The Enfield Thunderbolt: An electric car before its time (opens in new tab)

Electric cars with lead-acid batteries date back almost to the beginning of automobiles. This is nothing really remarkable. Electrics in fact were quite competitive with internal combustion engine cars in the late 1800s/early 1900s because internal combustion engines and the transmissions/gearboxes they required were noisy and not very reliable or easy to use.

Many of the "modern" ideas about electric cars, including exchangeable batteries as an alternative to recharging, were available before 1920.

That all changed as internal combustion engines improved, and the convenience of longer range and ease of refueling won out.

Ultimately, the Thunderbolt had the same problems that electric cars have always had: Along with the modest range, the main deterrent was really the price," says enthusiast Peter Williams. "It was being offered at £2,600. Back then, for that sort of money, you could buy two Minis.

So: Expensive, and not very practical. Not much has changed.

This is almost exactly what I thought - and just say me that EVs are not possible/practical, this was made in 70s, now think about the things that are possible now that was not even possible then for car producers.

I doubt Big Oil had to work too hard to kill this car, given it was more than twice the price of a Mini, and had poor range compared to an ICE motor.