Enfield 8000
The Enfield 8000 was a two-seater battery-electric city car, introduced in 1973 and until 1977 built in the United Kingdom by Enfield Automotive, owned by Greek millionaire Giannis Goulandris. 120 cars were built on the Isle of Wight, 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 had a top speed of around 48 mph (77 km/h) and a range of around 40 miles (64 km).
It had a tubular chassis frame with aluminium body panels. It used suspension parts from the Hillman Imp, doors were adapted from the Mini and a rear axle derived from Reliant three-wheelers.
The company was later incorporated into the Greek Neorion company, also owned by Goulandris, and production was transferred to the Greek island of Syros, the company having transformed into a new Greek company, Enfield-Neorion, headquartered in Piraeus. Ironically, 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. Only around 100 were built. Enfield-Neorion developments included a "jeep" version aiming at the rent-a-car market in the Greek islands, but none could be sold locally.
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References
External links
Media related to Enfield 8000 at Wikimedia Commons