died on November 22 having signed the nuclear test ban a few months earlier. Finally, electric car history recorded another failed dream.
Could Electric Car History Have Been Different After Keeling?
The 1963 Voltra electric car project failed to succeed because it did not attract sufficient interest. Two years previously, the world largely ignored David Keeling’s conclusion. This was that the ‘the influence of human activity on nature’ was causing global warming.
In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson asked the Environment Pollution Panel to investigate Keeling’s finding further. They concluded global warming was a ‘real concern’ only manageable through international effort. Moreover, they cautioned that burning fossil fuels “was measurably increasing the atmospheric carbon dioxide.” They added this “may have a significant effect on climate” but politicians turned a deaf ear.
The 1963 Voltra Electric Car in Hindsight
Electric car history therefore would have been richer, not poorer if the project had taken off. The Voltra Company planned to build coupe, station wagon, and pickup derivatives. The body would be in the revolutionary new material, fiber glass. While the General Electric traction motor would take power from ‘four heavy duty batteries’ presumably lead-acid.
Performance statistics were impressive in those early electric car history days. Top speed was 45 mph and the continuous driving range 60 to 100 miles. Battery recharging took three hours, after connecting the self-contained charger to mains power via a 50-foot, ‘self-winding cord’.
The world could have been a vastly better place had the American public taken the Voltra to its heart. However it did not, making 1963 a sad moment in electric car history.
Related
Climate Change Part 12: The Keeling Curve 1961
Climate Change Part 13: Signs of Concern 1965
Preview Image: 1963 Voltra Electric Car Concept
