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Enfield 8000

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Enfield 8000 in Hyde Park

The Enfield 8000 is a two-seater battery-electric 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) with John Ackroyd as project designer, who later went on to the Thrust 2 project. The prototypes and initial production were built at the Somerton Works in Northwood, near Cowes.[1]

Immediately after its introduction, production was moved to the Greek island of Syros.[2][3] 120 cars were built in total, of which 65 were used by the Electricity Council and electricity boards in the south of England.

Powered by an 8 bhp (6 kW) electric motor and lead-acid batteries, the car has a top speed of around 48 mph (77 km/h) and a range of around 40 miles (64 km). In Autocar's test in 1975 they found it had a usable range of 25 miles (40 km).[4] It could accelerate from 0 to 10 mph (16 km/h) in 1.6 seconds, 20 mph (32 km/h) in 4.7 seconds and 30 mph (48 km/h) 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.[4] It uses suspension parts from the Hillman Imp, doors were adapted from the Mini and a rear axle derived from Reliant three-wheelers.

Neorion

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Greek-built Enfield-Neorion 8000

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 Goulandris decided to produce the car in Greece, including conspiracy theories. Thanos Lebesis, then General Manager of Enfield-Neorion, argues that Goulandris had thought that "the company was owned by Greeks, the car was designed by Greeks, so it should also be produced by Greeks".[3] 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.[3] Enfield-Neorion developments included a "Jeep" version aiming at the rent-a-car market in the Greek islands, but none could be sold locally.

"Flux Capacitor"

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A highly customised Enfield 8000 named "Jonny's Flux Capacitor" was converted by Jonny Smith into a street-legal electric drag racer.[5][6] which for a time claimed to be the world's fastest street legal electric vehicle.[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "THE ENFIELD 8000 – THE WORLD'S 1ST MODERN ELECTRIC CAR – DESIGNED AND ASSEMBLED ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT". Island Echo. 24 July 2022. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  2. ^ "Άλλο ένα Enfield 8000 γύρισε πίσω στην Ελλάδα (one more Enfield 8000 returns to Greece)". Syros Agenda. 20 April 2017. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  3. ^ a b c Stavropoulos, Michalis (2014). "Ανάμεσα σε δύο νησιά (A Tale of Two Isles) Documentary about the Enfield Electric Car".
  4. ^ a b "Test Extra: Enfield 8000 Electric". Autocar. 144 (4137): 66–69. 21 February 1976.
  5. ^ Smith, Jonny. "Flux Capacitor - Europe's fastest street-legal electric car". UK. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  6. ^ Gitlin, Jonathan M. (15 December 2015). "On the road in the Flux Capacitor, Europe's fastest street-legal EV". Ars Technica. US. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  7. ^ Gitlin, Jonathan M. (20 July 2016). "The Flux Capacitor is now the world's fastest street-legal electric car". Ars Technica. US. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
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